Pittswood Birds

Greenhouse Grounds, looking from sheep pasture

I did a full patch walk this morning in some pleasant Autumn sunshine and with a NE breeze blowing I was hoping for a migrant species to pass through.

Alas, I didn't manage to find any passage species, in fact birdlife was very scarce around the place. In the five hours I was out, I recorded a mediocre 40 species, 15 of which were just singles, and a further 10 were only seen in two's and three's, the likes of Greenfinch and Songthrush were not recorded at all, very unusual.

The summer birds have nearly all gone now, just 4 CHIFFCHAFF were noted, 2 in the Greenhouse Grounds, where a BUZZARD had joined the KESTREL on one of the roofs, another Chiffchaff was seen at the Scrubby woods and also 1 along Ashes lane, 3 SWALLOWS that flew over Migrant Alley were the only other summer birds.

It was a very Autumnal sound hearing SKYLARKS and MEADOW PIPIT flying over Migrant Alley, where I also noted a CORMORANT flying over, as well as the only HERRING GULL of the morning, plus a GREY HERON, I flushed a sneaky SPARROWHAWK from one of the battered hedges as I walked past. Another Grey Heron (or maybe the same one) was seen on the small lake sitting with a MALLARD, but the Main Lake was devoid of water fowl and the Ornamental lake only had a few MOORHENS on it - all pretty normal fare  :-)

Grey Heron and Mallard on the Small Lake

The adjacent scrubby Woods was very quiet, as were the Wet Woods, but BULLFINCH, COAL TIT, NUTHATCH and JAY were seen. It was a bit livelier at the Small holding, where GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS were found, plus TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, and another Nuthatch, as well as the familiar and common BLUE TITS, GREAT TITS, WRENS, ROBINS, DUNNOCKS, and CHAFFINCHES.

I was hoping to find that Yellowhammer for the months list as I walked High house Lane and the arable fields, as this is the most likely place to find one, but to no avail, although one was reported to me only a short distance from there ( thanks CM) I did hear a MISTLETHRUSH singing along the lane though, with a further two flying from a tall Poplar Tree, a LITTLE OWL was seen on a fence pole and 4 PHEASANTS were the only additions to the list from this part of my patch.

On arriving home after my walk, I made my way into my back garden, flushing all the birds from the feeders as usual, but one bird remained, that, I am very pleased to say, was a TREECREEPER, it was on the trunk of my established Elder Tree, a very nice woodland bird to have visit my small garden   ;-)  Its just the 4th record in the 14 years i've lived here, and is the 39th species to enter my garden this year. The last 3 years has seen 36 species use my garden in each year, this was the highest tally, and the number of visiting species had seem to plateau off, but this year has way surpassed those years, I wonder if 40 species for the year can be reached ?

Treecreeper in my Garden, no time for a decent shot, unfortunately

THIS MAY BE MY LAST POST UNTIL MONDAY, I'M OFF VISITING OTHER SITES THIS WEEKEND