Pittswood Birds

It was sunshine all the way this morning, a proper summers day!

I spent six hours out on my patch, finding a brilliant tally of 53 bird species, 3 of those were seen with newly fledged young for the first time this year, all being found around the Greenhouse Grounds. The first was the JACKDAW, a pair were feeding at least 3 noisy fledglings that were half hidden in a small Horsechestnut Tree, the second was the GOLDFINCH two young were seen begging for food, and the last was the BLACKCAP, four newly fledged young were chasing about in the brambles around the Greenhouses, these take the years successfully bred list to 34.

I visited the KESTREL family again, taking a couple more photo's, they were all very lively in the warm conditions.

This looks to be the younger of the fledgelings

This ones the older of them

The WHITETHROATS were also seen around the Greenhouse Grounds, but no sign of their young yet.

Over in the Woods all the common regular stuff was seen, as well as those sometimes hard to find species like STOCK DOVE, JAY, MISTLETHRUSH, GOLDCREST, NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT and BULLFINCH. The adjacent lakes had 23 CANADA GEESE on the main lake, one pair having brought some new goslings along, the feral BARNACLE GOOSE (59) had also turned up again, nice of it to join the months list  :-) The male TUFTED DUCK was on its own today and a GREY HERON made up the 'scarcer' birs to visit the water. The MUTE SWAN and COOT families were on the ornamental pond, both doing well, along with just a few MALLARDS and a scattering of MOORHENS.

My skywatch later in the morning, produced the other two local raptor species of SPARROWHAWK and COMMON BUZZARD, as well as a couple of HERRING GULLS and a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, a few SWIFTS went over, but nothing more exciting today.

This will be my last post for a while as i'm off to Wales tomorrow, I may well up date the blog with a few photo's from Wales from time to time, so check back for that  :-)

I'll sign off with a few Damselfly and Butterfly photo's...........

Large Skipper, the first seen here this year, bring the 2014 Butterfly list to 16

Brown Argus - Male I think

Common Blue Damselfly pair mating

Female Common Blue Damselfly

Male Common Blue Damselfly