Pittswood Birds

Being the first day of the new month, a full patch walk was undertaken, just under 4 hours were spent out in the dreary wet and rainy conditions, the final tally of 43 species being better than I had hoped for  :-).

Leaving my house at 07:00hrs I headed up ashes Lane, heading for the Lakes and Scrubby Woods via the Small Holding and Wet Woods. Birdlife only slowly revealed itself, with WOODPIGEON, JACKDAW, STARLING, COLLARED DOVE, HOUSE SPARROW, CARRION CROW, BLACKBIRD, BLUE TIT, ROBIN, SONGTHRUSH, CHAFFINCH and GOLDCREST being the first dozen species on the list. GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS turned up together at the Small Holding, where the first WREN of the day was seen, plus a MAGPIE scolded.

Only GREAT TITS and TREECREEPER were added to the list from the Wet Woods, but the Lakes provided me with the hoped for MUTE SWANS, KINGFISHER, and CORMORANT which were still around, plus the usual MALLARDS and MOORHENS, no sign of the Mandarin Ducks that were here yesterday though. All the sometimes difficult to find species were found in the Scrubby Woods, NUTHATCH, COAL TIT, BULLFINCH, JAY, LONG TAILED TIT, another two Treecreepers and another 2 Goldcrests, two LESSER REDPOLLS flew over calling, a nice addition for the day  :-)

Out on the open Ashes lane Field a SPARROWHAWK was seen flying low towards the Wet Woods, and a BLACK HEADED GULL was also added to the mornings list, one of the KESTREL pair was hunting on the adjacent Pub Field, where a couple of MEADOW PIPITS and a lone female PHEASANT were seen in the maize Stubbles.

A circuit of Migrant Alley was made, where the ROOKS were seen feeding on the sheep pasture, and flyovers from HERRING GULL, STOCK DOVE, SKYLARK and COMMON BUZZARD were all noted. The Greenhouse Grounds finally gave me a DUNNOCK for the day, there's always plenty here! Also PIED WAGTAIL, GREENFINCH and GOLDFINCH were found, finishing off the sightings for the day  :-)

The challenge this month is to try and beat the best November species tally of 68, which was achieved back in 2010, a very tough challenge, as the 11 year mean average tally for November is 60, the lowest of all the months, however the last 5 years has a mean total of 65 species, these are the years I got out more frequently.

It wasn't camera weather again today, so its back to the 'blog folder' to find whats left of the photo's taken in my garden last week.

Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Nuthatch