Pittswood Birds

With no work to go to for the rest of the week, this morning I decided to do the first of my BTO winter thrush surveys, as todays weather was forecast to be dry until dusk, needless to say, it rained almost constantly throughout the 90 minute survey! I surveyed the Tree Nursery, Pub Field, Migrant Alley and the Greenhouse Grounds, coming up with mostly BLACKBIRDS, but 3 SONGTHRUSH, 2 REDWING,  and 5 flyover FIELDFARE were also recorded, most of the birds seen were feeding on Hawthorn berries.

Whilst looking for the thrushes a small mixed flock of LESSER REDPOLL and SISKIN were found at the Greenhouse Grounds, nice to get some Redpoll down on the patch for once rather than just flying over   :-)

From late morning onwards I spent a few hours visiting the wildlife reserve at Sevenoaks with an old birding mate, just for a bit of a variety in my birding world  :-)  Here I could see the much sought after species of Duck that would be mega birds on my patch, like GADWALL, WIGEON, SHOVELER, TUFTED DUCK and TEAL. Most of the passerine species seen could of been sighted on my patch, but the likes of MUTE SWAN, COMMON SNIPE, EGYPTIAN GOOSE, LITTLE EGRET, RING NECKED PARAKEET and COOT are all scarce or very scarce on my patch  :-)

The 51 species recorded was a fair reward for the just over three hours visit, but the likes of Dunnock, Coal Tit, Greenfinch, Songthrush, Mistle Thrush, Green Woodpecker and Fieldfare were surprising omissions.

Back on patch tomorrow ( weather permitting!)
Photo's today come from my garden again, taken over the last few days  :-)

GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

Bank Vole

Wood Mouse

BLUE TIT