Pittswood Birds

The penultimate full patch walk for April was a thoroughly wet one, and proved to be a rather disappointing affair consequently. There was a bit of a surprise at the lakes however when a Red Breasted Goose was seen amongst the 17 CANADA, 6 GREYLAG, and lone feral BARNACLE GOOSE, but I have to draw the line somewhere in counting these ''plastic'' escapes as patch ticks, and I wont be counting this one! A check on the Coots was a bit worrying, as the whole family were not seen, hopefully they were hiding from the weather.

In the Scrubby Woods a CUCKOO sang constantly, but yesterdays newly arrived Garden warbler was not located, the only other spring birds here were the CHIFFCHAFFS and BLACKCAPS. New spring arrivals were not forthcoming on other parts of my patch either today, and only SWALLOW, around the College Stables and WHITETHROAT at the Greenhouse Grounds were recorded.

The only raptor seen was one of the KESTRELS, and the only Gull species was a HERRING GULL. A sky watch in some pretty heavy rain only produced a GREY HERON and a SKYLARK, which took the day list to 45 species - if I include the Red Breasted Goose!  Not a good day out at all really  :-( Tomorrow looks even worse as far as the rain and wind are concerned, effectively writing off the end of April,  I may have to limit myself to some kind of sky watch from cover Early tomorrow morning  :-( 

The camera stayed at home, but I forgot to put this Whitethroat photo up yesterday, so i'll use that to brighten the page  :-)

Whitethroat