Pittswood Birds

The last full patch walk for October was, as expected, taken place in some dismal conditions, just like recent visits! Low cloud and and persistent drizzle made it tough looking for birds, the day barely got light at all. A consequence of this was a low tally of species seen, just 40 in all.

The highlight of the walk, if any, was seeing a flock of mixed SKYLARK and MEADOW PIPITS in the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, altogether around 18 birds, which is a good number here! I wont bother going into the rest of the sightings today, as you might as well read yesterdays post!

Instead I thought I'd put up some stats  (yawwwwn )  of the last dates that the Summer species were seen this year, compared to the latest and average leaving dates over the ten year recording period. Below are the species that have been recorded in 5 or more years out of the ten.
                                   LATEST   AVERAGE    THIS YEAR

• Hobby                 7/10            20/9              29/9
• Common Tern      25/8            4/8                25/8
• Turtle Dove         14/9            28/8              14/9
• Cuckoo               5/8              1/7                14/6 
• Swift                    2/10           28/8               15/9
• Swallow               20/10         9/10               9/10
• Sand Martin         3/10           16/9               18/9
• House Martin       22/10         8/10               12/10
• Yellow Wagtail     19/10         23/9                29/9
• Redstart               24/9           6/9                  9/9
• Whinchat             10/10         18/9                4/10
• Wheatear             23/10         1/10                9/10
• Sedge Warbler     26/9           15/9                22/9
• Reed Warbler       22/9           2/9                  22/9 
• Less.Whitethroat   21/9          9/9                  9/9
• Com.Whitethroat   21/9          10/9               21/9
• Garden Warbler     14/9          23/8               24/8
• Willow warbler       21/9         31/8               19/9
• Spot. Flycatcher     19/9          31/8               11/9

You can see that this year,  16 of the 19 summer species hung around later than the average date, 2 left bang on the average date and 1 left earlier than the average date. Four species were seen on their latest dates this year   :-)

As the weather at the moment is limiting photo opportunities, I have dug out an old favorite of mine  :-)

Little Owl ( Jan 2009)