Pittswood Birds

Another quite cool morning with a chilly breeze, but at times some sunshine broke through, helping to lift the temperature.

There was a bit more of interest about for todays visit, I again found the immature GREY WAGTAIL at it's favoured spot in the Greenhouse Grounds, where at least 4 WHITETHROAT were also seen, plus the female KESTREL was perched on the greenhouse roof. A family of BULLFINCH were a nice find, they have done well here this year  :-)

A circuit of the paddocks and pasture at Migrant Alley was mostly very quiet again, but a YELLOW WAGTAIL dropped in to feed among the horses for a short while, and the Wooded Headland had a LITTLE OWL fly out from it, another Little Owl was seen in the old gnarled Walnut Tree over in the Ashes lane Field later in the walk. The drainage ditch that runs the length of the field had a couple more Whitethroat and a family of DUNNOCKS in it, while overhead a passing flock of HOUSE MARTIN stayed for a few minutes to feed around a lone Oak Tree, allowing me to pick out a SAND MARTIN among them.

Immature Dunnock at the Ashes lane drainage ditch

My find of the day was over at the Small Holding area, where in amongst a moderate sized feeding flock, which contained minimum counts of ; 6 CHAFFINCH, 2 NUTHATCH, 2 TREECREEPER, 5 GREAT TITS, 8 BLUE TITS, 6 LONG TAILED TITS, 2 GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, a JAY and 4 ROBINS, were also 3 SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS (75) two were Immature birds, probably the family I saw last month, they have probably been hiding just off patch at the adjacent golf course since that sighting. Nice to find them for the months list though, which at 75 species, has now reached the joint second best August tally, joint with 2011, but still 3 behind the record tally set in 2010, with a bit of luck I could reach that total again  :-)

Over in the Woods and lake area it was only slightly busier than yesterday, with BLACKCAP, CHIFFCHAFF and another Whitethroat seen, the lakes had 9 CANADA GEESE visit, but nothing more had joined the regular species there.

On the walk home I stopped off at the edge of the Wet Woods to try and find some Dragonflies, there were a few about, with Southern and Migrant Hawkers being seen, as well as Common and Ruddy Darter, whilst there I saw SPARROWHAWK and 3 BUZZARD up soaring together.

Common Buzzard

I tried to get some Migrant Hawker shots, and although I did manage a few, they never quite sat right, or were to high up, or the sun went in, or the wind blew them around, .................things are never straight forward with this photography lark!

Male Migrant Hawker