Pittswood Birds

It was dry and warm, with sunny spells this morning, so I decided on a full patch walk, which in the 5 and a half hours it took, I accumulated a brilliant 54 bird species  :-)

Early on in the visit a SAND MARTIN was seen amongst the flock off 50 odd SWALLOWS on the Greenhouse Rooves, always a good bird to record on my patch, I took a very distant photo of it for my records  :-)

Lone Sand Martin

Also in the Greenhouse Grounds were plenty of GOLDFINCH, GREENFINCH, CHAFFINCH, LINNETS and a pair of BULLFINCH, as well as at least 10 PIED WAGTAILS, a couple of SONGTHRUSH, three WHITETHROAT a CHIFFCHAFF, a BLACKCAP and a WILLOW WARBLER, plus all the common stuff, making for pleasant viewing. The daily flypast from a hundred or so GREYLAG GEESE added to the enjoyment.

SONGTHRUSH

Willow Warbler

Crossing the Ashes Lane Fields to get to the Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods area, I flushed up a SKYLARK (59) the first seen this month, then as I passed the now dry run off pool at the bottom of the fields, a LITTLE OWL (60) flew out from a hole ridden Walnut tree, another new bird for the month, bringing up the 60th species  :-)

In the Wet Woods, JAYS and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS were heard, but I didn't spend too long here as the mosquitoes are swarming in there now! The Scrubby Woods produced all and more that I could have expected, well that is apart from a Long Tailed Tit and Mistlethrush, both of which are still missing from the August list. I brought the warbler species count to 6 for the morning, when both LESSER WHITETHROAT and GARDEN WARBLER were seen, also, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER, COAL TIT, STOCK DOVE and more sightings from Bullfinch, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and another single Whitethroat were had.

On the lakes there were no real suprises, a MANDARIN DUCK was present on the main lake with a GREY HERON, and 9 CANADA GEESE, other than that it was down to the MUTE SWAN family and COOT pair, their young having now dispersed, plus at least 12 MOORHENS were with them on the ornamental lake, with just 2 MALLARD.

A late morning skywatch produced the regular raptor species of KESTREL, SPARROWHAWK and BUZZARD, plus two Gull species, those being HERRING and LESSER BLACK BACKED, also a party of HOUSE MARTINS and 2 SWIFTS were seen, the latter may well be one of the last records for this species this year, the average last sighting date for Swift being the 24th August.

This Common Darter was seen in the Scrubby woods, along with 2 Brown Hawkers, 2 Southern Hawkers and a sinlge Common Blue Damselfly.

Common Blue Damselfy