Pittswood Birds

At last, a half decent day, with sunny spells and a cool westerly wind, enabling me to get out for a 5 hour full patch walk.

An excellent tally of 50 bird species were found, despite not seeing Greenfinch, Sparrowhawk, Little Owl, or Herring Gull, all of which have been around over recent days. The highlight of the early part of my walk was witnessing the part fledging of the KESTREL brood over at the Greenhouse Grounds, the older two of the fledglings were hanging about the metal frame work around the nest box, while the other two sat on the edge of the box ready to go  :-)

Two gone, two to go!

Also seen around the Greenhouse Grounds were WHITETHROAT, BLACKCAP and CHIFFCHAFF for the summer species, with the regular residents of SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, CHAFFINCH, GOLDFINCH, GREAT TIT, BLUE TIT, PIED WAGTAIL, WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, GREEN WOODPECKER, LINNET and COLLARED DOVE.

The sheep pasture and paddocks at Migrant Alley were quiet again, just a few more Linnets were seen with the crowd of ROOKS, CARRION CROWS, WOODPIGEON and JACKDAWS, the latter of which should be bringing out there new offspring any day now  :-) The local SWALLOWS were finding it a bit easier to find insects in the warmer conditions, while higher up the odd SWIFT was seenand a SKYLARK was heard singing. LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, GREY HERON, COMMON BUZZARD and a small party of half a dozen HOUSE MARTINS were the only fly overs noted.

Over in the Wet Woods, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER and the family of MANDARIN DUCKS were all seen, while the Scrubby Woods was much busier, with more Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs singing, plus the songs of COAL TIT and GOLDCREST were heard. BULLFINCH were heard to call, as were the screech of JAYS, and the rattle of MISTLETHRUSH, I also saw, at last, the first LONG TAILED TITS (58) for the month, a family party swept past too busy feeding to notice me!

On the lakes, the TUFTED DUCK pair remained, and the usual MALLARDS and MOORHENS were seen, along with the thriving families of both MUTE SWAN and COOT. There were also 14 CANADA GEESE on the main lake, along with 2 pairs of GREYLAG GEESE with their ''creched'' youngsters, of which there were 7.

A much better day, in much better weather!  Here's more of those Kestrel fledglings, I took lots of images, so i'll post some more tomorrow  :-)