Pittswood Birds

Last evening I made a trip over to the College grounds, to ascertain how many fledged SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS there were, it was difficult to count them but it seems to me the first family have two young, the second family have 3, excellent! The top two pictures are of a couple of recently fledged SWALLOWS that I met on the way :-)

I tried for a few photo's of the spotted Flycatchers, but as usual the adult kept in the shade, the above fledgling was out in the sunshine, but the light was a bit too harsh! You cant win can you :-)

Back to this afternoon, and it was warm and humid, certainly a day for butterflies, and also for ants, they had decided to swarm today, bringing over a few LESSER BLACK BACKED and HERRING GULLS to feed on them, as well as large numbers of SWIFT, SWALLOWS and STARLINGS the later doing their very best Flycatcher impersonation!

I visited the Tree Nursery as well as the Scrubby Woods, and it was mostly butterflies that caught my attention - loads of 'em! Sixteen species were seen, that is the best butterfly day ever on my patch ( not hard to achieve, as I only started keeping records this year!!)

These Small Coppers below, were the first of July, and the 17th species for the month

In the Scrubby Woods it was Purple Hairstreaks that were abundant, fluttering around nearly every Oak I checked

Speckled Woods were down in the dappled glades beneath the oaks, this one below looked a particularly dark specimen

As for the birds, well most were keeping out of the warm weather, but what few were seen all seemed to be feeding youngsters, including CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP, WHITETHROAT, LINNET, DUNNOCK ( Do they ever stop producing broods ?) and TREECREEPER. A small mixed feeding flock was encountered along the footpath from the Wet Woods to the lakes, the best of which were 3 NUTHATCH, 2 Treecreepers and a COAL TIT. I tracked down at least 4 TURTLE DOVES, singing from various places in the Scrubby Woods, but haven't managed to find any young, or even a nest! They are definitely breeding in there somewhere though!!