Pittswood Birds

A morning of blustery showers and short lived sunny spells saw an end for adding bird species to the May list, hopefully only temporarily, as there are still a few migrant species that might turn up, but its getting less likely as each day passes now.

The early part of my walk around the Pub Field, Ashes lane Field, Greenhouse Grounds and Migrant Alley provided me with some good exercise, but not much else! Three COMMON WHITETHROAT territories are now evident, each with a singing male, the LESSER WHITETHROAT also gave a brief burst of song, plus three BLACKCAPS and 3 CHIFFCHAFFS were singing on territory. SWALLOWS made up the rest of the breeding summer birds here, at least 5 pairs were feeding among the sheep at Migrant Alley. Two passage SWIFTS went over, the only other flyovers concerned a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, two HERRING GULLS and a GREY HERON, no raptors were seen at all today, but the LITTLE OWL was seen on the old shack again  :-)

The Scrubby Woods and lakes provided me with some cheer, as I at last saw the COOT had now fledged their young, 4 newly fledged red headed little Cootlets were being fed by both parents, who were bravely defending them against the MUTE SWAN, their eggs should hatch very soon now too.

The TAWNY OWL was again hooting repeatedly from its roost in the Scrubby Woods, and a CUCKOO called as it flew over. As the morning warmed up a bit, I began looking for Dragons and Damsels, only one Azure Damsel was seen, but I again found a couple of Beautiful Demoiselles, and also my first Broad Bodied Chaser of the spring. A Red Admiral Butterfly was the first this month, bring the May butterfly list to 11 species.

Here's a selection of Odonata images taken this morning and yesterday, i'll post a few more tomorrow, as the weather looks to be pretty dire then, not good for camera work anyway!

Immature Broad Bodied Chaser

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Beautiful Demoiselle

They always seem to alight with some piece of vegetation in the way of them!

Azure Blue Damselfly

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