Pittswood Birds

ROBIN

The dull, damp, misty weather continued for my full patch walk this morning, a total of 47 species was recorded, which is a good tally for late October, however it doesn't tell the whole story, as the vast majority of that bird list was represented by either single birds or birds heard but unseen!

It was good to see three raptor species up hunting, single BUZZARD, KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK all showed well, also four Gull species, it's  not often I get four in the same visit, all flew over, most of these were BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULLS, but a singles of both COMMON and  LESSER BLACK BACKED also showed up.

Winter Thrushes were a bit more showy today, a flock of 18 REDWING, and 14 FIELDFARE flew over the Tree Nursery, but none of these winter migrants are stopping to feed on my patch yet, unlike the SISKIN, which at least 8 were feeding with the GOLDFINCH'S in the Greenhouse Complex Alders. 14 SKYLARKS flew up from the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, along with 6 MEADOW PIPITS, with 8 LINNETS seen out on the paddocks.

Over at the Lakes and Scrubby Woods, the water dripping from the trees made it feel even more miserable, nothing but the MALLARDS and MOORHEN were on the water, but a flock of LONG TAILED TITS brightened things up briefly. Only other thing of note today were the two CORMORANTS that flew over the main lake. The weather looks even more miserable tomorrow morning, but that's October!!