Pittswood Birds

The first GREY WAGTAIL (65) of April was seen feeding on a manure heap by the college stables as I walked into work this morning, keeping the April list moving  :-), albeit very slowly, its gone mid point in the month and the species tally has still only reached 65 which puts it in 9th place out of 11 years.

The morning rain had cleared for my afternoon walk, and some sunny spells developed, before a rash of showers brought an end to my visit. I made an effort to look over the lake and Scrubby Woods, on the lakes 12 CANADA GEESE, 8 GREYLAG GEESE, 2 MOORHEN, 2 COOT, and 2 MALLARD were seen, but nothing more exciting, and it will get less likely that something drops in here as the days progress into late spring now.

In the Scrubby Woods, a hoped for Nightingale wasn't forthcoming, a species that used to breed here 5 years back. I am more likely to find a Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, or Garden Warbler here, but none have returned yet, their respective Median average arrival dates are the 18th April, 24 April and the 4th May, so they shouldn't be too long now  :-)

I did find a couple of BLACKCAPS singing half heartedly in the cool windy conditions, and at least 4 CHIFFCHAFFS sang, a NUTHATCH called and song from the regular SONGTHRUSH, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, WREN, BLACKBIRD and GOLDCREST kept the interest going.

A short visit to Migrant Alley and the greenhouse Grounds, was curtailed by a hail shower, it didn't provide sightings of any of the recently seen Swallows or House Martins, most of my time there was spent watching the KESTRELS, the male was seen to fly over to the tree with the nest box in, and call to the female, she popped out of the box and was presented with a rodent snack  :-), above them a SPARROWHAWK circled over, also seen going over were two LESSER BLACKBACKED GULLS.

Although I took the camera out, I didn't even get to point it at any subjects, some days are just like that though, so no photo's today  :-(

Who's hogging all the Migrants  ???