Pittswood Birds

This winter has produced more than its fair share of gloomy, dank, and dismal days, and today must rank up there with the worst of them!

I did my usual walk over to the lakes this afternoon, under a leaden sky, a cool wind and spits of rain blowing in my face, it was so dull that I kept trying open my eyes wider to let me see better  :-) I passed through the Tree Nursery and the field of sheep pasture on the way to the lakes, where even the most common and regular species seemed to have called it a day and gone to roost early, only the hardened Scandinavian FIELDFARES were about, 28 of which were seen, plus 2 REDWING and a small flock of STARLINGS, probably migrant birds themselves.

I reached the lakes, and started to scan, and yet again found the GADWALL pair, the highlight of the day  :-)  plus 2 pairs of CANADA GEESE, 4 MOORHEN, and the COOT pair, a CORMORANT was in its favoured tree overlooking the largest of the lakes, but nothing new to add to this months record list was seen.

One species I'd love to find is the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, they used to breed on my patch, but the last pair did so 13 years ago, and only very sporadic records of single birds have been seen since, so I searched the most likely place, the place they last bred, and the last place that one was seen back in December2009, which was the Wet Woods. My search was of course fruitless, but I did come across a confiding quartet of GOLDCRESTS that were feeding with a TREECREEPER and a pair of BLUE TITS, plus a lone GREAT TIT. A couple of JAYS screeched, BLACKBIRDS, ROBINS, and DUNNOCKS fed in the waterlogged soil, 2 pairs of MALLARDS dabbled on the stagnant pools of water, and flyover GOLDFINCH and SISKIN were heard above the tree tops. By 15:00hrs I was out of the by now very dark woods, and heading home, feeling very cheated, there should have be at least 2 hours more usable daylight left on any normal day at this time of year!!

Nothing left to brighten the blog with from the ''Blog Photo Folder'' just have to hope for some better weather soon   :-)