Pittswood Birds

Grey skies and a chill in the air greeted me this morning, and although it tried to brighten up briefly just before noon, it soon clouded over with a gusty wind developing, bringing in rain for the afternoon.

There were not many birds about at all this morning, although there was quite a bit of disturbance around, so that doesn't help I suppose. I still recorded some interesting patch birds though, best of those being a WHEATEAR at Migrant Alley, one of very few to turn up this September.

At the Greenhouse Grounds, the not well manicured grounds make an excellent habitat for the birdlife, and it showed today, with GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BULLFINCH, BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, CHIFFCHAFF and BLACKCAP all feasting on the plentiful Elder berries, blackberries and Hawthorne berries there. Four PIED WAGTAILS mobbed a female KESTREL that was feeding on a dead rabbit, and the LITTLE OWL called loudly from the adjoining private garden. Overhead, small parties of HOUSE MARTIN and SWALLOW zipped around, with the occasional MEADOW PIPIT.

Meadow Pipits were the main attraction over on the Ashes Lane field, with a minimum of 60 seen there, they obviously enjoy the weedy part of the field, but alas, I saw it was being mowed later in the day, good old land owners, they really know how to manage the land for the wildlife - Not!

Some time was spent around the lakes and Scrubby Woods, the main Lake had a few MALLARD and a GREY HERON, the ornamental lake was disturbed, as is usually the case, and only the MOORHENS put up with the continual efforts of the owners to make it look like the picture on a chocolate box! The smaller lake had a few more Moorhen and couple more Mallard, it's not often much gets on this lake.

In the adjacent Scrubby Woods, which is owned by completely different minded people who leave the place to the wildlife, there is much more to be seen, as at the Greenhouse Grounds, the berries were attracting all four finch species, one Bullfinch in particular caught my eye, with its pinky red chest feathers partially coming through. Great Tit, Blue Tit and COAL TIT were feeding mostly on Elder berries, with them were another 3 Blackcaps, and at least 3 Chiffchaff. A NUTHATCH called, as did both a GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKER, and I could just about pick up the calls of GOLDCREST and TREECREEPER deep in the tangle of vegetation - a proper wood !

Walking back over to Migrant Alley for my daily skywatch, four GREYLAG GEESE flew over, they have become much scarcer than they were a few weeks ago. My skywatch was very dull though, the highlight was a passing MISTLE THRUSH, other than that just BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULLS were seen, along with more House Martin, Swallow and Meadow Pipits.

No photo's from this morning, as there was very poor light, but ive got a few I took from my garden last week to brighten the page.  Tomorrow I'm off out to Dungeness for the day, if i'm back in time i'll post a report about the visit there.   ;-)

Greenfinch

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Collared Dove