Pittswood Birds

Another grey and windy day, but this morning the rain held off as I walked into work, which was a particularly noteworthy one. As usual, I kept a sharp lookout for passage birds at Migrant Alley, and was pleased to see a WHEATEAR sitting up on the fence rail, as I drew near, it dropped down into one of the paddocks, and when I scanned the paddock to find it again I saw another 4 Wheatear! Five Wheatears together on my patch is a peak count, the best for the ten years yet!!

I left work this afternoon, eager to see if the Wheatear were still around, and got to Migrant Alley to find all five feeding where I left them 5 hours before  :-)  I watched them for a few minutes, then headed off home for a quick snack, later returning with my camera.

Passing the Greenhouse complex, to get to Migrant Alley again, I saw two SAND MARTINS fly over, a good September sighting, but better was the 4 MEADOW PIPITS (55) that were right behind them, I watched them wheel around the sky and drop down into the sheep pasture, good to have them back for the Autumn and winter :-)

As I approached the paddock with the Wheatears in, I scanned the fenceline to the right of me and was well chuffed to see two more WHINCHAT, they were dropping down into the sheep pasture, catching an insect, then flying back up to the fence. I tried to get some photo's, but they didn't allow any sort of approach, and below is the best I could do  :-)

Whinchat

I left the two Whinchat to feed, and tried my luck with the Wheatear, these birds are usually much more approachable, but today, they were avidly feeding right out in the middle of the paddock, so again the photo was distant, and the light was poor anyway.

Wheatear

After getting some not very good photo's, I had a good look around for anymore passage birds, but no more were forthcoming, I did see a couple of GREEN WOODPECKERS come down and join the Wheatears in the paddocks, and a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER flew low over. Nearby in a patch of thistles, 22 GOLDFINCH were feeding, and 4 LINNET were on the pathway.

After having had my fill of the passage birds, I went through the Tree Nursery, to try and locate two species of bird I haven't yet added to the months list, Mistle Thrush and Pheasant, but not only were they not present, very little else was either. I tried my luck over at the Lakes and Scrubby Woods, but upon reaching the area, it started to rain heavily, so I was limited to viewing the immediate surroundings from the cover of one of the old outbuildings. I can see over the main lake from there, but only a GREY HERON was seen, along with a couple of MOORHEN and about a dozen MALLARD. Once the rain eased I took my chance to get off home, once again a visit cut short. I took this photo below, of a Green Woodpecker, from my shelter, in some pretty dire lighting, but I like the way it turned out  :-)

Green Woodpecker