Pittswood Birds

The weather was warm and sticky this afternoon, one of those days when even the butterflies laid up in rest.

I still went over to the tree nursery to find some though! There were fewer about than yesterday, but Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Speckled Wood, Red Admiral, Small Skipper and Brown Argus were found along the hedgerow, where the families of both LINNET and WHITETHROAT scolded at me when I came to close. On reaching the end of the field, I walked across to the other side and made my way back down again, searching the long grass and vegetation that grows up from the drainage ditch there. I was startled by a small brown bird that flew up in front of me and shot into a row of Shrubs, I could just see it through my bins, and was extremely pleased and excited to find my 100 bird species of the year looking back at me - a SEDGE WARBLER ( 100, 63) no less!!

After that pleasant experience, I went over to check the Scrubby Woods and Lake area, seeing both KESTREL and COMMON BUZZARD go over as I went. Upon nearing the lakes I could already hear the 15 GREYLAG GEESE and 7 CANADA GEESE that were there, with them were 6 MALLARD and 4 MOORHEN, one of these was with another two newly fledged young. A nearby chattering alerted me to 6 SWALLOWS sitting up on a phone line, so I sneaked up on them, making sure I had the light with me, in order to get some photo's, just as I was viewing them through the lens, a flippin male SPARROWHAWK came dashing through, sending the Swallows in all directions!

I next made a circuit of the Scrubby Woods, but it was unusually quiet, there was just the song of a lone SONGTHRUSH, and a half hearted attempt at singing by a BLACKCAP, but the call of CHIFFCHAFFS was ever present as I went round, the only other notable bird was a TURTLE DOVE siting up on the power cables.

On the way home again I saw this GREEN WOODPECKER on one of the large lawns

It soon flew off when it heard the camera shutter though!

A quick search around the Greenhouse Complex was well worth the effort, I saw the usual PIED WAGTAILS, Blackcaps, Whitethroats, and Chiffchaffs, but I also watched another Sedge Warbler flitting from a thick mass of nettles into a dense stand of willowherb!! Quite something, as Sedge Warbler has never been recorded in any July before :-)

The 100th species for the year has come in the second quickest time, but out of the ten years of recording on my patch only four times has 100 species been reached, these years are from 2008 onwards, the year when I upped my visits and went part time working :-)

Below are the previous dates upon which I reached 100 species:

2008 - 30 Oct

2009 - 17 May

2010 - 27 Aug

Not much in the way of Photo's today, just this distant Turtle Dove

With a Brown Argus below and a Small Copper below that.

I also came across this Moth, one for all you moffers out there to ID for me :-)