Pittswood Birds

A rare day indeed for this year, no wind or rain to contend with! That made for a much more pleasant, 4 hour full patch visit this morning, which turned out to be an average sort of of visit.

43 species were found, which is what I would expect here for a January Day, but it was a bit disappointing not to have added anything to the Year list, Grey Heron is the most likely to be added, with anything else being a bonus, as all the regulars as well as a few scarcer patch birds have already turned up.

Most of the interest centered around the Lakes again, where an increase in MALLARDS had occurred overnight with 43 being counted across the 3 water bodies, there were no Goosander today, but the KINGFISHER and MUTE SWANS were still around on the Ornamental lake, where the COOT had attracted a mate, fingers crossed they find somewhere to breed  :-) Two pairs of MANDARIN DUCK were seen reasonable well, as they slept half hidden in the tree overhang on the Main lake.

Mute Swan

A good look around the Scrubby Woods, then the Wet Woods provided views of most of the Woodland Species, with COAL TIT, GOLDCREST, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, BULLFINCH,  NUTHATCH and a pair of TREECREEPER the latter just about near enough for a photographic effort  :-)

Treecreeper

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Out on the farmland part of my patch, a couple of MEADOW PIPITS were of note, flying up from the Ashes Lane Field, and an adjacent large garden had 3 FIELDFARE feeding on windfall apples, just one SKYLARK flew over the Pub Field, which remains a very disappointing place, with nothing at all in the Maize stubbles there. The paddocks and pasture were well disturbed by the time I arrived there, with parties of students all over the place, I think the days of finding hundreds of Lapwing, winter thrushes, and Gulls spread over these fields are now a distant memory due to the disturbance here now  :-(

The Greenhouse Grounds were a bit more cheering, with plenty of WREN, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, and BLACKBIRD, plus a few PIED WAGTAILS and SONGTHRUSHES. A small flock of GOLDFINCH and SISKIN were feeding in the Alder Trees, and the all round good habitat of the place meant plenty of the likes of BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, and CHAFFINCH were seen plus the bonus of Bullfinch, KESTREL, JAY, and LINNET, the 3 of which were only the second record for this year. I think the students seen earlier were being shown the art of how not to encourage wildlife on to farmland, they could learn a lot more at this place!!

The adjacent Greenhouse Copse was home to a pair of LITTLE OWLS, which stayed put for a photo, but by now any brightness in the day had gone, I still got some nice images though.

Little Owl

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