Pittswood Birds

A persistent light rain fell up until 09:00hrs, making it feel miserable first thing this morning, however, once the rain cleared it felt very mild, especially in the fleeting sunshine that was had  :-)

I was out on my patch for a little over four hours, I didn't find too much of interest at the lakes and woods and in the dull, wet conditions, bird song was at a premium, ROBIN and WREN were the only songsters heard. Only one pair of CANADA GEESE remained at the lakes, along with the MUTE SWAN and COOT pairs, not a single MALLARD was seen on the water, but two pairs were on the pools of water in the Wet Woods, along with at least a dozen MOORHEN.

By the time I reached the farmland area of my patch the rain had ceased and some very short bursts of sunshine were much appreciated. Finding a flock of 10 YELLOWHAMMERS along High House Lane was a real surprise, i've not seen this many hear for years, there was a pair of LONG TAILED TITS working their way along the lane too. The adjacent fields were again attracting many winter thrushes, with at least 400 seen, they were split 60/40 in favour of FIELDFARE over REDWING.

The LITTLE OWLS were both sitting in their usual roost tree today, not seen them there since the 22nd. The female KESTREL was hunting around the Greenhouses Grounds, and scanning out onto the nearby sheep pasture and paddocks of Migrant Alley, I saw 77 BLACK HEADED GULLS, 3 COMMON GULLS, and 88 WOODPIGEON, but only 27 ROOKS and 19 JACKDAWS had turned up today.

As it was warmer and windless, I decided to have a skywatch from my seat, this proved interesting, as I had my first REED BUNTING (68,65) of the year fly over, plus a CORMORANT, a MEADOW PIPIT, a SPARROWHAWK, a BUZZARD and two MORE Yellowhammers.

It's good to get the year list moving again, as well as the months list, this February now reaching joint 4th place in the rankings and at 65 has now reached the mean average species count for the previous 5 Februaries  :-)

Black Headed Gull on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley