Pittswood Birds

There was none of yesterdays warm sun today,  and the afternoon was distinctly cool, with a chilly wind and grey skies. Spits of rain were blowing in the wind as I set off out for Migrant Alley and the Greenhouse Grounds at around 14:00hrs, where not a very pleasant hour was spent out.

As I entered the Greenhouse grounds, a few Meadow Brown Butterflies were seen, what hardy little flutters these are, they were the only butterflies seen today. I soon heard the ''Ki Ki Ki Ki'' call of the KESTREL family, they were at the end of the Poly Tunnels, so I sneaked along one of the tunnels, and on poking my head out the end, saw 3 Kestrels on adjacent posts just 30m  away, but as soon as I raised my lens they were all off!  I wasn't quite sneaky enough  :-)  The light was poor anyway, so i wasn't too despondent at missing them, then as a consolation I heard the high pitched calls of a WREN family, these were much easier to sneak up on  :-)  I have posted lots of Wren Photo's recently, but as they were the only birds on offer today i'm afraid it will be more of them!

Recently Fledged Wren

I noticed a BLACKCAP nicking the raspberries in the Poly Tunnels, then flying off into the nearby hedge to devour them, then a few minutes later I watched a WHITETHROAT doing the same, while along the floor of the tunnels BLACKBIRDS, SONGTHRUSHES and DUNNOCKS helped themselves to fallen fruit.

Recently Fledged Wren

I took myself on a circuit of Migrant Alley, hoping against hope really that an early Whinchat or Wheatear might be found, but the weather doesn't feel right just yet, if you know what I mean  :-) I did see a few small groups of GOLDFINCH and LINNETS, plus the big flock of mixed ROOKS and JACKDAWS, around 100- 125 birds in all. Ten - fifteen SWALLOWS fed on whatever they could gleen over the sheep pasture, and just a single SWIFT flew over, heading west, the only other flyovers were Gulls, those being BLACK HEADED, HERRING and LESSER BLACK BACKED. A CHIFFCAHAFF called from the wooded Headland, but there was no sign of any TURTLE DOVES there today.