Pittswood Birds

After some overnight rain, the morning commenced mostly cloudy, but the odd sunny spell was enjoyed too, by late morning a heavy, thundery shower brought things to premature end.

The most notable occurrence of this morning was the passage of both SWALLOW and HOUSE MARTIN, many hundreds were watched flying SW over Migrant Alley as they winged their way back to Africa. The flock of MEADOW PIPITS remained feeding in the sheep pasture, if anything there was an increase in numbers today, with 50 - 60 being seen, on the other hand, the LINNETS had dropped in number, only 22 were seen.

Over at the Scrubby Woods and lake area it was all a bit quiet really, however the star sighting for the morning was seen, when a TAWNY OWL broke cover as I passed by, giving me a brief, but good flight view. Of the scarcer woodland species, only the NUTHATCH was noted, and the only CHIFFCHAFFS were also seen here with two birds giving a bit of song. On the water, there was some company for the regular MUTE SWANS, COOT, MALLARDS and MOORHENS, in the form of a drake MANDARIN DUCK and a KINGFISHER  :-)

My sky watch back over at Migrant Alley didn't last more than an hour, as the thundery shower brought it to an end, but in that time I saw the three local raptor species - BUZZARD, SPARROWHAWK and KESTREL, as well as a lone CORMORANT, I also continued to watch the Swallows and House Martins passing through.

This afternoon, once the sporadic sunshine had moved round to fill my garden, I attempted to get some garden bird images to brighten the blog, but the Sparrowhawk was a real pain, repeated attempts were made by it to get a finch dinner, which meant little else was coming into my garden! At one point the Sprawk was chasing a GREAT TIT around, just 2-3 meters from me ( I was in my hide, A.K.A my shed!) It alighted on one of my perches just 4 meters from me, so close I couldn't get the whole bird in the frame, I got a shot away, before it quickly sped off after the Great Tit!

Sparrowhawk. I should have focused on its eye, not its shoulder!

You'll be glad to hear, the Great Tit got away :-)

This scruffy, half moulted STARLING was about it for the camera, apart from a few Nuthatch images, i'll post them tomorrow  :-)