Pittswood Birds

Some lovely birding weather at last for this mornings full patch walk, sunny and warm with a cooling breeze - perfect!

The early part of the walk was the most productive, as is usually the case, with plenty of activity at the Greenhouse Grounds from the BLACKCAPS, WHITETHROATS, and CHIFFCHAFFS, with them were the regular mix of WREN, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, PIED WAGTAIL, BLACKBIRD, SONGTHRUSH, CHAFFINCH, GOLDFINCH, and LINNET.

The WHEATEAR was again seen at Migrant Alley, where flyovers from the likes of CANADA GOOSE, LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, HERRING GULL and an early HOBBY were all noted. The LITTLE OWL called from the boundary hedgerow and small parties of STARLINGS started to arrive on the pasture to join the already present ROOKS and WOODPIGEONS.

Next stop was the College Grounds, where again activity was high, noted birds here included a GARDEN WARBLER, a WILLOW WARBLER and my first GREY WAGTAIL (58) of the month, TREECREEPER, COAL TIT, BULLFINCH, SPOTTED FLYCATCHER, plus both GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER were also seen. I cut back through Migrant Alley, where another Willow Warbler was seen at the wooded headland, and the first of 3 BUZZARDS seen today was watched as it flew low over.

Walking the Wheat crop at the Pub Field, the YELLOWHAMMER was heard singing, but nothing much else of note here. Having amassed 47 species before the second part of my walk was quite something, but that left little to be found as I walked the Small Holding, Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods with the adjacent lakes, but it was still disappointing to only add three more species for the day, those being STOCK DOVE, MALLARD and NUTHATCH. The summery sound of a singing Willow Warbler from the edge of the main lake was however an antidote for the disappointment. If I could have found a mixed feeding flock maybe I could have expected a bonus species, or even my first Long Tailed Tit of the month!  :-)

One of the young Whitethroats seen early on in the Greenhouse Grounds

There were in fact 4 in this very Autumnal looking Hawthorn bush

This is the Wheatear at Migrant Alley, this photo and the one below were taken last evening

Wheatear

Red Admiral.It was warm enough at 07:00hrs for this one to be out and about