Pittswood Birds

Fifty or so FIELDFARE resting up just before dawn

The weather was much better than it has been for weeks for this mornings patch visit, there was even a few glimpses of sunshine, that and the likes of MISTLETHRUSH, ROBIN and WREN all singing loudly, made it feel quite springlike  :-)

I had only been out a few minutes when two more MUTE SWANS flew over Ashes lane, that after me saying how scarce they are here! They however proved to be the highlight of the day as it was a fairly 'run of the mill' visit today, I cant complain though as i've had a bit of a purple patch recently.

The COOT has stayed around at the lakes, hopefully if there are no hard frosts to freeze the water, it may find a mate and breed next year, as they did last year for the first time here. Also on the water this morning were 32 MALLARD and two MOORHEN.

The Scrubby Woods and Wet Woods provided me with the likes of BULLFINCH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, GOLDCREST, LONG TAILED TIT, and NUTHATCH, as well as a flyover SKYLARK, not had many of them recently.

Three MEADOW PIPITS, 2 GREEN WOODPECKERS, and good numbers of BLACKBIRDS with a scattering of SONGTHERUSH and REDWING were found in the Tree Nursery, none of these were evident when I passed through earlier whilst taking the photo above. The KESTREL pair were hunting between the Tree Nursery and the Greenhouse Grounds, and while in the Greenhouse Copse a SPARROWHAWK flew through clutching its prey, a TREECREEPER and two more Goldcrest were also in the Copse.

The College Grounds was good for finding the more common birds, but the likes of Greenfinch, Pied wagtail, and Coal tit didn't show there today. I finished of the morning at the Alder Trees back in the Greenhouse Grounds, where a few SISKIN, GOLDFINCH and a single LESSER REDPOLL had dropped in, I also saw 4 female PHEASANTS here, they have been scarce this month.

Forty species were recorded this morning, on this my 120th full patch walk of the year, which give or take one or two is the number of full patch walks I try to do each year  :-)

I managed a few Siskin photo's today, and later this afternoon I got some slightly better Green Woodpecker photo's from my garden, as well as a couple of fun long Tailed Tit images, i'll post them when I have nothing else left!

Male Siskin

Siskin

Siskin

Siskin