Pittswood Birds

There were some good sunny spells this morning, making it feel quite warm in sheltered spots. My visit today lasted until around midday, over 4 hours, but there was still not much to bother my notebook.

The KESTREL pair were sitting together on the Greenhouses as I passed early in the visit, then over at the Lakes a SPARROWHAWK flew along the bank of the main lake, less than 6in from the floor. The lakes themselves were empty of wildfowl, apart from the ornamental lake, where the immature MUTE SWAN was on its own today, it's parents having flown off to who knows where, it was at least kept company by the MOORHENS, MALLARDS and COOT pair  :-)

BULLFINCH, COAL TIT and NUTHATCH were the best on offer at the Scrubby Woods, a look through the Wet Woods was good for the usual GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, plus a JAY and 3 STOCK DOVES of further note.

A MISTLETHRUSH was seen as I made my way back across the Ashes Lane Fields, only the second record this month, two SKYLARKS flew over, they have been scarce birds this month too, another pretty scarce bird here, the YELLOWHAMMER, also flew over.

The Greenhouse Grounds was a little livlier than of late, a couple of MEADOW PIPITS were with the half a dozen PIED WAGTAILS there, and yesterdays GREY WAGTAIL was joined by a second bird. A party of 4 LONG TAILED TITS worked their way along the boundary hedgerow, where ROBINS, BLACKBIRDS, DUNNOCKS, WRENS and a single REDWING were also seen.

The sheep pasture and paddocks continues to attract a couple of hundred STARLINGS, a hundred or so ROOKS/JACKDAWS and around 70 BLACK HEADED GULLS, each one being scanned in case it was a Med Gull, no luck though! A BUZZARD soared over as I sat on my seat in some pleasant sunshine, the 3rd raptor of the day.

Female Kestrel at the Greenhouse Grounds

This Blackbird was enjoying a bathing session in the sunshine