Pittswood Birds

No patch visit was made today, instead I took a break from Pittswood and headed off with a friend down to Dungeness, where in some very pleasant warm weather we had a wander around the reserve and Observatory trapping area.

In total we accumulated 62 species, most of which are unlikley to be seen on my patch back at Pittswood, so it was good to catch up on few different birds for once  :-)

We were of course on the lookout for newly arrived Migrant species, of which only CHIFFCHAFF, SEDGE WARBLER and YELLOW WAGTAIL were seen, but it's great to meet them again! Some of the highlights of the visit for me were seeing AVOCET, CURLEW, MARSH HARRIER, PEREGRINE, LITTLE EGRETS, OYSTERCATCHER,  and a couple of fantastic TREE SPARROWS, as well as hearing and glimpsing CETTIS WARBLERS, which seemed to be in every bramble thicket we passed ! I would dearly of loved a decent image of the latter two species, I got close to getting them, but failed to in the end  :-(

I did however get a few images of other birds to remember the trip by  :-)

A newly arrived Sedge Warbler

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Male REED BUNTING, lots of this species were to be found

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Female Reed Bunting

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HOUSE SPARROW

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1st winter Gull, I presumed Herring, immature gulls aren't my strong point!