Pittswood Birds

A fresh new month, but the same old weather, it was cool and windy, despite the early sunshine and later in the visit frequent hefty showers blew through, so not really conducive to wildlife watching or photographing it!

I hope the weather picks up a bit as the month goes on, July can bring some early migrant species to my patch on their way back south, and it pays to get out as much as possible, the likes of Stonechat, Sand Martin, Whimbrel, Green Sandpiper and Whinchat have all turned up in July.

Enough of the dreaming though, i'll do well to reach the best species total for July of 69, set back in 2007. I got off to a reasonable start this morning though, with 47 species being found, nothing much out of the ordinary, mostly the usual regulars.

CARRION CROW, JACKDAW, GOLDFINCH, WREN, SWALLOW, STARLING, HOUSE SPARROW, ROBIN, BLACKBIRD, WOODPIGEON, BLACKCAP, LINNET, BLUE TIT, DUNNOCK and NUTHATCH were first birds on the list as I walked the 100 meters down Ashes Lane. Entering the Greenhouse Grounds, only SONGTHRUSH, GREAT TIT, and COLLARED DOVE were added, with Migrant Alley adding ROOK, SWIFT, SKYLARK, and HERRING GULL, as well as CHIFFCHAFF, TURTLE DOVE and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER which were in the Wooded Headland.

The College Grounds was unusually quiet this morning, with relatively few birds about, but I added PIED WAGTAIL, MAGPIE, HOUSE MARTIN, JAY, COAL TIT, GREENFINCH, MOORHEN, GOLDCREST, SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, CHAFFINCH and a flyover LESSER BLACK BACK GULL to the mornings tally. The return back through Migrant Alley and the Greenhouse Grounds saw me add GREEN WOODPECKER plus flyovers from STOCK DOVE and MALLARD.

The second part of my walk saw me add just 8 more species to the July list, a TREECREEPER was seen taking food to a nest site in the Wet Woods, which by the sound of the young seem near ready to fledge, CANADA GOOSE, and COOT were on the lakes, while the Scrubby Woods had only LONG TAILED TIT to offer. Both SPARROWHAWK and KESTREL were seen up hunting as I walked over to the Tree Nursery, where the last two species for the morning were seen - LESSER and COMMON WHITETHROAT.
Not much action for the camera today, but here's what I caught  :-)

Herring Gull

Immature Moorhen, having a preen

Immature Moorhen

This is my first Darter Dragonfly of the year - an immature Common darter I think