Pittswood Birds

Red Admiral

The penultimate June patch visit this afternoon took place in some very blustery conditions, not allowing for much camera work to be done, just the above tatty Red Admiral was photographed.

The wind made it difficult to hear much as I visited the Tree Nursery first off, I was hoping for a glimpse of the LESSER WHITETHROAT that I had heard singing here as I walked past on my way home from work earlier, but it wasn't to be found, a BLACKCAP sang strongly though, and a COMMON WHITETHROAT was also heard. Just a few Meadow Brown butterflies were seen, and an Emperor Dragonfly was up hunting too. One of the KESTREL pair was seen hunting again after having a day off yesterday, the only other things in the sky were groups of passage SWIFTS and a couple of HERRING GULLS, plus of course the SPARROWHAWK keeping an eye on me   :-)

I did a circuit of Migrant Alley next, taking in the Greenhouse Complex, and although the sun had now come out, it remained difficult to find much, a GOLDCREST sang from a line of spruce trees at the Greenhouse Complex, while at Migrant Alley a GREEN WOODPECKER whizzed past, and a SKYLARK flew up from the sheep pasture, the wooded headland at the north end of the sheep pasture had a singing Blackcap as well as a singing CHIFFCHAFF, and I saw my first LONG TAILED TIT for a couple of weeks here as well. More Swifts were seen going over, along with a few HOUSE MARTINS, the local SWALLOWS were whizzing about trying to find insects to feed growing broods, and a few LINNETS sat on the fence rails that line the paddocks. I ended the walk with a half hour sky watch, where 3 Kestrels were seen, but none of them youngsters, a probable Peregrine also flew just to the east of my patch, the first sighting this month, pity it didn't come over my patch!

I said in yesterdays post I said was going out for an evening patch walk, well i did, however it was still very sticky and humid even at 20:00hrs, but a visit to the College Grounds allowed me to take some photo's of the regulars to be found there. Also on the walk back home a LITTLE OWL was seen in a field opposite my house, little else was found though.

College Grounds regulars :-

SPOTTED FLYCATCHER

Spotted Flycatcher

GREENFINCH - very few of this species are being seen this year, but I did at last see a young recently fledged bird at my garden feeders this morning, last year the first was seen on the 14th May!

SONGTHRUSH .........on the other hand this species is doing well and has been seen carrying food to nestlings of a probable second brood, the damp conditions favouring this invertebrate eater.