Pittswood Birds

It was more like summer today, with clear blue skies this morning and no wind, making for a very pleasant walk into work :-)

On that walk, I noted my first LESSER WHITETHROAT fledgling, I had great views of it as it sat in a crab apple tree at the wooded headland over at Migrant Alley, then one of the adults came in and fed it, it would of made a great photo, if I had my camera on me! I also saw the PEREGRINES fly low and slow over the College Grounds - another missed photo op.

This afternoon, after work, a bit more cloud had drifted over, but it was still warm with some sunny spells, prompting me to have a walk around the Tree Nursery for a look for some flutters and Damsels. Despite the warmth there were relatively few about, most of those that were on the wing were Meadow Browns, but a few Small and Large Skippers were seen, plus a Small Tortoiseshell. The only Damsel was that of the WHITE LEGGED. Birdwise, it was down to the WHITETHROAT and the KESTREL, which I watched drop down onto a small rodent.

I also spent an hour over at the lakes and Scrubby Woods, where the water was occupied by the same species as of late, COOT, MALLARD, MOORHEN and both CANADA and GREYLAG GEESE with their respective goslings. In the Scrubby Woods I followed up on some noisy CARRION CROWS, and found the reason for their racket was that they had two young with them, no.34 for the successfully confirmed breeding list.

Not a great deal else was noted, all the usual afternoon songsters were heard, those being DUNNOCK, SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP and TURTLE DOVE, plus not so usual, a Lesser Whitethroat. I did see a pair of MISTLE THRUSHES, they have been a bit elusive of late, one of them even gave me a photo :-)

The walk home produced a CUCKOO, it flew over the Tree Nursery heading north, but I didn't hear one call today, also, yet another Lesser Whitethroat sang, this one from the Greenhouse Grounds territory

Above is the Mistle Thrush, I was pleased with this shot, I dont get many Mistle Thrush photo's

Above and below are the Skippers, Large above, Small below

I took a couple of Small tortoiseshell photo's, I do like this butterfly :-)

Below is one of the 10-15 White Legged Damselflies that I saw

Last of all, this ROBIN was in the garden when I got home, they are looking a bit dowdy at this time of year, I haven't helped by chopping his feet off :-)