Pittswood Birds

The walk into work this morning actually produced something of note, the first time in weeks :-) A CUCKOO that I watched fly into the Tree Nursery, turned out to be a female, it's bubbling call was heard shortly after, also flyovers by 5 BLACK HEADED GULL and a SPARROWHAWK, the B H Gulls were only the second record of this species this month.

The afternoon was another of those quiet May days, I was out for two hours, and for most of that the sun shone intermittently through scattered cloud, but the wind picked up again, making photography difficult.

The usual trip to the lake and Scrubby Woods was made, mainly to try and find some more confirmation of breeding bird species, but today I drew a blank, I know there must be Chaffinch young out there, I just cant find them :-) Anyway whilst roaming the woods, one or two CHIFFCHAFF called, as did one or two BLACKCAP, but the most prolific singing was being done by the TURTLE DOVES, at least 3 sang all the time I was there. I noted SWALLOWS and SWIFT above me as I looked for raptors, but not a single House martin was seen, where are they all this year ?

I checked up on the COLLARED DOVES nest, where one possibly two chicks are now looking well grown, its hard to see into the dense hawthorn to see properly, WRENS and BULLFINCH were seen carrying food, so I should be on the lookout for their offspring soon, and the first WOODPIGEON young wont be far away now, their nests are everywhere in the woods.

Before leaving, I checked the lakes where nothing exciting was seen, 3 MOORHEN, 3 MALLARD, 6 CANADA GEESE and 1 COOT were as expected, but the GREY HERON that was fishing here provided something different to look at :-) Whilst watching it I noticed it was barely up to its knees in the water, such is the shallowness of the lake now, we need some rain desperately!

I had a quick look around the Tree Nursery on the way home, and saw the KESTREL above it, and a look for butterflies only came up with the Common Blue and Brown Argus again, no Skippers as yet. Along the boundary hedgerow, both White legged and Common Blue Damselflies were found, as well as a Broad Bodied Chaser.

Hopefully an early start tomorrow for my full patch walk will come up with something for the months list, or maybe the year list if i'm really fortunate :-)

Above and below, White Legged Damselfly

Below is a Broad Bodied Chaser

Lastly, the Heron, which stayed as far away from me as it could ( can you blame it!) However you can see how shallow the lake is.