Pittswood Birds

Hazy sunshine and a gusty breeze made for a reasonably pleasant full patch walk early this morning, in which a decent tally of 48 species was seen, the first spring migrant remains elusive, but a few interesting birds species were found, as well as my first two Butterfly species of the year.

Finding 5 Gull species on my patch is not a regular occurrence, but for the second time this week I did just that, with the BLACK HEADED GULL flock at Migrant Alley containing both a single COMMON GULL and the 2 MEDITERRANEAN GULLS, whilst HERRING GULL and a a pair of LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS flew over.

Raptors were about too, with the KESTREL pair, 3 BUZZARDS and a pair of SPARROWHAWK all up hunting in the area. Only one FIELDFARE was seen this morning but not a single Redwing was recorded, maybe due to all the raptors about!

All the scarcer woodland species were found today, with COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, BULLFINCH, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, MISTLETHRUSH and STOCK DOVE being seen or heard, as well as the commoner GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKERS.

Flyovers from YELLOWHAMMER, PIED WAGTAIL, MEADOW PIPIT and SKYLARK were the most noteworthy today.

Later in the afternoon I ventured out to try and find some Butterflies and was successful, finding both Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock Butterfly, only the latter stopping briefly, allowing for my only photo taken today. Todays Peacock record is a day earlier than last years first date, but the Small Tortoiseshell is 7 days later.

Peacock Butterfly - the years first