Pittswood Birds

A trip to the Scrubby Woods was had this afternoon, in the hope of confirming some more successfully breeding bird species for the year, but alas no new fledglings were found, in fact it was a particularly quite afternoon, just a couple of immature NUTHATCHES, a singing TURTLE DOVE and a couple of BUZZARDS that circled over were of any note, but that's how June is sometimes, particularly in the mid afternoon.

I had a look around for some Butterflies, mainly hoping for my first Purple hairstreak, as the first one was recorded on June 3rd last year, but they aren't about yet. Of the Damselflies and Dragonflies, just one unidentified Damsel was seen ( see photo below) I think it might be a Common Blue of sorts! Not surprising it was a bit light on the insects this afternoon, as the sunshine was in short supply by the time I got out, the cloud always seemed to be obscuring the sun, despite the blue patches of sky about - frustrating!

Common Blue Damsel Immature ( Thanks Marianne)

I left the Scrubby Woods, checking the lakes as I did so, not much on them except the COOT family and 4 moulting MALLARDS, so I headed for the Tree Nursery, where the KESTREL was up hunting. Once again though it was a poor day for flutters and damsels, just four Meadow Browns were all that was seen - so a particularly poor 2 hour visit today, but that's how patch watching goes sometimes  :-)

Meadow Brown Butterfly

I got home and saw that the peanut feeder had a host of recently fledged  BLUE TITS on it, so took a quick photo of one, just to brighten this post up!

Immature Blue Tit