Pittswood Birds

I took a days holiday today, as I had to await a delivery that I didn't want to miss. My delivery arrived at 13:00hrs - my old pair of Nikon binoculars, fully reconditioned, very pleased, just like new again  :-)

Whilst waiting for the delivery I had plenty of time to watch the garden feeders, and despite some dense fog for most of the morning there was plenty to be seen, here's a list a what turned up, and a few record shots taken through the double glazing  :-)

Blue it, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Marsh Tit, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Starling, Blackbird, Collared Dove, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Magpie, Jackdaw, Jay, Wood Pigeon, Siskin and Nuthatch..........22 species in all, a very good tally for the 6 hours watching  :-)

Jay

Woodpigeon

Jackdaw

Starling

This afternoon I paid my usual visit to the lakes, the weather was absolutely stonking, wall to wall blue sky, warm sunshine and not a breath of wind :-)  This didn't entice many birds out though, they all seemed to be taking a break from feeding and enjoying the weather!

The KESTREL pair were hunting at the Tree Nursery, and a male SPARROWHAWK flew low past whilst I was there. A few SONGTHRUSHES flew up, as did a couple of GREEN WOODPECKERS but apart from those and the BLUE and GREAT TITS that were constantly calling, nothing out of the ordinary was noted.

Cutting through the Wet Woods, I heard more Blue and Great Tits calling, as did a TREECREEPER, a GOLDCREST was heard to sing,then a COAL TIT did likewise. Approaching the water I could here the CANADA GEESE, not as many as yesterday - just 3 pairs were seen, I scanned the tree overhang at the waters edge and counted 4 pairs of MALLARD, then noticed a pair of ducks out in the open, these turned out to be GADWALL (65), blimey, no Gadwall since March 2005, then I get two records for this year in consecutive months ! I'll not complain though, its a good February species to add, in fact no February has had Gadwall on the list, so it increments the 12 year combined February total by one more, taking it to 84, the same as January, but 4 behind March  :-) I checked the COOT pair, which were feeding on the water weed, and noted that there was an increase in MOORHEN, 4 pairs were found today.

I got some record shots of the Gadwall, the sun was right in my eyes and they remained distant, but these are the only images i've got of Gadwall on my patch, so they go into the archives, that makes 118 species out of the 139 recorded on my patch that I have mug shots for  :-)

Gadwall- Female

Gadwall - Male

Gadwall - Pair

I spent more time later this afternoon taking some proper garden bird photo's, and have enough images for a week of gloomy weather, i'll post them when I need some 'blog brighteners'!