Pittswood Birds

Another glorious morning for wildlife watching, - clear, sunny and warm :-)

I made the same route around my patch as I did yesterday morning, getting to Migrant Alley early before any disturbance, there is always a slim chance of finding a returning migrant now its July, I have recorded Stonechat, Black Redstart, Whinchat, as well as flyover Whimbrel in this month, but there were no such goodies today, only the ROOKS, JACKDAWS, WOODPIGEONS, and skimming SWALLOWS were in the paddocks.

I checked up on the SPOTTED FLYCATCHER in the College Grounds, and found it perched on a bare branch, from where it pounced on grounded insects, a classic pose for this species ( below )

I also went over to the small trial garden, where all the action was yesterday, but it was pretty quiet there this morning, only the BLACKBIRDS and DUNNOCKS remained, not far from this place is a row of fir trees, which had a good mix of feeding birds in, including a family of COAL TITS, GOLDCRESTS, BLUE and GREAT TITS, and LONG TAILED TITS one of which can be seen below :-)

I left the College Grounds by way of the adjacent stream, which was fortuitous, as a KINGFISHER (55) flew upstream calling, giving me the briefest of views. A few minutes later as I crossed Migrant Alley again, the first BLACK HEADED GULL (56) of the month was seen flying over, and two LAPWING (57) that flew over the Greenhouse Complex a little later was a pleasing addition to the July list.

By the time the first half of my walk was finished I had recorded a total of 47 species, thats a very good tally for half way, but then just 5 species were added to the day list, on the second half of the walk! One of those was a Juv. GREEN WOODPECKER, a good addition the the Pittswood confirmed breeding list :-) On the lakes both CANADA and GREYLAG GOOSE (58) were seen on the ornamental lakes, while in the Scrubby Woods TREECREEPER and BULLFINCH joined this mornings sightings, overhead a PEREGRINE was circling - the third day in a row ive recorded one.

Whilst In the Tree Nursery I found this Brown Argus Butterfly, the first sighting since the 4th June.

Also, seen along the hedgerow at the Tree Nursery, was this Red Eyed Damselfly, the first time Ive photographed this species on my patch, i'll add that to the Dragonfly page ( see top right of blog page)

Below is another White Legged Damselfly - easily the most abundant damselfly on my patch at the moment

Lastly, the hoverfly, Volucella pellucens, I got a reasonable flight shot of this one today :-)