Pittswood Birds

This afternoon I tried my best to add the one more species needed for the months list that would take it past the mean average number of species seen in July, that being 63.3, but try as I might, I couldn't find it, and the July list remained on 63, only a fraction below the mean, but still 6 species less than the highest July tally and 2 behind last year, putting this Julys list in 7th place out of 11, this is the 3rd month this year where I have not reached the months mean average total.

With the combined list for all the eleven July's being 88, it shows that there were 25 species that have visited in previous Julys that could have been seen this month, some of the more likely were Sand martin, Lapwing, Garden Warbler and Willow Warbler, also a big miss is the arrival of the Marsh Tit, it has turned up in most Julys and stayed over the Autumn/Winter, but none has arrived for this or last year  :-(  In spite of the lack of variety this month I still had two species that have not been recorded in previous Julys, the Coot and the Siskin, there's always something to end up on a cheery note  :-)

I did see more bird life than yesterdays visit this afternoon, Raptors were out, with BUZZARD, PEREGRINE, SPARROWHAWK and KESTREL all seen, and a few of the summer species were also recorded, up to 6 WHITETHROAT were in the Tree Nursery, with a CHIFFCHAFF, while at the Greenhouse Grounds there were 2 BLACKCAPS, the 40-60 SWALLOWS were whizzing around everywhere, and as I scanned them for a Sand |martin, I saw 3 SWIFTS up high, these will be getting very scarce here during August. Not much more to note than that, the usual 3 Gull species went over, and a LITTLE OWL was calling from the Greenhouse Copse.

I left the camera at home today, with the heavy cloud and occasional showers passing through it wasn't very conducive to photography, but I've got a few 'blog brighteners' that I took last weekend at my garden feeders, just the normal visitors  :-)

ROBIN

Immature BLUE TIT

Female CHAFFINCH