Pittswood Birds

It was brighter this afternoon, with some hazy sunshine at times, but the wind stiffened from the south as the visit progressed.

I paid a visit to the lakes and Scrubby woods, as I hadn't been over there for a few days, this Juv. GREEN WOODPECKER was seen on one of the lawns in a large garden adjacent to the Small Holding as I passed through.
Not much else to note through the Wet Woods, but as I neared the lakes, walking the footpath that takes me there, I found it was thronging with the calls of a mixed feeding flock, mostly LONG TAILED TITS, with smaller numbers of GREAT and BLUE TITS, but also heard amongst the calls were TREECREEPER and NUTHATCH, a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER seemed to be loosely following them.

On the water today were 14 MALLARD, three MOORHEN and a GREY HERON, not too exciting :-) In the Scrubby Woods the only song was from the TURTLE DOVES, but contact calls from families of BLACKCAP, CHIFFCHAFF, WREN, and BULLFINCH were very evident. The Blackcaps have already started on the feast of Elder Berries that abound in this wood, the first fruits are barely ripe, but I watched both a male and female hopping from one bunch of fruit to the next, picking of the first ripe berries.

Female Blackcap above, male below

Another, or the same flock of LONG TAILED TITS came past me, but didn't stop long, I grabbed this distant photo of one though, with it's very tatty tail!

The woods were alive with Butterflies, but the wind made it difficult to photograph them, the only one that settled on something sturdy was, surprisingly this Purple Hairstreak.

Walking back home I checked out the Tree Nursery, where I saw the first Common Blue of the month, the 18th butterfly species for July. Brown Argus, Meadow Brown, Red Admiral, Peacock, Gatekeeper, and the three Skipper species were also on the wing, a real pleasure to record so many flutters in this now attractive area.

Ragwort in the Tree Nursery