Pittswood Birds

Fresh in from my Christmas morning walk, and its an early post for the day, as i'll be making merry with the family this afternoon  :-)

I always enjoy my Christmas morning walk, as hardly a soul is seen, giving me the place to myself  :-) and it was thus so for 3 hours this morning. The low cloud meant the camera stayed at home, so no pics today, however, the morning was exceptionally mild, if a bit breezy, not good really if i'm trying to find a Woodcock, Snipe, or a flyover wader for the months/year list, if this unseasonal weather continues into the new year, i'll have a problem finding even the quite common winter species for the 2012 year list!

Nothing was added to the December list this morning, but a reasonable 42 species were found, even without the likes of Skylark, Pheasant, Greenfinch, Bullfinch, Treecreeper, - all of which are regulars normally, plus the Lapwing flock on the Pub Field hadn't arrived, they usually turn up late morning.

A KINGFISHER was probably the highlight for the morning, one flew across the Small lake, but little else was on the lakes today, just 12 MALLARD and 3 MOORHEN. Another good bird to see on my patch was the BUZZARD, it flew from the Greenhouse Complex, this is the second year running that Buzzard has been recorded in every month, something that i would not have believed if you have told me this back in 2002 when I started on my patch  :-)  Two other raptor species were seen, KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK, and the list was bulked up a bit by the sighting of 3 Gull species, HERRING, LESSER BLACK BACKED and BLACK HEADED, the latter of which gathered on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, 60-70 birds in all.

Not much else really notable was seen, a small group of four LESSER REDPOLL fed in a silver birch over at the College Grounds, a CORMORANT flew over the GREENHOUSES and 3 separate YELLOWHAMMERS called as they went high over, in an enjoyable Christmas day walk  :-)