Pittswood Birds

The 25 minute walk into work this morning proved to be more interesting than the 2 hours I spent out this afternoon! The first GREYLAG GEESE (59) of the month were seen, 28 of them were on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, while up above them an early BUZZARD was up soaring, plus the KESTREL family were once again observed on various perches  :-) The Greylag Geese bring the months total to 59, putting this Julys list in joint 10th place out of the 11, still 3 behind the July 11 year average though, but a huge 10 species behind the best July tally, achieved back in 2007.

As I said, this afternoon was a particularly quiet patch visit, mind you, time was wasted visiting the College Grounds as it was teeming with people, it's always a bit of a risk visiting the place in the afternoon but I wanted to try to find the Spotted Flycatcher family that were last seen a couple of weeks ago, however, not even an adult was found, I now fear that the 4 youngsters have indeed perished in the poor weather conditions  :-(  I did see a TURTLE DOVE fly into its college territory though, surely they have young in there somewhere by now, hopefully a morning visit will find them.

A couple of short sharp showers fell while I was out, which doesn't help things, but at the Greenhouse Grounds I again located family parties of BLACKCAP and WHITETHROAT, plus a single CHIFFCHAFF, the SWIFTS and SWALLOWS were the other summer visitors seen.

I was home by 16:45, and spent an hour up in my garden shed, photographing the comings and goings at the feeders, which was much more enjoyable  :-) Here's some of the usual visitors.

Immature BLUE TIT

Immature GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

Immature ROBIN

Young  GREENFINCH

Adult GOLDFINCH

Young NUTHATCH