Pittswood Birds

A day of two halves today, this morning was wet and grey, but this afternoon was sunny and very warm.

I spent the morning doing some catch up chores around the house, as it was wet out, but I also managed to do some garden watching. I was hoping for a newly fledged Dunnock to appear under the feeders, they are well overdue for the patch breeding list this year, but none turned up, I did however get a nice surprise when a pair of BULLFINCH dropped in to feed on the weedy part of my garden, giving me some dark and distant photo's  :-)

There were plenty of BLUE and GREAT TIT fledgelings coming to the feeders, as well as GREENFINCH and GOLDFINCH youngsters, even a couple of HOUSE SPARROWS turned up! The sighting of my first NUTHATCH in the garden since April shows how the year is pushing on, they always turn up here mid to late June after breeding, all I have to do is find their young now  :-) Last but not least, it was pleasing to see the GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER bringing in its young to the nut feeder, but it is far too dark to photograph them as the feeder is tucked up under my Elder tree, i'll have to set something else up to tempt them.

Here's some finch photo's to Kick off

Immature Greenfinch

Immature Greenfinch

Immature Goldfinch

Female Goldfinch

Male Goldfinch

Male Greenfinch

Male Bullfinch

Male Bullfinch

Female Bullfinch

In the afternoon heat, little could be expected concerning birdlife, so I concentrated on trying to find a few Butterflies and Damselflies, mainly around the Greenhouse Grounds and Wooded headland at Migrant Alley, at the latter place, I noted 5 BLACK HEADED GULLS, 2 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS and 6 HERRING GULLS on the ripped up paddock, a short skywatch provided me with great views of a HOBBY chasing a dozen or so SWALLOWS, then them chasing it! Also one of the KESTREL pair was seen, as well as my first BUZZARD since the 6th.

Butterflies were few and far between, just one Common Blue, one Small Tortoiseshell, one Red Admiral, 6 Speckled Wood and a few Large and Small Whites were found. As for the Dragons and Damsels, there were plenty of White-legged, Azure, Large Red, and Common Blue Damsels, as well as at least 3 Beautiful Demoisells, and my first Black Tailed Skimmer for the year.

Here's the Odonata images for the afternoon, I used my 70-300mm IS lens plus a 36 mm extension tube, instead of the borrowed 100mm IS macro lens, to see the comparison. I think there is nothing to choose between the two set ups! ( see Modays post for images using the Canon Macro lens)

Common Blue Butterfly

Common Blue Butterfly

Speckled Wood Buttefly

Common Blue Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly

White-legged Damselfly

I'll post the rest of the Butterfly photo's in future posts  :-)