Pittswood Birds

Long sunny spells made for a pleasant full patch walk this morning, where the species tally for the day reflected that we are in one the slowest of the years months, with a rather low 44 species turning out for me.

Nothing really much to get excited about, however having one of the KESTRELS drop down in front of me to grab at an insect as I walked through the Greenhouse Grounds, made us both stop and eye one another, I just about had time to point the camera, but had no time to check the settings, the image is ok for a reminder of my encounter  :-)

Kestrel, just about to fly off!

It did fly off, but only as far as a nearby power line, so I took another photo  :-)

Also in the Greenhouse Grounds were; WHITETHROAT, BLACKCAP, CHIFFCHAFF, for the summer birds, plus the resident WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, PIED WAGTAIL, CHAFFINCH, GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, COLLARED DOVE, SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD and HOUSE SPARROW. 

Out on the sheep pasture and paddocks of Migrant Alley, just the usual JACKDAWS, ROOKS, CARRION CROWS, WOODPIGEONS, STARLINGS and LINNET were seen, along with a few low flying SWALLOWS and higher flying SWIFTS.

The Woods and lakes were also very 'normal' this morning, TREECREEPER, COAL TIT, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH, JAY, and STOCK DOVE were all seen, but no Long Tailed Tit again. Only MUTE SWAN, COOT, and MOORHEN were on the water today not even a Mallard there today.

I ended the morning, as I often do, with a Sky watch from my seat at Migrant Alley, alas this also proved pretty slow, just GREY HERON, HERRING GULL, GREYLAG GOOSE, CANADA GOOSE and BUZZARD were seen to add to my day list.

On the walk back home along Ashes lane I had the pleasure of seeing a White Admiral Butterfly winging its way along the hedgerow, it didn't stop for a photo though ! This is a very seldom seen Butterfly on my patch, so a very welcome addition to my Butterfly year list, which is now on 23  :-)

Large White Butterfly - Not quite as exciting as a White Admiral!

Large White