Pittswood Birds

A couple of hours was spent at the Tree Nursery this afternoon, in some very pleasant, warm sunshine ( at last!)  I was on the hunt for Butterflies and Damselflies again, plus any bird species that might flyover  :-) Of the latter, it was good to see 4 species of raptor up hunting overhead, the first was the KESTREL pair, the female flying off towards the nest box, but there is no sign of any fledged young. A pair of BUZZARDS were the next raptor seen, they circled over for a while before drifting south, then came the SPARROWHAWK, which was seen off by the local SWALLOWS, and finally a HOBBY, this came down low, before spiraling away higher and higher into the blueness.

Back on the floor I walked the boundary hedgerow, and could here the ''tick tick' alarm call of the LESSER WHITETHROAT, I sat and waited, and after a few minutes got some fleeting views of an adult, then a few minutes later I had views of at least two newly fledged youngsters, good to get them on the confirmed successfully breeding list, as they can be tricky to find! just a few meters away was another alarm call, this was the ''churr'' of the COMMON WHITETHROAT, I had better, if brief views of the adult, which had a four well grown youngsters with it, I got a few photo's too, pity I had the insect lens on though.

Common Whitethroat - if only the Lesser Whitethroat had shown so well!

Common Whitethroat

Young Common Whitethroat

Young Common Whitethroat - with the obligatory stick in the way!

I then got into searching the grasses and brambles for flutters and damsels, I found a few Azure Damsels, as well as Common Blues, and the ever present White-legged, also a Large Red which I haven't seen recently.

Common Blue Damsel

Large Red Damsel

Large Red Damsel

Of the Butterflies seen, two were new for the month, Small White, and Green Veined White ( incredibly!) taking this months flutter species total to just 11, compared to last Junes total of 15. Large Skippers were around in better numbers but still few, and fewer still was Common Blue, and Red Admiral with just one of each, not good considering the warm sunny day.

Large Skipper

Large Skipper