Pittswood Birds

At last a bit of sun!

Shame it's not set to stay  :-(

With a morning of virtually clear skies and sunshine, I set off for a full patch walk, where straight away the better conditions provided much better birding. As I left my house the sound of singing ROBIN, DUNNOCK and WREN were all heard, plus GREAT TITS gave their spring calls.

Half a dozen MEADOW PIPIT flew up from the Ashes Lane Fields, where overhead the only 2 FIELDFARE of the morning flew past, as did a CORMORANT, also the first BLACK HEADED GULLS made their way to the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley.

The lakes had no visiting ducks today and the COOT was again on its own on the ornamental lake, I wonder where it's partner is, can't be on a nest already! A search through the Scrubby Woods was very productive, with NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH, COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT and GOLDCREST all being found, but more excitingly for my patch was the pair of WOODCOCK (57) that got up in front of me, a really good species to get on my year list, especially with the winter being so warm this year  :-)

I found a TREECREEPER in the Wet Woods, which I heard singing, plus a JAY screeched, a STOCK DOVE sang and GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKERS both called, then all went quiet after a SPARROWHAWK flew through!

The Small Holding was only notable for the gathering of GOLDFINCH and CHAFFINCH, around 20 birds in all, but the hoped for Brambling wasn't among them.

I went over and checked the Greenhouse Copse and found the expected LITTLE OWL at its roost, plus half a dozen REDWING feeding amongst the leaf litter, the nearby Greenhouse Grounds was full of DUNNOCKS, BLACKBIRDS and Wrens, plus also another pair of Bullfinch, 4 PIED WAGTAILS, a GREY WAGTAIL and the male KESTREL.

Checking the Black Headed Gull flock out on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley didn't get me a Med Gull, just a COMMON GULL, later, as I was photographing the Gulls, a BUZZARD flew low over and a YELLOWHAMMER did likewise a few minutes later.

That was a much better visit, with 47 species being found, amazing what a bit of decent weather can do!

Here's some of the Black Headed Gull pics I took.......