Pittswood Birds

I saw some nice birds on my patch today during my brief visits, the walk in to work produced at least 2 YELLOW WAGTAILS that flew over Migrant Alley, where 3 WHEATEAR still remained, a BUZZARD flew low over the College Grounds as I walked through, a good early sighting  :-)

On the walk home, I checked out the 3 Wheatear at Migrant Alley again, and also managed to relocate the WHINCHAT too.

My afternoon visit was only a very short affair, as I had a dental appointment at four o'clock, however, I still had a few nice birds about. I spent an hour roaming the Greenhouse Grounds, and the hedgerow that it shares with Migrant Alley, a flock of 20+ GOLDFINCH and 40+ LINNET were flitting between the hedge and the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, and it was whilst watching these, that I saw 14 MEADOW PIPIT drop in, their ''seep seep'' calls are a welcome addition to the Autumn soundtrack on my patch.

I took a seat on my sky watching horse jump, and was pleased to see the WILLOW WARBLER again in the tall hedge behind me, and the first BLACKCAP this week was also seen in there. Then I heard the harsh 'chtack' 'chtack' call of a LESSER WHITETHROAT (58), and after much peering into the hedge I managed to locate it briefly, before it went deeper into cover, this is a good bird to get in September on my patch, only ever getting one or two sightings at most. The ten year average for the last date for Lesser Whitethroat here, is 9th of July, that's todays date!

If the Lesser Whitethroat was a good sighting, even better was the SEDGE WARBLER (59), it was seen in a large patch of nettles in the Greenhouse Grounds, just behind the tall hedge. Sedge Warblers have only been recorded in six of the ten Septembers of watching my patch, their mean last sighting date is the 14th Sept.

It all looks promising for tomorrows early visit! Sorry no pics today, time was short and the light was abysmal anyway!!