Pittswood Birds

The weather for this mornings full patch walk was identical to that of yesterday, starting off with clear skies then quickly clouding over, with a cool wind blowing.

Todays list of birds increased at a steady rate, right from the off I was kept busy, scribbling into my notebook, STARLING, WREN, HOUSE SPARROW, GOLDFINCH, ROBIN, JACKDAW, SWALLOW, WOODPIGEON, GREAT TIT, and LONG TAILED TIT were all seen before I had even got to the Tree Nursery, only 150m away. Things slowed a little as I entered the nursery and walked through to the Pub Field and on into Migrant Alley, by which time WHITETHROAT, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, BLACKBIRD, GREENFINCH, LINNET, HERRING GULL, MALLARD, SONGTHRUSH, MAGPIE, and CHAFFINCH had brought the list to 20 species.

At Migrant Alley, there is little to be expected, now the migrants have passed through, it was down to the regulars like ROOK, CARRION CROW, and the visiting CANADA and GREYLAG GEESE to keep me amused. A LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL flew over, and a CUCKOO could be heard calling from the direction of the Lakes area, whilst TURTLE DOVE, BLACKCAP, and CHIFFCHAFF could be heard singing from the wooded Headland, but there was no sound from the Lesser Whitethroat today.

The College Grounds added a few more species to the list, MISTLE THRUSH, DUNNOCK, PHEASANT, GOLDCREST, MOORHEN and the SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, plus a flyover from two BLACK HEADED GULLS (66) the first since April, but I still hadn't found a Blue Tit! On leaving the College Grounds and passing back through Migrant Alley, it was good to see two HOUSE MARTINS flyover, I have recorded very few of these this spring, a PIED WAGTAIL and three STOCK DOVES also flew over, but best of all a BUZZARD was seen to hover over the Greenhouse Copse, not seen them hover before :-) . The sight of the first Juv. Starlings was a pleasure to see, there were 5 in the Greenhouse Grounds, I always look forward to finding these !

Part two of my walk was visiting the Lakes, via the Small Holding and Wet Woods, where at last a BLUE TIT was seen, two in fact, collecting caterpillars from an Oak tree in the Small Holding. At the lake and Scrubby Woods, I added COAL TIT, BULLFINCH, COOT, JAY, GREEN WOODPECKER, and SWIFT 4 of which fed over the woods.

I left the scrubby woods after an hour, with 47 species on the list, not having found the likes of Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Kestrel, or Skylark and Yellowhammer, I should really be getting over 50 species at this time of year, but a nice surprise was waiting for me as I passed back through the Tree Nursery to get home. I was scanning the sky for a SPARROWHAWK which I found, and as I watched it, I picked up a large raptor higher up, this turned out to be yet another RED KITE (67) sighting, What a great bird to end the day with!

Ive loaded the photo's up in the wrong order today, Doh! So its the Garden birds up first.

This Male Bullfinch decided to come out and feed away from the shadows, I filled my boots with photo's, as you can see :-)

Also at the same feeder was this female Great Spotted Woodpecker

Above and Below a couple of the Juv. Starlings

I did see some Butterflies today, the Brown Argus Above, and the Common Blue were in the tree Nursery

and lastly this Broad Bodied Chaser was seen in the Scrubby Woods.