Pittswood Birds

I was out from 06:00hrs until 11:30hrs this morning, doing the rounds on my patch, on a day in which the weather got warmer and sunnier as the day went on  :-)

The hunt for summer migrant species was again high on my agenda, and although no new species had arrived overnight, the WHITETHROAT along Ashes Lane has been joined by a further two, which were chasing about the Greenhouse Grounds. The only other arrivals concerned two WILLOW WARBLERS seen at the run off pool at the bottom of the Tree Nursery Field, no doubt they will be gone tomorrow, but at least I enjoyed stereo Willow warbler song for a while!

I did at least add one more species to the April list when a LESSER REDPOLL (74) flew over the Wooded Headland at Migrant Alley, a bit of a surprise as this species is normally a winter visitor and long gone by now, todays record is my latest by 4 days. The months list is now on 74, just 3 behind the record April of 2011, and is the 3rd best April tally out of twelve  :-)

Everything else here is much the same, although a look over at the lakes did confirm that there are 3 COOT chicks still alive and thriving, not just one as I feared yesterday, the GREYLAG GOOSE is still incubating on an island, and i'm sure there is a CANADA GOOSE also incubating just 10 feet away from it, but it is obscured from my view.

The only other noteworthy event of the day was watching 4 male BLACKCAPS in the Scrubby Woods, they were all singing from practically the same branch, trying to impress a nearby female, the mass choir of Blackcaps certainly impressed me!

I was luckier with the camera today and got the following shots  :-)

Displaying STARLING

Starling

One of the newly arrived Whitethroats at the Greenhouse Grounds

Whitethroat

One of the Willow Warblers at the run off pool

Willow Warbler