Pittswood Birds

I had a guest with me for this mornings patch visit, welcome to Pittswood Simon! We met up at the Greenhouse Grounds at 07:00hrs, and headed over to the Lakes and Scrubby Woods, via the Small Holding and Wet Woods. The early rain had cleared as we set off, but a strong gusty wind made conditions difficult, and hearing the calls of many birds was just not possible above the noise of the wind through the trees.

There was still enough of interest for the three hour visit though, a COMMON BUZZARD was in the seedling wheat field just off Ashes lane, as yesterday chasing worms! A SPARROWHAWK flew through the Small Holding, where a MISTLE THRUSH and a GREEN WOODPECKER were also seen, as well as a couple of screeching JAYS.

The Wet Woods was quite subdued, just a TREECREEPER being of any note here, a GOLDCREST was calling as we entered the Lakes area, where on the water were a dozen or so MALLARD, a few MOORHEN, a CORMORANT, but most pleasing of all the MUTE SWANS were still there, the KINGFISHER was heard two or three times, but went unseen.

Around the Scrubby Woods area, we had some good views of BULLFINCHES, and ticked off many off the more common species that we had not yet encountered, GREAT TIT, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, CHAFFINCH, GOLDFINCH, DUNNOCK, and SONGTHRUSH being amongst them.

Out in the fields of Migrant Alley, the Pub Field and the Ashes Lane field, the full force of the wind was more evident, things were livened up when we watched three KESTRELS in territorial dispute, over the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, at one point one male had pinned another male to the ground, only releasing it after a good bashing!  SKYLARK, SISKIN, MEADOW PIPIT and PIED WAGTAIL were fleetingly heard as they got blown through the sky, but the only birds on the floor were ROOKS, WOODPIGEONS and JACKDAWS. A small party of LONG TAILED TITS were seen at the Wooded Headland.

The intended sky watch at the end of the walk was thwarted by rain, so we called it a day, having recorded forty species for the morning, which I was happy enough with in the conditions. :-) Thanks Simon for the company this morning!

Camera's were again left indoors  :-( so its to the 'blog folder' again for todays blog brighteners, of which all I have is a couple of Great Tit images from my garden, compare the colours on these two though, the second one has an unusual gold colour to its plumage.

Great Tit

Great Tit