Pittswood Birds

Still feeling a bit stunned by the destruction of one of the paddocks by Hadlow College, (over at Migrant Alley), to make room for a football pitch, I decided to have a break from my morning patch visit, instead making an afternoon foray out over to the Scrubby Woods and Lake area, via the Small Holding.

I left at around 13:00hrs, just as the sun was breaking through the stubborn cloud that had plagued the morning, that and the wind made it feel quite raw early in the day. As I crossed the Small Holding, I heard, then found, my first fledgling GREAT TITS of the year, these are much later than last the first sighting of this species for the last two years, in 2011 they were first seen on 19th May, last year it was the 24th May. Carrying on through the Wet Woods, another Great Tit family was seen high up in the canopy, and a family of GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS were calling loudly from their nest hole, it wont be long before they fledge.

Over at the Lakes, 17 CANADA GEESE were loafing around on the water, nothing else but the COOT family were seen there though. In the adjacent Scrubby Woods, I was back on the trail of the Hairy Dragonfly, and although I did unwittingly flush it up, it flew off strongly and I still didn't get my photo  :-(

I checked up on the JAY nest I found the other day, the adult was sitting tightly on the eggs, I then began searching for more recently fledged young, no new ones were found, but my second family of LONG TAILED TITS were located. I was also on the lookout for butterflies, but very few are around, just a few 'Whites' and Speckled Woods. Odonata species were more forthcoming, with the likes of White-legged, Large Red, Common Blue, and Azure damsels, as well as the first Beautiful demoiselle to be found in the scrubby woods this year, a freshly emerged Emperor Dragonfly was a nice find, even though it had a mal-formed hind wing on the left side and a broken hind wing on the right.

Emperor Dragonfly

Emperor Dragonfly, I spent 20minutes getting these shots, the wind was a real pain!!

Emperor Dragonfly, looks like it hasn't been emerged for long, a female I think ?

Immature White-legged Damselfly

Slightly more advanced White-legged Damselfly

This White-legged Damsel looks to be an almost mature male  :-)

 These were on the wing today in the Scrubby Woods, Cinnabar moth