Pittswood Birds

Lovely bright sunshine greeted me this morning and with a light NW wind it felt very pleasant indeed.

The pleasant weather didn't seem to bring out many birds though, and many remained hard to find, such as the Songthrush, which eluded me all day. The warblers were even more scarce than yesterday, with just 2 WHITETHROAT found at the Greenhouse Grounds.

Migrant Alley had the big STARLING flock feeding on it again, along with all the corvids, I scanned for Wheatear or Whinchat but only found these LINNET.

Linnet

Linnet

All the while I was at the Greenhouse Grounds and Migrant Alley I was hearing the calls or YELLOW WAGTAILS going over, I only picked up four birds against the blue sky, but many more went through. More obvious were the GREYLAG and CANADA GEESE going over in varying sized skeins, the BARNACLE GOOSE being with one of the Canada Goose skeins again.

I didn't spend too much time at the Scrubby woods and Lake area, as little can be expected to be added to the months list here, however, i did see a couple of BLACKCAPS and CHIFFCHAFFS, and heard the likes of TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, NUTHATCH and COAL TIT all calling. I checked the lakes, little on them this morning but MOORHENS, 4 MALLARD and a few Canada Geese.

I decided to make my way over to the Greenhouse Grounds and Migrant alley again, as this is where I am most likely to get a new species for the months list, or maybe even the year list. It proved a good move as I saw two WHINCHAT had arrived whilst I had been away at the Scrubby Woods, one Whinchat is fantastic here, but 2 is just brilliant!

They allowed no sort of approach, so I got what I could photo wise - don't laugh!

Two very distant Whinchat  :-)

I had a bit of a sky watch, as I usually do, and as i watched the HOUSE MARTINS and SWALLOWS whizzing about, a MISTLE THRUSH flew past, just the second this month. KESTREL, SPARROWHAWK and BUZZARD were all up hunting, and both LESSER BLACK BACKED and HERRING GULL went over.

Later in the afternoon I was back out at Migrant Alley, hoping to re find the Whinchat and maybe get a photo, but I could find them, however, whilst sitting on my seat I noticed much 'flitting' going on in the adjacent hedgerow bordering the Greenhouses, I checked it out, and found 2 Chifchaff, which gave me some good photo chances ( got some for later posts) but as I took the photo's I was very surprised to see a REED WARBLER (71) join them! Another excellent patch bird, I dont see them every Autumn  :-)

So I got my new species for the month after all, Migrant Alley is turning up a few Migrants now  :-)

Reed Warbler. I took over 60 photo's of this scarce patch bird

Not all were of much quality, as it kept flitting about, making focusing difficult

I quite a few acceptable shots though

Reed Warbler - I've got enough shots to put on later posts !