Pittswood Birds

College Ground pond - slowly thawing

Not much to report today from the pittswood patch, the weather was awful, grey, rainy and with a cold wind. The normal visit to the Lakes and Scrubby woods via the Small Holding and Wet Woods had to be postponed, as I had forgotten to by the missus a card for our wedding anniversary which is today, and had to get out pretty sharpish over to the College grounds to purchase one at the garden center there, at least I could do some birding on the way  :-)

With the weather being so poor not much was seen on the walk across the Sheep pasture and paddocks at Migrant alley, just a couple of dozen WOOD PIGEON, 35 ROOKS plus a few JACKDAW in with them, and a flypast of 31 LAPWING.

Having purchased my card, (phew!) I had a quick look around the College Gardens and grounds, not much could be expected, as it is open to the public, and at this time of day even in the awful weather people were milling around, which is why I dont often visit here after 8am! There were alot of DUNNOCKS around, more than usual, I counted nine feeding amongst the flower borders, a small flock of LONG TAILED TITS were observed flitting through the shrubs, along with the more regular BLUE and GREAT TITS, plus the odd SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, and a couple of foraging REDWING in the leaf litter. The small ponds were still mostly frozen over, but showed signs of thawing, just a couple of MOORHEN were seen on the largest of them.

The walk back home was miserable, as the rain started to come down heavier, but I noted 3 small flocks of FIELDFARE going over headed west, about 25 birds in total, also a couple of SKYLARKS were heard going over, but I confess, i didn't look up to see, as the rain kept blowing down my neck! The only other birds of note were a KESTREL in the Greenhouse Grounds, along with a MEADOW PIPIT that I heard calling.

The rest of the afternoon was spent garden watching, the highlight here was a male SISKIN, and the Songthrush. Tomorrow is my last day at work this week, so i should get some meaningful visits in from Wednesday onwards - weather permitting!