Pittswood Birds

There was quite a hard frost this morning, a rarity this winter, but it wasn't a bad morning weatherwise, no wind, no rain, and the odd glimpse of sun through the high veil of cirrus clouds  :-)

Two hours were spent on my patch visit, mainly over at the lakes and Scrubby Woods, where on the water today the now daily sightings of MUTE SWAN and COOT were had, along with the resident MALLARDS and MOORHENS. A female GOOSANDER was visiting, and three CANADA GEESE had dropped in as well, I couldn't locate any Mandarin Duck or the Kingfisher today, but they were quite possibly hiding up somewhere.

The search for an exotic species, like Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Firecrest, or even a Marsh Tit in the Scrubby woods was not fruitful, the past years have always produced a Marsh Tit here, as one normally overwinters, but it looks like that particular species isn't going to make the year list for 2014 :-(

TREECREEPERS were calling, as was a NUTHATCH, giving it's ''wee wee wee'' spring call, I actually watched it doing this, seeing it stand on its toes and stretching its head and neck skywards as it called, never seen that before  :-)  BULLFINCH, GOLDCREST, COAL TIT, and SISKIN were the best of what else was seen.

There was a work crew at the Greenhouse Grounds, so it wasn't so productive there today, but 8 MEADOW PIPITS and 6 PIED WAGTAILS were still feeding around the poly tunnel frames, and the nearby Greenhouse Copse was home to the LITTLE OWL again.

I sky watched from my seat for half an hour, overlooking the open skies at Migrant Alley, ever hopeful of adding a flyover Lapwing or Grey Heron to the year list, but the sky was was particularly empty today, just HERRING GULLS and BLACK HEADED GULLS went over, and the male KESTREL was watched as it hunted.

Photo's today are from my garden, taken yesterday while waiting for the Redpolls to sit still, they were in again today, but I had no time to photograph them.

GOLDFINCH

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COLLARED DOVE

BLUE TIT