Pittswood Birds

A clear blue sky greeted me this morning, with just a touch of mist, a perfect Autumnal morning  :-)

There was a small amount of activity from passage migrants as I walked Migrant Alley this morning, with 2 single YELLOW WAGTAILS, two dozen HOUSE MARTIN, four SWALLOWS and at least 5 MEADOW PIPITS flying over, 4 MUTE SWANS also flew gracefully over the Wooded Headland, although these may not be migrating birds!

During the circuit of the sheep pasture and paddocks I encountered all four of the raptor species that can be expected, with BUZZARD, KESTREL, SPARROWHAWK and HOBBY all out hunting early on, the Hobby sat up on the fence line again for some good, but distant views. Later in the walk 3 Buzzards were soaring low over the Greenhouses, the Kestrel pair were hunting over the Ashes Lane Fields, and the Sparrowhawk was seen multiple times.

There were very few summer birds on the ground this morning and all of those were CHIFFCHAFFS, I counted 7 in all, 2 were at the Greenhouse Grounds, 2 were in the boundary hedgerow over at the Pub Field and 3 were in the Scrubby Woods, where I didn't note any of the scarcer woodland birds until I saw a COAL TIT a TREECREEPER and a GOLDCREST in the same fir tree. There was nothing of note on the Lakes today, just the regular MUTE SWANS, MALLARDS, MOORHENS and the COOT.

I heard a LITTLE OWL call from a Large Garden adjacent to the Ashes Lane Field as I walked back to do my sky watch over at Migrant Alley ( I also heard a TAWNY OWL from my house yesterday evening) The Sky watch was a bit disappointing, with just a few HERRING GULLS, a GREY HERON, the odd Swallow and House Martin, a few more single Meadow Pipits, plus a GREY WAGTAIL that dropped into the Greenhouse Grounds being the only noteworthy birds.

I did some dragon fly photograpahy ( or tried to!) this afternoon, but the cloud rolled in for long periods, making for a frustrating time, I did get some Migrant Hawker photo's though, I'll post them on another day, as Ive got few images from my garden to post today.

This Sparrowhawk took a GREENFINCH, I only got away 3 shots, and it moved its head during those, so a bit out of focus, but still a nice image  :-)

Poor old Greenfinches, if that trichomonosis desease doesn't get them the Sprawk does!

Not quite as dramatic, and against the light a little, but the STARLINGS made for good practice as they ate the Laurel Berries

Starling