Pittswood Birds

A short window of drier, but very windy conditions prevailed this morning, which allowed me to get round for a full patch walk. There was much excitement almost straight from the off, when the 13th species for the morning turned out to be a fantastic JACK SNIPE (108, 68) which I almost trod on as I waded my way across the Tree Nursery, this is only the second record of this species on my patch, I now need just one more new species for the year and I will have reached my 2012 target  :-)

The lakes had some interest today as well, 34 MALLARD were still dabbling about on the water, and yesterdays COOT also remained, two GREYLAG GEESE were the first seen on the water this month, and a KINGFISHER zipped low across a very choppy main lake. Whilst noting down the usual species that are to be found around the lakes and the adjacent scrubby Woods, I heard the calls of Geese coming nearer, these turned out to be 3 CANADA GEESE plus my old friend the feral BARNACLE GOOSE (69), well it turned up eventually to join the December list  :-)

Other lesser, but just as enjoyable highlights for the 3 hour walk, involved sightings from the KESTREL pair at the Greenhouse Grounds, a SPARROWHAWK hunting successfully at the College Grounds, and flyovers from a trio of CORMORANTS, plus a YELLOWHAMMER, a few SISKIN and three Gull species, those being LESSER BLACK BACKED, BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULL.

The winter thrushes seem to have moved on, the decent numbers of FIELDFARE on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley have dwindled to just 8, with no Redwings seen at all. Overall today, there were few birds to be found, but a good count of 44 species was recorded  :-)

Nothing for the Camera today, and the only photo left in my 'Blog Folder' is of the GREEN WOODPECKER, so at the risk of boring you i'll post it up anyway!

Green Woodpecker - again  !