Pittswood Birds

It was briefly sunny this morning, before turning overcast and dull, then later sunny spells developed again.

Numbers of birds are still quite low out there, especially first thing, but species wise things have picked up markedly since the weekend. 47 species were found on my five hour patch visit, 5 of those were Raptors, (six if you count the LITTLE OWL I saw in the Small Holding) with KESTREL, SPARROWHAWK,  3 BUZZARD, HOBBY and both the local PEREGRINES all seen up hunting, great to see them all  :-) A couple of Gull species were also seen flying over, HERRING and LESSER BLACK BACKED, plus skeins of GREYLAG GOOSE, and CANADA GOOSE were seen, a YELLOWHAMMER and a GREY HERON also went over, helping the daylist along.

The Greenhouse Grounds were livelier than of late, with at least 18 GOLDFINCH feeding on the thistle heads, 5 WHITETHROAT were also seen, probably the locally raised birds, and a couple of BLACKCAPS plus 1 CHIFFCHAFF were also present.

It was a pleasure to witness 2 KINGFISHERS chasing about on the Ornamental Lake, where a few MOORHEN and a MALLARD were also seen, but the main lake and small top lake were devoid of any bird life. The Adjacent Scrubby Woods was given a good searching, but I still didn't find a Long Tailed Tit or Mistle Thrush for the month. There were a few Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs about though, plus a BULLFINCH family, and most of the regulars turned out, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH and COAL TIT of note, but no Goldcrest today.

SONGTHRUSH

This afternoon I headed back over to Migrant alley, like yesterday I was hoping for a Wheatear on the paddocks, but none showed up, will I find one this Autumn ? However, I did manage to find a WHINCHAT, the second this month  :-)  What a great little bird, just a pity I couldn't get near it with my camera!  I also added SKYLARK to take the days list to 49, when one flew out of the sheep pasture.

The above Songthrush was the only photo I took today, so i'll post up a couple of yesterdays Butterfly images  :-)

Painted lady

Painted lady

Common Blue

Common Blue

Clouded Yellow