Pittswood Birds

A view into the 'Scrubby Woods'

My usual early visit to the Lakes and Scrubby Woods, via the Ashes Lane Field, brought no real surprises, nor any new species to the November list, although the 3 FIELDFARE that flew over the Ashes lane Field represented the peak count for that species this month. The passage of WOODPIGEONS heading South was once again evident, mostly high up, appearing as black specks against a for once, blue sky!

Once at the Scrubby Woods and Lakes, the birds began to show, the pair of MUTE SWANS remain on the Ornamental Lake, as does the KINGFISHER, while the top lake, which is the smallest, gets a mention today, it had 4 CANADA GEESE on it, the first Geese on any of the water bodies this month. The main lake was only home to the regular MALLARD and MOORHENS this morning, although around the well vegetated edges, a flock of a dozen or so LONG TAILED TITS were seen, with them were 2 GOLDCRESTS and a COAL TIT, as well as a few BLUE and GREAT TITS, plus a single CHAFFINCH, I could also hear BULLFINCH calling not far away.

In the Scrubby Woods both SONGTHRUSH and MISTLETHRUSH sang, as did WREN, ROBIN and DUNNOCK, making it feel quite springlike in the sunshine  :-) GOLDFINCH and GREENFINCH were also seen, the first time the latter species has been recorded for a few days now.

Over at Migrant Alley and the Greenhouse Grounds it was mostly a case of listening and looking for flyover species, as there was little new on the floor to be added to the mornings list, although the only MEADOW PIPIT of the morning was found on the guttering of one of the Greenhouses.

Distant Meadow Pipit

Flyovers mostly involved the Gull species of BLACK HEADED and HERRING GULL, which there were plenty of, but just one LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL was seen, and no Common Gull, that's still missing from the months list. Two LESSER REDPOLL called as they went over the Sheep pasture, and 3 single SKYLARKS also went over, a pair of SPARROWHAWKS were up hunting, as were the KESTREL pair, and after watching two BUZZARDS soaring high up, another four were were seen a few minutes later, the sunshine bringing them out for the first time in a few visits.

A quick look around the Greenhouse Copse gave me a PHEASANT to end the species count for the day, number 43, a tally which is bang on average for a November day, whilst there, another Long Tailed Tit flock was seen, they were much more agreeable to having a photo taken  :-)

Long Tailed Tit

Long Tailed Tit

On the walk back, I encountered a COMMON DARTER dragonfly, which eventually settled on a fence post, its getting quite lae in the year for these now.

Common Darter, enjoying some unseasonable warmth.