Pittswood Birds

Sun up!

A mostly dull and overcast sky greeted me this morning, but there was the odd brief flash of sun every now and again. The 3 and a half hour visit produced the slightly less than average species total, for a January day, of 41, this without the likes of Pheasant, Skylark, Coal Tit, or any kind of winter thrush, all which should have been easy enough to find on a January visit.

There were some nice highlights amongst the species seen though, a group of 4 GREEN WOODPECKERS feeding on a large garden lawn adjacent to the Small holding was good to see, one allowing me a distant photo.

One of the four Green Woodpeckers

I enjoyed a better session than in recent times inside the Wet Woods, when a feeding flock of BLUE, GREAT, and LONG TAILED TITS were seen, with them were their normal allies the GOLDCREST, and the TREECREEPER, the latter staying still just long enough for a record photo.

Treecreeper

The next stop at the lakes and Scrubby Woods, was a mixed affair, just one MALLARD was seen on the water, but with it was the long staying COOT, better still the LITTLE GREBE was re-located, which in the dim light and at long distance, another record shot was obtained  :-)

Distant Little Grebe - Star bird  :-)

Over at Migrant Alley a little time later, there was Gull and Raptor action to be had, with 61 BLACK HEADED, 4 HERRING and a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL being found out on the sheep pasture, while overhead the SPARROWHAWK had them all flying up and panicking, the KESTREL seen minutes later doesn't quite have the same effect, the Gulls know it is no threat to them  :-)  A YELLOWHAMMER was seen in the hedgerow that forms the boundary with the Greenhouse Complex, it stayed long enough for a half decent photo attempt, but the Redpoll flock seen here on recent afternoons had moved on.

Yellowhammer

The College grounds provided plenty of small passerines, GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BULLFINCH, Great and Blue Tit, Goldcrest, and a flash of the KINGFISHER over one of the ponds.

I spent the last half hour of the visit at my skywatching seat, at Migrant Alley, but nothing of note was seen going over, just a couple of PIED WAGTAIL, and lots of ROOKS, STARLINGS, WOODPIGEONS and JACKDAWS. The friendly ROBIN made it appearance, and gave me the best photo of the day  :-)

Photographers dream birds - the friendly Robin  :-)