Pittswood Birds

The low cloud and gloomy conditions were back with us today, plus it was cooler in the wind, and spits of rain made it feel more autumnal than recent days.

I spent 2 hours out this afternoon, walking the Small Holding,Wet Woods, Tree Nursery and Greenhouse Grounds, finding fewer species than the past few visits, the flyover Redpoll, Siskin, Skylark and Redwing that had been recorded then, had come to an end, but two SISKIN were seen in the conifer trees on the Lakeside edge. On the lakes there was an increase to 6 MALLARDS, with those was the COOT ( It must have been hiding yesterday!) the only other lake dwellers today were the MOORHENS.

The Adjacent Scrubby Woods had calling COAL TIT and BULLFINCH of note, those and the 2 TREECREEPER seen at the Small Holding earlier were about the highlights for this part of my patch.

I was hoping that yesterdays Black Redstart was still skulking around the Greenhouse Grounds, so made my way over to check, on the way, passing through the Tree Nursery, 2 MEADOW PIPITS flew from the tall vegetation, as did 2 GREEN WOODPECKERS, also 3 JAYS flew over, and as I watched them go past I heard the long awaited call that means Autumn is truly here, a flock of 15 FIELDFARES (71) flew low over heading south, strangely one broke off and headed back north again  :-) The Fieldfare this year are a bit late, the median average arrival date for the eleven years is the 18th October, todays arrival is the third latest, behind 2005 (Oct 26th) and 2006 ( Nov 2nd) the earliest arrival date for fieldfare was last years, on October 7th.

After that cheering sighting I gave the Greenhouse Grounds a good look through, but alas yesterdays Black Redstart seems to have moved on, and I was left with the regular species of WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, PIED WAGTAIL, BLACKBIRD,and SONGTHRUSH, a small flock of GOLDFINCH, and a few BLUE and GREAT TITS made up the afternoons sightings.