Pittswood Birds

The last full patch walk and penultimate patch visit for March was undertaken in improved weather, with sunny spells and variable cloud cover at times, although a strong chilly wind still blew.

My 6 hour visit came up with a very good tally of exactly 50 species, no new spring arrivals were on the list, so the March tally looks like it will be languishing down in joint 7th place out 14, that is unless something turns up tomorrow  :-)

The 50 species I did see included the 3 regular raptor species to be found on my patch, those being COMMON BUZZARD, KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK, the LITTLE OWL was also seen at the Greenhouse Copse and another heard at the Small Holding.

The sheep pasture had 4 HERRING GULLS, 1 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL and just 1 BLACK HEADED GULL this morning, I wonder if the main flock have now moved off to their breeding grounds? Also on the fields were 2 FIELDFARE, the only winter thrushes seen on my walk.

The wooded areas produced all that I expected, except for Nuthatch and Long Tailed Tit, the pick of those that were seen were the displaying GOLDCREST pair, the nest building TREECREEPER, plus singing CHIFFCHAFF and COAL TIT. The lakes were as they have been for a while now, just CANADA GEESE, GREYLAG GEESE, MUTE SWAN, MALLARD, COOT and MOORHEN were on the water, I wonder where my old friend the Barnacle Goose has gone ? Ive not seen him this month.  :-)

Noteworthy flyovers seen today were the light passage of MEADOW PIPITS, plus a couple of YELLOWHAMMERS, a couple of SKYLARKS, a CORMORANT and a GREY HERON.

Despite some reasonable light nothing came near for a photograph, so i have snapped a few of my common garden visitors to brighten the blog, nothing different is visiting there either!

Not seen out on my patch walk, but a pair of LONG TAILED TITS were in my garden, as was a NUTHATCH......52 species for the day  :-)

GREENFINCH