Pittswood Birds

I was out at first light this morning, hoping that the north wind had brought in a different bird species for the months list, to tell the truth the wind was more west than north, but it still had a chill to it!

There was virtually nothing to see as I walked the Greenhouse Grounds and Migrant Alley to get to the College Grounds, I was out to early even for the birds  :-) As it got lighter, and a touch warmer, the birds slowly came out, but far from birds arriving, there seemed to have been a mass exodus of summer species, just four CHIFFCHAFF were seen with the LONG TAILED TIT flock in the College Gardens, and two SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS fed at the top of a tall lime tree, no other warblers were noted here.

I made my way back over to Migrant Alley, where a passage bird had arrived, a WHEATEAR, it saw me and immediately flew off towards the Greenhouses - never to be seen again! Whilst at The Greenhouses more evidence of birds having moved on was that just one WHITEHROAT and one BLACKCAP was seen, plus another single Chiffchaff. The raspberry dump had 5 WRENS, a BLACKBIRD, a SONGTHRUSH, 3 DUNNOCKS and a BLUE TIT feeding on it today.

Raspberry dump dwelling Dunnock

Blue Tit waiting to drop down on the Raspberries

I hung around the paddocks and pasture of Migrant Alley for another 3 hours, watching and waiting, but didn't see too much in the way of migration, just one SAND MARTIN and a YELLOW WAGTAIL flew over, a HOBBY was also seen, probably a passage bird. Whilst watching the sky SPARROWHAWK and KESTREL were also noted, later this afternoon the raptor species count went up to five, when one of the local PEREGRINES flew over, and two BUZZARDS were seen soaring over the Greenhouses.

By mid morning I was picked up for a visit to Oare marshes, ( A rare off patch adventure!) which enabled me to get my ear in for some wader calls, as well practice some long range photography  :-) see below for my efforts :-)

Lapwing

Little Egret

So August ends on a bit of a mixed note, it ended with a species list of 72, which is the third highest for the 11 years, and 5 above the 11 year mean average August total, but 1 below the mean average August total for the last five years.

Two species occurred this month that have not been recorded in August before, the Common Gull, and of course the patch tick Yellow Legged Gull, these take the 11 year combined August species total to 91.