Pittswood Birds

Heavy rain meant my patch walk was aborted yesterday morning, so a missed day again, then frustratingly the weather was even worse this morning! The rain persisted throughout the day, but there was a brief 90 minute spell around 11:00hrs when it eased, allowing me to get out for a short patch visit.

I walked over to the lakes via the Wet Woods, where I didn't see very much at all, I was hoping for a Treecreeper or Mistlethrush to add to the months list. I looked for the Little Grebe on the main lake, there is always a chance that it may still be around, but I didn't find it, just 4 MALLARDS and a couple of MOORHEN were seen, the MUTE SWAN family and a KINGFISHER were seen on the ornamental lake.

I headed off to the Ashes lane Fields, where a few bits of interest were found, looking back towards the Wet Woods, a SPARROWHAWK was seen sitting in a tree, then scanning the hedgerow that forms the boundary with the Pub Field I saw a BUZZARD being mobbed by one of the local KESTRELS. A small Elder Tree along the drainage ditch was full of movement and looking through my bins I saw it was a mixed flock of 9 BLUE TITS, 4 GREAT TITS, 6 LONG TAILED TITS and best of all a CHIFFCHAFF (47) to add to the November list. I was heading for the Greenhouse Grounds when the sky turned very dark, a precursor to the next downpour, so I headed off home, just making it in time to avoid a soaking. What a poor start to November  :-(

Being at home for most of the day gave me chance to have the occasional scan of my garden feeders, where it was good to have a peak count of 22 GOLDFINCH  :-)

I've a few garden images left in the blog folder..............

STARLING

CHAFFINCH