Pittswood Birds

I spent five hours out patch watching this morning and another two out this afternoon, but very little of note could be found today, it was still an enjoyable visit though, with plenty of Odonata on the wing during the sunnier spells  :-)

Best birds for me today were the raptors species, BUZZARDS were seen soaring over Migrant Alley, plus, in the Greenhouse Grounds, 2 KESTRELS were perched up together on a greenhouse roof, a SPARROWHAWK flew over the Ashes lane Field carrying its victim.

Summer species were represented by a dozen or so Swallows, seen mainly over Migrant Alley, also a couple of HOUSE MARTINS flew over the Wet Woods as I photographed Dragons along the sunny woodland edge. Four WHITETHROATS were seen in the Greenhouse Grounds, with another 4 along the well vegetated drainage ditch at the Ashes Lane Field. Two CHIFFCHAFFS were found in the Greenhouse Copse as I searched in vain for my first Long Tailed Tit of the month, there was a feeding flock there with a few BLUE and GREAT TITS, plus a couple of TREECREEPERS, but no Long Tailed Tits!

The Scrubby Woods held the only BLACKCAPS for the day, two more Chiffchaffs were also there, as were the sometimes hard to locate woodland species of GOLDCREST, COAL TIT, BULLFINCH, another 2 Treecreepers, NUTHATCH, STOCK DOVE and JAY, but still no Long Tailed Tit  :-(

On the Lakes only a GREY HERON had joined the usual suspects, of which, Coot was not among, have they moved on, or just hiding up somewhere ?

The months list seems to have stalled at 67, still 6 behind the average tally for the previous five Augusts and 11 behind the best August tally ever. With only Mistlethrush and the elusive Long tailed Tit being probable additions, i'll have to hope for some more of those migrant species to drop in!

More Dragons and Damsels..............I took lots of images again, heres a selection, i'll save the rest for future posts!

Maturing Common Darter

I was pleased to also see this Ruddy darter, not a common species here

Ive not seen any of these Blue Tailed Damsels of late, this one only gave me a brief view before disappearing!