Pittswood Birds

Yesterdays miserable wet weather cleared away overnight, to leave a cool but bright morning.  I spent a little over 4 hours out, and found a fantastic fifty species, always good to hit the fifty mark  :-)

It was a much more interesting visit than of late, the paddocks and sheep pasture at Migrant Alley had a mix of HERRING and LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS on them, all of mixed ages, about 30 birds in all, whilst over at the College Gardens another migrant WILLOW WARBLER sang.

Over on the lakes there were 16 CANADA GEESE, with a GREYLAG GOOSE, and the feral BARNACLE GOOSE, as well as the COOT pair a few MALLARDS and 6 MOORHENS. The Scrubby Woods resounded with the songs of BLACKCAP, CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKBIRD, SONGTHRUSH, CHAFFINCH, WREN, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, GOLDCREST and COAL TIT, as well as TREECREEPER, and NUTHATCH calling, a pair of BULLFINCH were also noted, as well as both GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS.

Over at the Tree Nursery there was again a COMMON BUZZARD flying from the Wet Woods, to a large garden and back to the Tree Nursery, I wonder if it is breeding nearby, or weather it has stashed away the carcass of a dead lamb in the area?

A skywatch over at my seat at Migrant Alley, later in the day, was a productive 90 mins, I not only saw my second SWALLOW of the year, but also saw my first two SAND MARTINS (80, 57) of the year fly over, all headed NW. Sand Martin is a good species to find on my patch, they are another passage migrant species, they mainly get recorded more often in the Autumn, this is the fifth spring they have been seen over my patch out of eleven, and have arrived on their median date  :-) A single MEADOW PIPIT also flew over calling, but I didn't see it.

It was exciting to see a female KESTREL go into the nest box that has been put up in a tree in a nearby garden, the male was displaying above for a while too, will I get breeding Kestrel on my patch for the first time? We shall see!

The camera came out with me today, with the following species photographed  :-)

Common Buzzard

Chiffchaff

Greylag Goose

Feral Barnacle Goose