Pittswood Birds

I was back at work this morning and feeling a bit better than I did at the weekend, so after work this afternoon I was back out on my patch  :-)

Knowing that after another hard frost last night the lakes would still be frozen over, I decided to walk the Tree Nursery, Pub Field and Greenhouse Grounds, as well as putting in a bit of sky watching. I could hear a large vehicle with it's associated loud reversing ''beebs'' over at the Greenhouse Grounds, so decided to visit there last in the hope that it would soon be finished. On entering the Tree Nursery I was confronted with a snowy landscape, and although it was thawing slowly, there was still a good snow covering there, the first birds I saw were the KESTREL pair, they were working the area intensely in the hope of finding some food to keep them going over this cold period. Two GREEN WOODPECKERS flew up, as did a number of BLACKBIRDS, SONGTHRUSHES plus a couple of DUNNOCKS, then, as I crashed through a large ice filled ditch, (for the tenth time! ) A whir of wings went up right in front of my face, it was another JACK SNIPE (64),  maybe it was the same one I saw here last December, either way it's a cracking find, just the third record for my patch - brilliant!  :-)  I watched it fly off and drop down about 40 meters away, but didn't go and flush it again.

I continued my exploits through the Tree Nursery, carefully negotiating the water and ice filled pot holes and tractor ruts, but didn't find the hoped for Common Snipe or Woodcock, but that was being a bit greedy perhaps, however, another new species for the year was forthcoming when a superb cock REED BUNTING (65) dropped in and called loudly from one of the small saplings, a scarce bird here  :-)

After that initial excitement things calmed down a bit, a scan over the adjacent Pub Field proved fruitless, except for a few BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULLS quartering the half thawed filed, the call of LONG TAILED TITS came from the hedgerow that divides the Pub Field and Tree Nursery, they then appeared, and I counted 8 of them, along with 3 BLUE TITS and 2 GREAT TITS.

I left soon after and went to the Greenhouse Grounds, where the I found that the large pile of old soil that had gathered from a few years of emptied raspberry pots, had been leveled out ready for the next lot to be dumped, all that disturbance meant little was seen, but on the very wet and torn up soil a pair of MEADOW PIPITS had already found easy pickings, along with a ROBIN and a few Dunnocks, it looks ideal for a wader to drop in here now, - we shall see!

Photo's today come from yesterdays garden photo session  :-)

Starling

Starling

Songthrush

Songthrush

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Spotted Woodpecker