Pittswood Birds

The up and down summer weather was today on the down slope, heavy cloud with occasional drizzle, plus a strong wind, made it an uncomfortable afternoon visit to my patch.

I decided to do something different today, and go over to my sky watching seat at Migrant Alley in the hope of adding a Hobby to the June list. Below is the view to the SE, looking at the Tower at Hadlow square. The Scaffolding is almost all the way up now, so the Peregrines that use the Tower will have to move elsewhere, I hope they dont go too far.

I stayed on my seat, and noted the likes of LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, HERRING GULL and GREY HERON fly over, plus all the local SWALLOWS, some with young now, and 10-15 SWIFTS, which I hope found somewhere new to nest, as they used to use the tower as well.

Behind me in the tall hedge, a CHAFFINCH sang for the whole 90 mins I was there, along with the occasional song from WREN, DUNNOCK, BLACKBIRD and the chirruping of a family of HOUSE SPARROWS. LINNETS, GOLDFINCH'S, PIED WAGTAILS, and GREENFINCH'S moved from the far hedgerow to the Greenhouse Complex, all feeding young, while in the distance I could just here the TURTLE DOVES singing from the Wooded Headland at the north end of the fields and paddocks. Eventually, time ran out for me, and I had to get home, Hobby less :-( . I'm sure i'll get one this month at some point though !

A quick photo session in my garden, whilst tea was cooking, turned up some familiar species. The Juv. GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER is now feeding for itself.

While the garden ROBIN is either moulting its body feathers, or has had an encounter with the critter in the last two photo's :-)

The Young BLUE TITS are starting to fend for themselves now, and are not particularly bothered by my presence, allowing for some close encounters.

Below, the Blue and GREAT TITS sneak in on the Peanuts while the Woodpecker is away!

Lastly did this SPARROWHAWK have a go at the ROBIN ? Probably! I couldn't get a decent shot at it, as I was inside the house, and had to take a photo through my less than clean double glazing! It looks like a young bird.