Pittswood Birds

Frequent heavy showers and a strong gusty wind meant a later start to my patch visit today, but I was still over at the Lakes and Scrubby woods by 08:45hrs, later in the morning some warm sunny spells made a pleasant change.

I was surprised to see the pair of MUTE SWANS still on the Ornamental lake, previous visits by this species have lasted no more than a few hours. A KINGFISHER sat tantalisingly out of camera distance on the same lake, and behind me, on the Main Lake, 11 MALLARD, a GREY HERON and a CORMORANT were seen, these with the scattering of MOORHEN made for quite a busy time - for these waters!

A walk through the Scrubby Woods, then the Wet Woods, in the unlikely hope of turning up a Firecrest or a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was made less likely by the noise of the strong wind through the trees, but I did find a troop of LONG TAILED TITS again, with them were the usual BLUE and GREAT TITS in small numbers, just 3-4 of each, and a couple of COAL TITS, a couple of GOLDCRESTS and a TREECREEPER.

Very little was noted out on the fields, or around Migrant Alley, the odd MEADOW PIPIT flew up, and just one SKYLARK went over, a few BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULLS also went through. The only birds of note around the Greenhouse Grounds today were the KESTREL pair, but it was interesting to see 3 butterfly species there, first a Comma, then a Small White, and last of all a Small Copper, I was also a bit surprised to see two Common Darters, just goes to show how unseasonably warm it is  :-)

Not much going on at my garden feeders still, I think we need a blast of cold to bring the birds back in!

The light was marginally better today, so I got some more Mute Swam Images.

Mute Swan

I could only take head shots

The birds come too close to fit in the view finder!

Mute Swan

Comma Butterfly, not a nice shot, but the 500mm lens isn't good for macro!

Common Darter, one of two seen soaking up the warm sunshine late this morning