Pittswood Birds

Only a short patch visit was possible this afternoon, as I had a dental appointment later  :-(   I had just enough time to walk over to the lakes and back, through the Small Holding and Wet woods. Conditions were the opposite of yesterday, back on went the fleece jacket and woolly hat, as the temperature was a good 10C down on yesterday, and the sun stayed behind a grey sheet of cloud. The mix of GREENFINCH and GOLDFINCH continue to feed in the Alpaca enclosure at the Small Holding, BLUE and GREAT TITS buzzed about calling, and as usual a couple of GREEN WOODPECKERS were seen.

The Wet Woods had a drumming GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, more calling Tits, a NUTHATCH, and 3 drake MALLARD, they were on the almost dried out pools of water, also an old friend passed me by, the 3 legged fox, not seen him since late last year, good to see he survived the winter  :-)

On the lakes today it was relatively busy, with 7 CANADA GEESE, 4 more drake Mallard, 4 MOORHEN, a CORMORANT, the pair of COOTS, but best of all a visiting pair of MANDARIN DUCKS, probably the pair seen in the Wet Woods on Tuesday afternoon. I couldn't stay to check the Scrubby Woods thoroughly, but heard BULLFINCH, COAL TIT, JAY, GOLDCREST and PHEASANT, a CHIFFCHAFF called but didn't sing today, I then retraced my steps back home the way I come. A flock of 30-40 BLACK HEADED GULLS flew over calling loudly as I neared home, they were flushed up from the fields over at Migrant Alley, but looking around the sky I didn't see anything to upset them, no large raptors about  ;-)

Too dull and dingy for photo's today, the camera stayed at home, so here's the last of my garden finch photo's I took earlier in the week.

Goldfinch

Chaffinch