Pittswood Birds

Patchy cloud and sunny intervals followed an early frost this morning, but any warmth from the sun was attenuated by a cool northerly breeze.

I carried out a 6 hour full patch walk, in which exactly 50 species were recorded, but I failed to find a Mallard! A SISKIN at my garden feeding station, seen after my walk, made 51 for the day, a good day total, giving me hope for my ''60 in a day'' challenge on May 1st  :-)

Despite the good species tally there are not large numbers of birds about and birdsong is much curtailed, however there was some singing from the summer birds of CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP, WHITETHROAT and the SWALLOWS overhead.

The most exciting find today was my first YELLOW WAGTAIL (90,75) of the year that flew over and alighted briefly on one of the paddocks at Migrant Alley, a day later than last years first sighting, and also just a day later that the 12 year median first sighting date.

All three of the regular raptor species turned out this morning, the KESTREL pair, a SPARROWHAWK and 3 soaring BUZZARDS, while flyovers from HERRING GULL, LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, GREY HERON and surprisingly a LESSER REDPOLL ( my latest record ) all played their part in the rewarding day list.

The GREYLAG and possibly the CANADA GOOSE are still on nests over at the lakes, and the COOTS have 3 young still. More scarcer species for my patch recorded today were; BULLFINCH, SKYLARK, NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, and COAL TIT.

Photo opportunities were few, but I got a couple to brighten the page

Herring Gull

Herring Gull

Whitethroat - with the obligatory piece of vegetation in the way!