Pittswood Birds

Rain, sleet and wet snow fell early this morning, not clearing until gone 09:00hrs, so a late patch walk was had, lasting only two hours. Large parts of my patch walk are now saturated and can hold no more water, the mud is getting worse day by day on the footpaths.

I was in hope that the watery conditions on my patch would bring me my first Snipe of the year, but no luck with that, nor was there any finding a visiting new duck species on the lakes, only the MUTE SWAN pair and COOT pair were of note there today.

The Scrubby Woods had two pairs of BULLFINCH present, as well as a NUTHATCH and at least 4 GOLDCRESTS, while the Wet Woods had TREECREEPER, a singing COAL TIT, two more Goldcrests and at least 15 CHAFFINCHES feeding in the leaf litter.

A BUZZARD flew low over the Ashes Lane Field and the KESTREL pair were seen mating at the Greenhouse Grounds, where the GREY WAGTAIL had returned to feed on the drainage ditch there. The LITTLE OWL sat in its favoured roost tree at the Greenhouse Copse and a scan over Migrant Alley yielded 38 BLACK HEADED GULLS and 2 COMMON GULLS on one of the paddocks. Flyovers from single YELLOWHAMMER, 2 FIELDFARE and 4 REDWING were about it for this morning.

The poor light prevented me trying out the new camera I bought yesterday, and the only photo's left in the blog folder are these garden bird shots.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Chaffinch