Pittswood Birds

Thanks to all you fellow bloggers out there who helped ID yesterdays Hoverflies and Water Beetle, plus those who put me right on the Small/Essex Skipper, all have been edited now  :-)

Back to this mornings full patch walk, and it was undertaken in weather more fitting for July (at last!) some long sunny spells were had, with occasional cloud, and it still stayed warm even when the sun wasn't out !

I set off at 06:00hrs for a five hour visit, which although produced fifty bird species, none were new for the Month or year list, I was hoping for the two most likely candidates to turn up for July, those being a flyover Cormorant, and a Mistle Thrush, but neither appeared, maybe tomorrow :-)

The first birds on the list today were a bit different from the usual species, when a GREYLAG GOOSE flew over with a MALLARD just as I walked from the back door!  Things resumed to the normal order, and BLACKBIRD, BLUE TIT, MAGPIE, JACKDAW, WREN, WOODPIGEON, GREEN WOODPECKER, GOLDFINCH, LINNET, GREENFINCH, COLLARD DOVE, and CHAFFINCH were the next dozen specie recorded.

It was good to see a KINGFISHER on the College Stream again, and another, possibly the same one, was on one of the small ponds in the College Grounds, easily beating off my attempts to photograph it! Most of the 'summer' species were seen on the visit today, a LESSER WHITETHROAT was in the Tree Nursery, COMMON WHITETHROATS were also here, and also in the Greenhouse Complex grounds, BLACKCAPS were heard from all parts of my patch, as were CHIFFCHAFFS, but the only TURTLE DOVE was at MIGRANT ALLEY sitting on power cables that cross the area, SWIFTS and SWALLOWS were hawking for insects over Migrant Alley too, lastly, sadly only one SPOTTED FLYCATCHER was seen at the College grounds, maybe they will lay a replacement clutch of eggs to replace the lost brood, but time is not on their side  :-( The only other Summer Migrant I could have expected to see this morning would have been a House Martin, or maybe less likely a Hobby or Garden Warbler.

Over at the Scrubby Woods I found the first mixed feeding flock of the Autumn, when 30 or so birds were seen in the Oak canopy, BLUE TITS, GREAT TITS, LONG TAILED TITS, GOLDCRESTS, Chiffchaff, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH and Chaffinch were all recorded. The nearby lake had only 8 CANADA GEESE to trouble the note book, no sign of any Coot today, young or old.

The final 40 minutes of the visit was spent Skywatching from my perch at Migrant Alley, where I watched the KESTREL family again, plus two COMMON BUZZARDS, and a PEREGRINE, strangely though, no Sprawk today. LESSER BLACK BACKED, BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULLS all went over, the latter was having a bit of a battle with a GREY HERON!

Photo's opportunities were few and far between today, despite some good light :-

Spotted Flycatcher - A scarce sight nowadays. Not as scarce as that big blue background has been this summer though!  :-)

Common Whitethroat

Rook