Pittswood Birds

A large patch of blue sky appeared over to the west of Pittswood as I walked home from work today, so the sandwich was given a miss, and I just grabbed some crisps and gulped down some juice so as to get out in the anticipated sunshine  :-)

I again headed over to the lakes, for a change I went via the Tree Nursery, where, with the blue sky almost overhead, the increasing light level encouraged a few songsters to perform, a MISTLETHRUSH could be heard all the way from the Wet Woods, as was a SONG THRUSH, nearby, GOLDCREST,  DUNNOCK and WREN all tuned up from the shrubs, while in the background somewhere a GREAT TIT gave its spring call - it all felt very springlike  :-)

Nearing the Lakes, a COAL TIT started singing, and another two Goldcrests called from a spruce tree, a ROBIN sang loudly from the adjacent Scrubby Woods, where BULLFINCH, GOLDFINCH, SISKIN and LONG TAILED TITS were all heard, - what a difference from yesterday!  Three CORMORANTS left the main lake as I approach to scan it, and the MALLARDS had doubled in number - four were now present  :-)  Another two were on the small lake, but not one Moorhen was found, unusual.

After not finding any wildfowl for the year list, I moved on into the Scrubby Woods, where I watched yet another two GOLDCRESTS in the now brilliant sunshine :-)  I set up the camera, and waited for the Goldcrest to come nearer and into view, and in that short space of time, maybe 3 -5 mins the cloud rolled in again, and all went dark.......god damn it, give us just one hours light!!!!!!  I did get a photo, but it wasn't quite what I had hoped for had the sun stayed out  :-)

Goldcrest

After that fifth Goldcrest encounter, I ventured further into the woods, finding at least 2 pairs of Bullfinch, at least two REDWING that flew out of a bramble patch with three Songthrush, and found the Long Tailed Tit flock that I had heard earlier, but then the sighting of the year so far, suddenly came up from in front of me - two WOODCOCK (54) a really good bird to get here, they are not seen very often, indeed they were only first recorded on my patch in 2009. Their arrival got me thinking about a piece of folklore, it was reckoned that the Goldcrests hitched a lift on the backs of Woodcock, as they weren't big enough to make the sea crossing from the continent unaided, and with the amount of Goldcrests seen this afternoon, it may have some credence!  :-)