Pittswood Birds

This afternoon the weak watery sunshine of early Winter was a real treat, despite the chill of the day  :-)

I spent 2 hours out, squeezing the last minutes of November daylight in, trying to add a different species to the months list, but it wasn't to be, in fact for such a bright calm day there was not much bird activity really. In the Wet Woods a party of LONG TAILED TITS, about twelve birds in all, were joined by two GOLDCREST, a COAL TIT and two GREAT TIT, a rather small feeding flock, but this may well reflect on the poor breeding season had here by the Tit species this year, either that or they were all back at my garden feeders  :-)

On the Lakes it all looked good for a surprise Duck species to be present, maybe a Teal, Tufted Duck or Goosander, but no, not today ( as is usually the case!) only 3 MALLARD and 7 MOORHEN were present. In the adjacent Scrubby Woods, once again the sound of calling BULLFINCH was heard, as was the high pitch call of both TREECREEPER and at least two more Goldcrest.

I spent some time around the Tree Nursery, walking through the waist high vegetation, much attention was paid so as not to stumble into the pits left by the removed saplings, which are now filled with water, however my bravery was not rewarded by that wanted Snipe  :-(  I did find at least a dozen SONGTHRUSH though, plus two GREEN WOODPECKERS, two MEADOW PIPIT, loads of BLACKBIRDS, at least 8 DUNNOCKS and three WRENS. A small flock of six REDWING flew over whilst I was there, and the KESTREL pair were both up hunting.

I finished off at the Greenhouse Grounds, where today the Alder Trees were empty, the Lesser Redpolls and Siskin had moved on for the time being, but they could always return I suppose. Four GOLDFINCH did remain however, with another load of Dunnock, there were a minimum of 8 birds feeding amongst the old Raspberry canes, along with more Blackbirds and Wrens. As I left, a SPARROWHAWK flew low past carrying its prey.

So I didn't add any more species to the months list, it ended on 64, the third best November total out of eleven, which wasn't a bad effort considering the poor weather experienced, indeed 3 of the full patch walks this month were abandoned half way round!

The November mean average species tally was at least passed, that is on 60 for the eleven years, and the appearance of the very late Swallow was a first for any November, bringing the combined November total to 86 species  :-)

I'm looking forward to a new month, and getting a full patch walk in early tomorrow :-)

Photo's today are of the familiar species to be found around my patch........

Dunnock

Wren

Blackbird