Pittswood Birds

It seemed to take ages for the sun to come up this morning, and when it did the sky was overcast and grey.

I spent 3 hours out, finding a few bits and pieces of interest, the MEADOW PIPIT flock at Migrant Alley was again very active and when a SPARROWHAWK flew over the sheep pasture low and slow, I was able to give an estimate of their numbers, which had increased from the recent days count of 50 -60 to over 100! A STARLING flock was also present, around 150 were on the adjacent paddocks, but only a dozen LINNETS were seen with them. Scores of BLACK HEADED GULLS flew over early on, as did smaller numbers of HERRING GULL, normally its the other way round at this time of year.

Two GREY WAGTAILS were back at the Greenhouse Grounds, with another one seen over at the Scrubby Woods, where it was still very quiet birdwise, jus a family of BULLFINCHES, a couple of CHIFFCHAFF and 3 -4 GOLDCRESTS were of note today. The lakes proved very disappointing again, not even a Mallard was with the usual MUTE SWANS, COOT and MOORHEN  :-(

I was eager to get back over to my seat at Migrant Alley for a sky watch, as this is where I am most likely to find something new for my months list, the most likely species being flyover Yellowhammer, Lapwing or maybe the Peregrine, but in the 90 minutes I was there I didn't find anything to add to the September list. There was plenty to observe though, it was god to see a flock of 17 MISTLETHRUSH stop of briefly at the Greenhouse Grounds, also small groups of both SWALLOWS and HOUSE MARTINS continue to pass through. The 3 raptor species were easily found, the KESTREL pair giving prolonged views as they hunted, another Sparrowhawk flushed up the Meadow Pipits again, and there is nearly always a BUZZARD somewhere in the sky nowadays! A CORMORANT flew high over, plus, more unusually a NUTHATCH flew over and dropped into the Greenhouse Copse.

This afternoon, as I ate my sandwiches on my garden seat, I spied a small bird up in the leylandi type tree that overhangs the bottom of my garden, I assumed it was a Goldcrest, but checked it through my bins, just as well I did, as it turned out to be a fantastic little FIRECREST (105,76), unbelievably this is the third occasion I have recorded Firecrest in my garden, I had a visit from one back in 2006 and 2010, what a treat!!  So I got a new tick for the month after all today, as well as a year tick :-) September has been a good month in my garden this year, with a record 28 species visiting this month, that's the second best monthly tally ever, only being surpassed by the very cold and snowy December of 2010. Ive seen 22 species in the garden over the past 6 days alone, but House Sparrow isn't among them!

In the dismal light today I failed to get any photo's, especially of that Firecrest! I have saved a few images taken over the past few days though........mainly the Nuthatch!

Look out for that Sparrowhawk!