Pittswood Birds

Well spring isn't getting any nearer, a biting NE wind was blowing this afternoon, so the chance of an early Migrant was again very unlikely on todays patch visit.

I went over to the Greenhouse grounds and the small copse associated with them, but it was deathly quiet, just a few BLUE and GREAT TITS calling, with the odd WREN, luckily the LITTLE OWL pair were at home in the copse, and gave me these snaps  :-)

Little Owl. For such a small Owl it really does have some formidable talons!

Little Owl -big talons!

Little Owl - big furry talons  :-)

After the Owl encounter I decided to get out of the wind and sit behind a line of shrubs over at the Tree Nursery. I stayed for 40 minutes, seeing a few bits and pieces, flyovers from the following were seen ;  4 MEADOW PIPITS, a few local GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, and CHAFFINCH, two COLLARED DOVES, a flock of 16 STARLINGS, 1 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, 4 HERRING GULLS, 13 BLACK HEADED GULLS, 1 CORMORANT, 1 SPARROWHAWK and 1 KESTREL.

A pair of MALLARDS alighted on a large puddle 50m or so from my position, and my view across the sheep pasture in the adjacent field had me watching 141 WOOD PIGEON, 3 STOCK DOVES, 4 MAGPIES, 19 FIELDFARE, and a single REDWING. SONGTHRUSH, GREEN WOODPECKER, DUNNOCK, ROBIN and more WRENS were heard in the surrounding shrubs and vegetation, and another Little Owl called from its hiding place in a large garden on the other side of the sheep pasture. I soon felt the chill of the afternoon though, and called it a day, another all too brief visit, but little else would have be found. The weekend looks like a real taste of winter returning again, temperatures of 2 or 3 degrees Centigrade and a biting easterly wind - oh, and rain of course! Looks like another poor one!