Pittswood Birds

My last patch visit for September was a full patch walk, with an additional afternoon visit thrown in, making 7 hours spent out in the field, which in some warm and sunny weather was rather pleasant  :-)

43 species were recorded for the full patch walk, with a further 4 added in the afternoon visit, those were all flyovers -  a lone CORMORANT, 3 GOLDFINCH (yes it took that long to find some!) a BLACK HEADED GULL and small groups of HOUSE MARTINS, which passed over with a few SWALLOWS among them.

My main target species this morning was the Yellowhammer, i've never failed to get this species on the months list for the past 140 months, but it has now happened, no Yellowhammers were recorded this September, such a sad state of affairs for this once reasonably common species here, but it's a reflection of the poor state of the habitat at Pittswood nowadays  :-(

I was also o the Lookout for the last few summer species, CHIFFCHAFF were found, three singles were noted, one of those in song at the Greenhouse Grounds, but apart from the already mentioned Swallows and House Martins, that was it.

MEADOW PIPITS and SKYLARKS flew over, some alighting for short periods in the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, the Autumnal theme continued when 2 SISKIN were seen over at the Scrubby Woods, the BULLFINCH, GOLDCREST, COAL TIT, NUTHATCH, and TREECREEPER were also seen here, where quite few BLACKBIRDS, 3 MISTLETHRUSH, and a couple of SONGTHRUSH made themselves more noticeable than on recent visits.

Other highlights for the visit today were a GREY WAGTAIL, which was seen early at the Greenhouse Grounds water intake, a LITTLE OWL seen on a fence line off High House Lane and the three raptor species of KESTREL, SPARROWHAWK and BUZZARD, 3 of the latter were up soaring on the afternoon thermals  :-)

The months species total ended on 73, the second best September tally, the same tally as 2010, 2011, and 2012, the mean average species count for the previous five years is 74, with the best September count being 78 which was recorded in 2009.  Two species were recorded this September which have not been recorded in any other, the Tufted Duck and the Hen Harrier, they bring the 12 year combined September list to 94, this is the third best combined monthly tally, behind April and October, which have 107 and 95 respectively.

The year list was incremented by two species this month, those being the Tufted Duck and the Sedge Warbler, and now stands at 105, still four behind my target this year of 109, which is the average yearly species total for the previous five years, maybe i'll get lucky with a few duck species on the lakes this winter  :-)

The only photo's ive got for today are from my garden, taken last Friday.

Nuthatch

Nuthatch,I like the way the orange underparts of this bird blend with the wood

Nuthatch