Pittswood Birds

It was remarkably warm and still this morning, so the fleece was immediately dispensed with, but the birds were few and far between, as they have been for the past few days.

The four hour visit yielded just 43 species, mostly the regular residents, the largest group of which were 40+ LINNETS seen at Migrant Alley, where there were, unfortunately, no passage migrants present today. LESSER BLACK BACKED, and HERRING GULLS passed overhead, on their way to the ploughed field adjacent to my patch, as they have done the past few mornings, whilst coming from that very field were the hundreds of CANADA and GREYLAG GEESE.

SPARROWHAWK, KESTREL and HOBBY were all on show, hunting over various parts of my patch, and also the first CORMORANT (68) of the month flew over.

The lakes and Scrubby Woods provided me with the likes of BLACKCAP, TREECREEPER, COAL TIT and MALLARD to top up the daylist, but there were many species that are regularly seen that were not showing today.

A late afternoon visit to Migrant Alley, added PHEASANT and only the second YELLOWHAMMER for the month to the days list, but in all it seems to be quite birdless out there at the moment :-)

Below is an empty Migrant Alley looking from the North

These SWALLOWS were on the line again, thinking about there long journey south

Below are some of the Canada Geese flying over from the ploughed field

Here's a bird Ive not photographed before, in fact I dont even count them as a species for my patch records - the Feral Pigeon

A few Butterflies showed themselves today, above is a Common Blue, whilst below is the Gatekeeper