Pittswood Birds

There was a slight frost this morning, and it felt cold in the NW wind, however this was accompanied by early sunshine, which felt warm in the more sheltered spots.

Small Holding area

It was the best full patch walk for a long time, I didn't find any new species for the February, or 2012 list, but just about all the species that could be found were found, an incredible 52 of them! The only species that has been around in the last few visits that didn't show today was the Common Buzzard.

An early visit to the lakes via the above pictured Small Holding and Wet Woods, started the ball rolling, with more the familiar species of WOODPIGEON, STARLING, JACKDAW, CHAFFINCH, COLLARED DOVE, HOUSE SPARROW, MAGPIE, BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, WREN, BLACKBIRD, SONGTHRUSH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, ROBIN, GREENFINCH, JAY, CARRION CROW, GREEN WOODPECKER, 14 flyover FIELDFARE and even a small party of REDWINGS  :-)

On the Lakes there were the usual MALLARD, and the now resident COOT pair, 5 pairs of CANADA GEESE, 6 MOORHEN, and the CORMORANT sitting in its Silver Birch tree, with a GREY HERON below it at the waters edge, whilst there looking over the water, a STOCK DOVE sang, then more surprisingly a TAWNY OWL hooted.

Cormorant, this is the third morning running it has sat here  :-)

Mallard

The surrounding Scrubby Woods provided sightings of all the scarcer woodland species, BULLFINCH, TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, COAL TIT, NUTHATCH,  and LONG TAILED TIT, as well as the first DUNNOCK of the day. As I was leaving the area a PHEASANT called from nearby and a pair of GREYLAG GEESE flew over.

Long Tailed Tit

Long Tailed Tit again, nice to phtograph them away from the feeders

After that lot, there wasn't alot left to add to the list as I walked through the Tree Nursery, Pub Field and Migrant Alley, but flyovers from LESSER BLACK BACKED and HERRING GULL, plus KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK out hunting kept the list ticking over. The College Grounds was much quieter today, and here I added MISTLE THRUSH, which was with 8 Redwings, GOLDFINCH, PIED WAGTAIL, KINGFISHER, and flyovers from YELLOWHAMMER, ROOK and SKYLARK. On the College Sports pitch a group of 43 BLACK HEADED GULLS with 2 COMMON GULLS were seen.

My final destination was the Greenhouse Grounds, where in the adjacent Copse, I again found the LITTLE OWLS, this time I manged some photo's, a bit twiggy, but they were in deep cover.

Little Owl

Little owl

What a great morning out, on this my last visit of my holiday! Back to reality tomorrow, work beckons!