Pittswood Birds

Low cloud, mist and drizzle awaited me this morning, but the visit was brightened as I walked a circuit of Migrant Alley, when I heard a wader calling in the distance, unsure of its identity I scanned the sky and soon picked out my first GOLDEN PLOVER (103, 72) of the year, a real bonus bird for the year list and one never recorded in any September before  :-)  Only ten minutes later I heard the call of another wader, this one was unmistakable, a SNIPE (73), it flew directly over me, blimey two wader species in a day! A real rare occurrence on my patch! On the paddocks and sheep pasture there were again around 150 LINNETS, plus around 200 STARLINGS, a few MEADOW PIPITS flew over, 2-3 dropping into the sheep pasture, I also saw at least 2 REED BUNTINGS fly over, calling as they went.

Walking the edge of the Maize crop at the Pub Field, it again produced a minimum of 5 CHIFFCHAFF, but there was no sign of a Blackcap today, in fact no other warbler species were seen this morning.

Over at the Scrubby Woods there seemed to have been an influx of GOLDCRESTS, I kept hearing them call and despite there diminutive size, I watched more than once as they chased other birds around, one such bird was a COAL TIT, another a TREECREEPER  :-)  I also found LONG TAILED TIT, NUTHATCH, and BULLFINCH as I wandered through the woods.

A look over the lakes was a disappointment, nothing but the usual species were found, however, I did see a LITTLE EGRET fly over, the second this month and just the third this year.

I finished the visit with a sky watch back over at Migrant Alley, but first had another look through the Greenhouse Grounds, where another 2 Chiffchaffs and the GREY WAGTAIL pair had turned up. My sky watch didn't add too much more excitement to the morning, but SPARROWHAWK, BUZZARD and the KESTREL pair were all watched, and a LITTLE OWL was heard to call from the Greenhouse Copse.

In the very dismal light today it was useless to try and get any photo's and it was frustrating later this afternoon when I had good views of Treecreeper, Chiffchaff and Goldcrest in my garden, I also had some very close views of the Sparrowhawk, I did try to get an image or two, but at shutter speeds of less than 100th of a second, they just turned out crap!! All I have to brighten the post today are a couple of Dunnock images I took from my garden yesterday.

Dunnock

Ive been accused of ''gluing'' down the birds to get a good image, thats not true, although as you can see in the above image I do screw them down!!  :-)  :-)