Pittswood Birds

A full patch walk was undertaken this morning, when under some cloudy, but bright skies, the 5 hour walk produced a good tally of 48 species.

There were a lot of birds around this morning, the Greenhouse Grounds had small family flocks of LINNETS and GOLDFINCH, plus plenty of BLACKBIRDS, WRENS, DUNNOCKS, ROBINS, PIED WAGTAILS, CHAFFINCH, and a couple of singing SONGTHRUSH, even a few more GREENFINCH were seen, a scarce bird away from my feeders! BLUE and GREAT tits had gathered into a feeding flock, around 15 -20 strong, and the summer birds of CHIFFCHAFF, WHITETHROAT and BLACKCAP were all seen as well.

My circuit of Migrant Alley was as normal, just Corvids and WOODPIGEONS, with a few more Linnets and Goldfinch, until I heard the call of a SNIPE (94,68), I looked up to see one flying low over the paddocks, my first Snipe of the year, and the first ever to be recorded on a July day! The combined 13 year July list now stands at 94.

Over in the Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods just about everything was found that I could expect, all the sometimes hard to find species like TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH, COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, JAY and STOCK DOVE all showed up, as well as the easier species like GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER.

The lakes chipped in with the likes of KINGFISHER and GREY HERON, plus the regular MALLARD, MOORHEN, COOT, and MUTE SWAN, but there were no Geese today. A LITTLE OWL was heard calling as I walked through the Small Holding.

My sky watch from back over at my seat at Migrant Alley was partially successful, with LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, HERRING GULL, SPARROWHAWK, KESTREL, SWIFTS, SWALLOWS and a couple of GREYLAG GEESE all going over.

I left the Camera at home for my walk today, as the light was not so good, but this afternoon I paid another visit to the nearby reservoir at Bough Beech, and again got some nice images of the Great White Egret, this time in flight  :-)