Pittswood Birds

An hours sunshine was nice while it lasted first thing this morning, thereafter it was cloudy and cool, but at least that wind had dropped!

I carried out a 4 hour full patch walk this morning, which yielded a good tally of 45 species, nothing new for the month or year list, but enough of interest for a winters day.

The passerines were much easier to find in the Scrubby Woods and Wet Woods in the calmer conditions, with NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, BULLFINCH, CHAFFINCH, COAL TIT, GOLDCREST, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, JAY, SONGTHRUSH and a SPARROWHAWK that was calling loudly, all being found, four PHEASANTS seen in the Scrubby Woods are new arrivals there.

The Small Holding added the only GREENFINCHES of the visit, also GREEN WOODPECKER and 2 more Bullfinches were noted there. Out on the fields and farmland the REDWING, FIELDFARE, STARLINGS, ROOKS, JACKDAWS, CARRION CROWS, WOODPIGEONS and BLACKHEADED GULLS were all around in good numbers, the Black Headed Gull flock had no less than 8 COMMON GULLS with them, an all time patch peak count!

Two LONG TAILED TITS at the Greenhouse Grounds were the only ones seen today, plus a LITTLE OWL was seen in the Greenhouse Copse again. The better weather conditions allowed me to record a few flyover species for the days list, with single YELLOWHAMMER, SKYLARK, PIED WAGTAIL, CORMORANT and BUZZARD all passing over Migrant Alley, a single MEADOW PIPIT flew over the Greenhouses as I walked home, the only one seen today, as the flock normally seen on the Ashes Lane Fields wasn't there today.

This afternoon I enjoyed a good 3 hours watching my garden feeders, which in itself yielded 22 species, top bird was a Treecreeper that spent most of the afternoon scurrying around the Elder tree, pity there was no light to photograph it :-(  Other good garden species that turned up were - 2 Nuthatch, 2 Coal Tit, 4 Long Tailed Tit, a Songthrush, a WREN and of course........a Sparrowhawk!

Images from my garden earlier in the week when the sun was out................

BLACKBIRD

BLUE TIT

Wren