Pittswood Birds

Sparkling spider webs, a sure sign of Autumn

There was some bright sunshine for a few hours this morning after the initial fog had cleared, but rain moved in for the afternoon with a strengthening SW wind.

The sunshine made a nice change for todays full patch walk, which lasted for 4 hours, 45 species were recorded, a little lower than yesterdays walk, with fewer migrants moving through and  the likes of Long tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Linnet, Goldcrest, and the yet to be seen this month Yellowhammer and Skylark all missing.

There are still a few summer birds moving around on my patch, CHIFFCHAFF were found in the Greenhouse grounds and the Greenhouse Copse, as well as in the Scrubby Woods and a few of the larger gardens, some of them had re-found the songs, which was a pleasure to hear  :-) BLACKCAPS also gave a bit of sub-song, one was at the Greenhouse Grounds, and at least four were at the Scrubby Woods, the only other warbler species seen today was a COMMON WHITETHROAT, that was in the Greenhouse Copse.

Four YELLOW WAGTAILS flew from the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, where it was good to find a WHEATEAR sitting on the fenceline, it didn't allow approach for a photo though! At least 70 SWALLOWS were feeding low around the sheep, picking off the disturbed Craneflies, and a few HOUSE MARTINS joined them briefly, before carrying on the southerly movement. MEADOW PIPITS were scattered about the paddocks and sheep pasture as well, with at least a dozen being found.

Smashed and flailed hedgerows, another sure, but less desirable sign of Autumn  :-(

On the way to the Scrubby Woods and lake area, I heard a LITTLE OWL calling from the Small Holding, but arriving at the lakes there was none of yesterdays excitement, the Tufted Ducks had moved on, and just the MALLARDS and a few MOORHEN remained. The adjacent Scrubby Woods had the regular NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, BULLFINCH, JAY, GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKER, as well as the already mentioned Blackcap and Chiffchaff, but more of a surprise was seeing a BUZZARD fly from a small Oak tree.

I finished up with a sky watch from my seat at Migrant Alley, where KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK were seen hunting, plus a string of HERRING GULLS with a couple of BLACK HEADED GULLS went over, a GREY HERON flapped slowly eastwards, but that was about it for today  :-)

ROBIN, perched on its former habitat, now just a mash of broken branches

Swallow on the telephone line

Kestrel at the Greenhouse Grounds

One can normally be found on the raspberry support poles here.