Pittswood Birds

Todays visit was quite the opposite to yesterdays, with the more interesting birds being seen in the earlier part of the walk, rather than the latter.

It was in the Greenhouse Grounds, or rather the little that's left of it, that I had good but brief views of my first Autumn WILLOW WARBLER (51), with it were a couple of BLACKCAPS, a CHIFFCHAFF, a family of 4 WHITETHROATS and a GARDEN WARBLER, the 50 or so SWALLOWS had moved from the paddock fencing and were now congregating on the greenhouse rooves.  A strange sighting was of a MANDARIN DUCK waddling up the side of the hedgerow that forms the boundary of Migrant Alley and the Greenhouse Grounds!

The Scrubby Woods today was almost empty, just a couple of Blackcaps, a Chiffchaff, and a few BLUE and GREAT TITS were all that was left from yesterdays frenzy of birds. The lakes had visiting fisherman camped out on the small lake, so nothing was seen visiting on the other two lakes.

A family of noisy NUTHATCHES were on the boundary of the Wet Woods and Small Holding, where a TREECREEPER was also seen, but in general it was much quieter than yesterday all round. I decided on another visit to Migrant Alley to do some sky watching, where on the way, in the Ashes lane Fields I saw my first PHEASANT (52) of August. The sky watch proved a bit disappointing, in keeping with the visit, when only HERRING GULL and KESTREL were seen.

Later in the afternoon I paid another visit to Migrant Alley, it always pays to make frequent visits in the Autumn, as Yellow Wagtail, Wheatear or even Whinchat, Stonechat or Redstart might drop in during this period , but not today! I ended up sky watching again once I had done a circuit of the paddocks and sheep pasture, this time though I found a little more of interest, the Kestrel was up again, as were a couple of BUZZARDS, plus the first SPARROWHAWK (53) of the month showed up too, followed not long after by the first PEREGRINE (54) sighting for August. I also saw a party of 6 SWIFTS (55) to add to the months list, as well as a single HOUSE MARTIN (56)

I got a couple of hastily snatched images of this mornings Willow Warbler and Garden Warbler, they don't hang about long for such activities though!

Willow Warbler

Garden Warbler