Pittswood Birds

Sunrise

A hard frost had developed overnight, but that left the day crisp, bright and sunny, a classic winters day   :-)

Despite that sunshine it felt quite chilly, and birds were hard to find this morning, with a low total of only 39 species being found, of those, 4 species were new for the month, the first being a flyover LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL (44) the second was a bit more exciting, as 6 LAPWING (45) sat in the field of sheep pasture between the Wet Woods and the Tree Nursery, with them were at least 30 BLACK HEADED GULLS. The third species added to the December list was a SPARROWHAWK (46) that was hunting over the Greenhouse Grounds, a flock of 9 MISTLE THRUSH (47) that flew over the College Grounds was the last species added to Decembers list this morning.

Not an awful lot stood out apart from that, the KESTREL pair were hunting in their usual haunts, that being the Tree Nursery and Greenhouse Grounds, the latter had the small mixed flock of GOLDFINCH, SISKIN and LESSER REDPOLL again feeding in the Alders there. A CORMORANT circled the frozen Lakes, and the odd SKYLARK flew over, but that was about it for this morning.

Once again I tried my luck with the camera, the Siskin and Lesser Redpoll being the only birds to give me a photographic chance early on.

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

Siskin

Kestrel