Pittswood Birds

The weather at last brightened up a bit this afternoon, and the cool wind had dropped away making for a pleasant visit to the lakes Scrubby Woods and Tree Nursery.

With all the excitement of the arriving summer migrants over, the main task now is to find evidence of successful breeding for the birds on my patch, and I had a small amount of success today. To date I have found fledged young for 16 species, and this afternoon I added a further two, those being GREAT TIT, and GOLDCREST, at least two fledglings of each were found in the Scrubby Woods. I also came across a family of 5 LONG TAILED TITS, they sat bunched up on a twig, and would of made for a great photo, alas, they were deep in cover and I could barely see them at all.

CUCKOO, TURTLE DOVE, BLACKCAP and CHIFFCHAFF were singing, and the latter three species are certainly nesting in the Scrubby Wood, and hopefully the Cuckoo will too, it just remains for me to find the young :-)

On the lake, just 2 drake MALLARDS, 2 MOORHENS, 6 CANADA GEESE and both the adult COOTS were seen, the Coots seem to have failed in their breeding attempt, but there is a chance that young may be hiding in the reeds.

Butterflies were on the wing again today, with the three white species being seen, as well as Speckled Wood, Peacock ( my first since the 5th) and more excitingly a Green Hairstreak, my second ever, it's probably the one I saw on the 10th, but what a beauty! More butterflies were seen in the Tree Nursery, (where i'm sure the WHITETHROATS are nesting) these proved easier to photograph, below is the Common Blue,

And this is a Brown Argus

Below is a Beautiful Demoiselle, but it refused to show itself properly, and that was the story of the afternoon really, everything was either in dark shadows or thick cover :-)