Pittswood Birds

The initial early sunshine disappeared under low cloud and mist by 06:30 this morning - rather disappointing! The sun broke through for short periods of time during the rest of the 4 hour patch visit though, making it feel pleasantly warm.

I'm still on the lookout for newly fledged young, with the likes of Collared Dove, Songthrush, and Chiffchaff still to be confirmed as successful breeders on my patch, I know they have attempted to but I again found no young for them this morning. No new species were added to the June list either, which at 64 is only 4 species behind the record June total, I could yet add Hobby, Peregrine, Yellowhammer and Turtle Dove before the end of the month though  :-)

Of the 48 species I did encounter today, there few highlights really, two CORMORANT flew over early on, only the second record this month, a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL also went over with a couple of HERRING GULLS, June is a poor month for Gull species here, so it was good to get those on todays list. A few SWIFTS were feeding high up, and a party of HOUSE MARTINS fed over the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, along with a few families of SWALLOWS, their numbers are building now, so a Hobby may take some interest soon!

SPARROWHAWK and KESTREL were the only raptors over my patch today, with 3 young Kestrels still hanging around the Greenhouse Grounds, Buzzards were around but high up and off my patch.

A short afternoon visit over to the drainage ditch at Migrant Alley to get some Common Darter photo's was partially successful, but the sun kept hiding behind the building clouds. I added Red Eyed to the Damselfly year list earlier whilst at the lakes, but they are too far to photograph.

Common Darter, Immature. At least 15 of these flew from a patch of Bur Reed as I passed.

Immature Common Darter

Immature Common Darter

Whilst on the subject of Dragons and Damsels, i'll post a few more that were seen in wales last week  :-)

Four Spotted Chaser

Four Spotted Chaser

Small Red Damselfly, a new species for me  :-)

Small Red Damselfly

Small Red damselfly

Golden Ringed Dragonfly

Golden Ringed Dragonfly

Ive got lots of Golden Ringed Dragonfly pics, i've posted a separate page for the series of shots of the one above eating a bumble bee. Click here to view it, or click on the tab under my header photo labelled ''Golden Ringed Dragonfly at Lunch''