Pittswood Birds

Once the early mist cleared, today turned out to be sunny and warm, a real bonus day considering it's late September  :-)

I made a full patch walk this morning, the five hours bringing in a very healthy 51 species, although nothing too exciting was seen, and I failed to add any new species to the months list.

The MEADOW PIPITS are still on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, though maybe a little fewer than of late, certainly more than 60 were seen early in the walk, also, five SWALLOWS flew over, the only ones recorded today, the only other birds of note here were 5 LINNETS. A BLACKCAP was in the Greenhouse Grounds, the first i've seen for a week, it was with 2 CHIFFCHAFFS, one of the GREY WAGTAILS also dropped in whilst I was there. The Greenhouse Copse had a LITTLE OWL half hidden amongst branches of a tree and as I photographed what I could of it, a MISTLETHRUSH flew over calling.

Little Owl

I headed for the Scrubby Woods and Lake area, via the Pub Field and Ashes lane Fields, the Pub Fields looks to have been sewn with Wheat now, on it were a few PIED WAGTAILS, a couple of STOCK DOVES and 4 more Meadow Pipits. The Ashes Lane Fields were mostly devoid of birds, except for MAGPIES and CARRION CROWS, but this female PHEASANT was on the edge of the field where it meets the Wet Woods,.........

Well camouflaged female Pheasant, I took a snap and walked off, leaving her where she was  :-)

In the Scrubby Woods I found of note, GOLDCREST, COAL TIT, BULLFINCH, JAY, NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, GREEN WOODPECKER, another 2 Chiffchaffs and more GREAT and BLUE TITS than of late. The adjacent lakes were disturbed by fisherman again, just the normal stuff there, but a KINGFISHER did fly across the main lake, and a pair of CANADA GEESE dropped in for a few minutes.

The Wet Woods, which has now almost completely dried out, had a few MOORHEN scampering around, plus the usual WRENS, ROBINS, DUNNOCKS, BLACKBIRDS were also seen there. Moving on to the Small Holding another Little Owl called, a few CHAFFINCH and GOLDFINCH were found, then I met up with a mixed feeding flock, containing LONG TAILED TITS, Blue Tits, Great Tits, two more Chiffchaffs, Goldcrest and another Coal Tit, the only SONGTHRUSH of the day was also found nearby.

My last action of the day was to partake in a sky watch from my seat at Migrant Alley, which turned out to be a bit of a BUZZARD watch! No fewer than 10 were seen soaring up together, other sightings of two's, three's and four's were presumed to be the same birds, but who knows! The KESTREL pair were seen, as were the SPARROWHAWK pair, a REED BUNTING called as it went over, and lots of HERRING GULLS and BLACK HEADED GULLS flew past, I was sure I heard a Yellow Wagtail too, but had to dismiss it as I couldn't be sure, the reason being the Meadow Pipits were all flushed up and were also calling loudly!

Talking of Meadow Pipits, I got a few nice images of one to brighten the post today  :-)