Pittswood Birds

Back to work today, so no morning patch walk, except to get to work of course  :-)  I checked the Raspberry dump at the Greenhouse Grounds on the way past, and found the REED WARBLER feeding there again, a quick scan up the boundary fence line that borders Migrant Alley was made, and I was pleased to see a WHEATEAR, which almost immediately flew off over the Greenhouse Complex.

The only other notable on the way in to work was finding the first SPOTTED FLYCATCHER (54)  of the month at the College Grounds - so they haven't quite gone yet!

This afternoon it was very warm in the sunshine, but I made the effort to walk the Tree Nursery, Pub Field and a couple of circuits of Migrant Alley, but it was one of those quite, still days, the only birds about were the SPARROWHAWK and a pair of  KESTRELS, three single BUZZARDS were also seen, but they could have involved the same bird. HERRING GULLS passed over in groups of up to 20, and mixed flocks of HOUSE MARTINS and SWALLOWS moved through, stopping only briefly to feed.

The Greenhouse Grounds was the most active place, with a BLACKCAP, a WHITETHROAT, and three to four CHIFFCHAFFS being seen, the summer birds are getting more difficult to find day by day now, soon all that will be left are the Chiffchaffs, then they will eventually leave to.

Below are the median average leaving dates for the regularly seen species on my patch, i've excluded Chiffchaff and Blackcap, as some have overwintered before:- the figure in brackets is the latest date that each species has occurred.

Hobby - 28th September (7th oct)
Turtle Dove -  26th August (14th Sept)
Cuckoo - 25 June (5th Aug)
Swift - 28 August (2nd Oct)
Sand Martin -  17th September (3rd Oct)
Swallow -  7th October (20th Oct)
House Martin - 7th October (22nd Oct)
Yellow wagtail - 28th September (19th Oct)
Whinchat - 19th september (10th Oct)
Wheatear - 2nd October (23rd Oct)
Sedge warbler - 16th September (26th Sept)
Reed warbler -  3rd September (22nd Sept)
Lesser Whitethroat - 9th September 21 Sept)
Whitethroat - 10th September (21st Sept)
Garden warbler - 19th August (28th Aug) - never seen a September Garden warbler!
Willow Warbler - 25 August (21st Sept)
Spotted Flycatcher -  30 August (11th Sept)

I didn't even get to point the camera today, so here's a few photo's from yesterday  :-)

Whitethroat

Chiffchaff

Chiffchaff