Pittswood Birds

Light but frequent showers kept passing through all day today, but I stuck it out on my patch for 5 hours, finding one or two nice birds out of the 43 species found.

There was again much bird song as I left the house, with GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, SKYLARK, MISTLETHRUSH, SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, STOCK DOVE, COLLARED DOVE, BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT and even a HOUSE SPARROW all heard as I headed along Ashes Lane, then across the Ashes lane Field and onto the lakes.

There wasn't much to be excited about on the lakes this morning, although I am happy to have the MUTE SWAN and COOT pair here  :-) The only other birds on the water were 5 CANADA GEESE plus the MALLARDS and MOORHENS.

I enticed the Swans over with some bread

I got some photo's, but the light wasn't great, resulting in grainy images  :-(

I found all the scarcer woodland species, apart from Nuthatch in the Scrubby Woods and Wet Woods, those being LONG TAILED TIT, COAL TIT, BULLFINCH, GOLDCREST, JAY, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER and TREECREEPER, I tried to get a photo of the latter, but it was hopeless really, especially under the trees, here's the best one of a bad lot though  :-)

Treecreeper

Waiting for the Treecreeper to move into view paid off really, as I heard a GREY WAGTAIL (63) fly low overhead, a good species to find here now-a-days, and a welcome addition the the February list  :-)

There were smaller numbers of REDWING and FIELDFARE on the fields today, but the KESTREL pair had returned after a couple of days away, they were seen sat in the rain, on the fence line at the Ashes lane Field as I made my way back across it.

Female Kestrel in the rain, the male doesn't do photo sits!!

No sign of Pied wagtails or Meadow Pipits around the Greenhouse Grounds, although the ever present LITTLE OWL was again at his perch in the Greenhouse Copse. There was a last bit of excitement as I walked home, I scanned across the ashes lane Field to see if the Kestrels were still there, and watched a superb male PEREGRINE take off from the grass, very nice  :-)

At home this afternoon I noticed a pair of SISKIN at my garden feeders, so tried to get a photo of them, I was successful, but again the poor light, and frequent showers makes for very grainy images, I also took some other shots whilst waiting for the Siskin to arrive, always brightens the page up  :-)

Siskin

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Goldfinch

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Greenfinch

Great Tit

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