Pittswood Birds

This morning was dull and cloudy, with a light drizzle falling, but with brighter skies promised I decided to carry out my final full patch walk of the month, it being the 81st of the year.

Right from the off it was evident that there were not many birds about, and by the end of the walk I had only found 42 species, many in just ones and two's. Migrant Alley once again produced the star species, that being a WHINCHAT, I wonder if it was one of the original 3 found earlier in the week, or a new individual ? Apart from the Whinchat though, there were no more passage migrants found, even the SWALLOWS were down to half a dozen birds.

The Greenhouse Grounds had the 2 GREY WAGTAILS present again, plus a CHIFFCHAFF and 4 WHITETHROATS of note. Crossing the Ashes Lane Fields another Whitethroat was seen along the drainage ditch, and flyovers were had by both HERRING GULL and BLACK HEADED GULL.

The Wet Woods and Small Holding had GREEN WOODPECKER, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, JAY, STOCK DOVE, and NUTHATCH all calling, but none of them were seen. The Scrubby Woods were very quiet, only a couple of BLACKCAP were heard ''ticking'' and a GOLDCREST gave a short bit of song, where have all the birds gone from here?  Over on the lakes it was the same story as yesterday, with just a visiting GREY HERON joining the MUTE SWAN family, COOT pair, 11 MOORHENS and 6 MALLARDS.

Returning to my seat at Migrant Alley for the traditional end of walk sky watch, I had high hopes of finding one more species to add to the months list to bring it equal to the best ever August tally of 78 species, a flyover Lapwing would do, or maybe a rare sighting of a Marsh harrier, Osprey, or Red Kite, but none were found. I did find four raptor species though, a pair of SPARROWHAWKS went over together, a single BUZZARD was soaring up high, the male and female KESTREL were back on patch after not being seen yesterday, and a very smart HOBBY was watched as it chased the Swallows. A couple of HOUSE MARTINS were also seen, as was a lone SWIFT but that was about the best of it today.

Once again I failed to get any photo's in the poor conditions this morning, but at least I have some images from yesterdays visit to the reservoir at bough beech, although some of the subjects were a bit distant!

This Kingfisher being the most distant of those !!  :-)

The Little Egret shared the same wall

Lapwing, On its way to my patch???

Egyptian Goose - another species that might just flyover my patch this month

Cormorant

This Shelduck had two well grown young with it

This being one of them