Pittswood Birds

Todays patch walk was dull, dark and dismal, with spots of rain at times, steady rain then moved in towards late afternoon.

It was hard to find much enthusiasm for the day, little bird song was noted, and not much was seen moving across the sky, just a lone HERRING GULL, a GREY HERON and a YELLOWHAMMER of note. The three local Raptor species were all seen up hunting, those being BUZZARD, SPARROWHAWK and KESTREL.

Over on the Lakes, 3 male MANDARIN DUCK had the main lake to themselves, the MUTE SWAN and COOT pair were on the ornamental lake, and two CANADA GEESE were on the small lake, however an adjoining large paddock, a place not often looked at because of its scarcity of birdlife, was actually quite busy today with two family parties of GREYLAG GEESE, one having 5 goslings the other 4, plus a Canada Goose family with 4 Goslings. A MISTLETHRUSH was also feeding in the paddock as were a few unpaired Canada Geese, and included the ''white Goose'' seen last week.

Despite the dullness of the late morning, the Scrubby Woods and Wet Woods provided me with views of CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH, LONG TAILED TIT, NUTHATCH,  JAY, COAL TIT, GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKERS as well as the more common regulars.

An afternoon visit to my sky watching seat over at Migrant Alley, still in the semi darkness, was a waste of time, apart from hearing the LESSER WHITETHROAT calling steadily from a hedgerow over at one of the paddocks, and watching the half dozen SWALLOWS feeding around the sheep.

Tomorrow morning looks to be wet and rainy, so a late visit might be on the cards!

The camera stayed at home today, but i've got just one image left in my ''Blog Folder'' thats of a Green Veined White Butterfly, taken in yesterdays relatively bright conditions  :-)

Green Veined White