Pittswood Birds

What a contrast in the day! This morning at 05:45hrs I set out on my full patch walk, the first two hours were cool, damp and frustratingly foggy, finding any birds was a real struggle, but by 09:30 hrs the sun had broke through producing some lovely warm sunny conditions.

A total of 47 species were found at the end of the five hour visit, things picking up after a slow start, but the Mistle Thrush, and Cormorant still manged to go unfound this month, no July has passed without these two species being found, could this year be the first ? Also not seen today were Spotted Flycatcher, Mallard, Pheasant and Sparrowhawk, all regulars recently, no Geese were about today either, so the days tally could have easily been in the low fifties with a bit more luck! BLACKCAPS and CHIFFCHAFFS continue to sing though, and both the COMMON and LESSER WHITETHROAT were recorded, two TURTLE DOVES were seen, one at the Scrubby Woods, the other at the wooded Headland at Migrant Alley, where a few SWIFTS were high up feeding as well as 40+ SWALLOWS.

Most of the bird activity was seen over at the Scrubby Woods, as the fog had lifted by then, I found the mixed feeding flock again, which appears to be getting bigger,  family parties of NUTHATCH, GOLDREST, TREECREEPER, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, CHAFFINCH, BLUE TIT and GREAT TIT were seen, and with them, at last, I found a party of recently fledged LONG TAILED TITS, the 40th species to have successfully fledged young on my patch this year. As I was photographing the Long Tailed Tits, a HOBBY drifted past overhead, and a little later a BUZZARD was seen perched up in an Oak.

On the adjacent lakes, not a thing was on the water, but a KINGFISHER was heard then seen zipping across the water. Hopefully, I can get out this evening for a sky watch at Migrant Alley, i'll be looking out for a Cormorant or Mistle Thrush  ;-)

Photo's today...........

Yep, Another WREN photo, at least this ones a bit different  :-)

Long Tailed Tit

Small Copper - The first seen for weeks!

Large White

Common Darter