Pittswood Birds

Initial fog slowly thinned and cleared, leaving a mostly cloudy morning with the occasional sunny spell thrown in, a few showers fell just after noon.

Keen to add new species to the April bird list, I was out for most of the day today, but rather disappointingly I didn't find any new birds for the month, I felt sure a Turtle Dove or Garden Warbler would be heard singing over at the Scrubby Woods, and a Swift wouldn't be a surprise, as it's median 12 year arrival date is 29th April.

Of the 47 species I found today,  just 5 were summer migrants, CHIFFCHAFFS and BLACKCAPS were plentiful, SWALLOWS skimmed over the Ashes Lane Field and the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, and single WHITETHROAT plus a single LESSER WHITETHROAT sang from the Greenhouse Grounds, not very good for a late April day  :-(

The TAWNY OWL was one of the few highlights for the day, it called from its roost at the Scrubby Woods, which is in a line of leylandi trees, I scanned through them at a distance, not really expecting to see it, but a SONGTHRUSH dived in to the dense foliage, and out popped the Tawny Owl, giving me a photo opportunity, all be it from 50 yards!

Tawny owl, This is uncropped, and as I saw it through the 500mm lens

here's a heavily cropped image - rubbish photo's but interesting none the less  :-)

The wait goes on to see if the COOTS have bred, and the MUTE SWANS will be incubating for a while yet before there young emerge, they will be the first ever on my patch - fingers crossed! Two male MANDARIN DUCK were in the Wet Woods, just about the only other highlight today, unless I count the two BUZZARDS seen soaring over the Greenhouse Grounds this afternoon, but I see them most days  :-)

The SKYLARK sat on its usual perch in the Ashes Lane Field, and I got a distant photo, always a treat to get any sort of photo of these on my patch!

Skylark