Pittswood Birds

After 3 days the dense fog has finally cleared, allowing me a 3 and a half hour full patch walk, which was still plagued by mist and persistent light rain, but that's much more preferable than fog!

I quite enjoyed being out again, despite the weather, and found a good tally of bird species - 45 in all, with a few giving some pleasant song to brighten up proceedings, these included MISTLETHRUSH, SONGTHRUSH, WREN, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, COAL TIT and TREECREEPER.

The MUTE SWAN pair were seen on the Ornamental lake, along with the KINGFISHER and 22 MALLARDS, the Main lake had 4 MANDARIN DUCK, 3 of which were male, and a GREY HERON sat in a tall fir tree on the bankside. Two more Mallard were on the Small Lake, and a scattering of MOORHENS moved about through all 3 water bodies.

All the common regulars were seen in the Scrubby Woods, along with the less regular LONG TAILED TITS, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, Coal Tit, Treecreeper, BULLFINCH and 3 GREENFINCH.

3 raptor species were seen on my walk, the first was a pair of BUZZARDS that were working a recently massacred ditch line just off Ashes Lane, the senselessly ripped out line of trees and scrub making a good source of displaced mammals for the Buzzard pair, but it will be yet another nesting place lost for next summers Whitethroats  :-( The KESTREL pair were also up hunting, moving between the Ashes lane Field and the Pub Field, where I was fortunate enough to watch a PEREGRINE fly low over, spooking up a flock of 100 plus JACKDAWS and ROOKS.

A LITTLE OWL was seen in the Greenhouse Copse, and whilst checking out the Greenhouse Grounds, SKYLARK and MEADOW PIPIT were heard as they flew over, I was on my home and had just about given up the hope of finding a new species for the December list, when my luck changed and two GREYLAG GEESE (55) flew over, 55 for the month, however, that total is still in last place out of the twelve Decembers........... so far!

Nothing left in the blog photo folder - need some light!!