Pittswood Birds

After some pretty fierce electrical storms last night, giving some spectacular light shows at around 02:30hrs, I found it difficult to raise myself at my usual 05:30hrs, and found myself sleeping in until 07:30hrs.

I was out by 08:15hrs, and decided to see if anything had been ''washed'' from the skies over at Migrant Alley, but I had no luck with finding a possible 'chat' species or wader.  It was in fact very quiet, not even the dog walkers were out, must have had a lie in too  :-)  I watched a few HERRING GULLS go over and a single LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, the male KESTREL from the Greenhouse family was up hunting as was a SPARROWHAWK, a SKYLARK sang from on high, plus a few SWIFTS went over. The local SWALLOWS made forays out onto the sheep pasture, where a mixed flock of around 100 corvids, mostly ROOKS and JACKDAWS were feeding. The paddocks had a flock of a dozen or so LINNETS, with them were a couple of GOLDFINCH and also a couple of PIED WAGTAILS.

The sun came out around 11:00hrs, making it feel uncomfortably sticky and hot, my cue to try and find some Dragons and Butterflies around the Greenhouse Grounds. Dragons were few, just a single Emperor flew past, a couple of White-legged and Common Blue Damsles were about, plus a Common Darter.

Quite a few Butterflies were seen, mostly Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Small Tortoiseshell and Small Skipper, with fewer Essex Skipper, Large Skipper, Comma's, Small and Large White, plus just one Green Veined White also being seen. The occasional Peacock and Red Admiral turned up, plus I added one more species to the July Butterfly list, which stands at 16 now, when a Small Copper was found, I also found one in my garden when I got home - a garden first  :-) Both LITTLE OWL and COMMON BUZZARD were heard calling from the Wet Woods / Small holding area as I was in my garden this afternoon.

Here's the Small Copper -

....................and here's a couple of garden regulars...WOODPIGEON and COLLARED DOVE