Pittswood Birds

I had a little over two hours out this morning, as I had to be home to await a parcel delivery from 08:30hrs.

In some very windy and showery conditions, I walked the fields and had a look through the Greenhouse Grounds. A couple of HERRING GULLS flew over, as did a single LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, but more of a surprise was a lone LAPWING (62) something to add to the May list! It now stands level with 2002, and 2004, and is the second lowest May total, but hopefully it will improve over the rest of the month.

Four COMMON WHITETHROATS were noted, and the LESSER WHITETHROAT sang from the Greenhouse Grounds again, where the male KESTREL was up hunting. CHIFFCHAFF and BLACKCAP sang from the Wooded Headland, but no other summer visitors were in there, gone are the days of finding Turtle Dove, Warden Warbler and Nightingale there.

A dozen LINNETS were feeding in the paddocks, as was a GREEN WOODPECKER, and six SWALLOWS fed around the sheep pasture. My wander through the Ashes Lane Field had me watching the SKYLARK pair chasing about, but little else to keep me occupied.

WREN, singing from Hawthorn at the Greenhouse Grounds

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Wind blown CHAFFINCH

My parcel delivery arrived at 10:30hrs, which I hurriedly unwrapped to get at my new Canon 100mm 'L' series macro lens, 10 minutes later I was out in the field trying to use it  :-) I made my way over to the Scrubby Woods, on the way seeing three SWIFTS fly over. The wind was blowing and a couple of short sharp showers blew through, but there were some short and frequent sunny intervals which I used to track down some Damsels and Dragons. The TAWNY OWL hooted as I tried to unsuccessfully follow a Broad Bodied Chaser, and the few large Red and Azure Damsels were not hanging about for a photo either, I also failed to get an image of the two Beautiful Demoiselles that I found. Feeling a bit miffed at not being able to use the new lens, I eventually sat down and had a listen for Turtle Dove or Garden warbler song, but none were heard, only the Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps plus a GOLDCREST were singing. I was ready to leave for home, but as I got to my feet a Dragonfly flew past me, it could only be a Hairy dragonfly I thought to myself, my first this year, and a real scarce one to find here.

I had set myself a challenge for this year, it was to photograph a Hairy Dragonfly on my patch, so keeping my eyes on the beastie, I saw it finally come to rest, and set about sneaking up on it, I manged to get close enough for some images, not quite in the right light or in a nice position, but I had achieved my years challenge, very satisfying indeed !

Male Hairy Dragonfly

I record them once, maybe twice here in spring, and then not every year

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Hairy Dragonfly