Pittswood Birds

A slight frost greeted me this morning, but it soon cleared, leaving some long sunny spells with occasional cloud for the rest of the patch visit.

I spent the early part of my visit over at Migrant Alley, hoping that a migrant had appeared overnight, but nothing has arrived yet, apart from a couple more CHIFFCHAFFS, one was in the Greenhouse Grounds the other at the Greenhouse Copse, where I also saw one of the LITTLE OWLS. The sheep pasture and paddocks had at least 24 HERRING GULLS and just one BLACK HEADED GULL, but more impressive for my patch were the 13 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS that were also there. A pair of MANDARIN DUCK and a pair of MALLARDS were seen at the drainage ditch that runs along the edge of the sheep pasture, unusual to see theses here.

The KESTREL pair were up hunting over the Ashes Lane Field, where the continuation of the northward movement of MEADOW PIPITS was again witnessed, at least 8 birds flew over calling.

There was no change at the Lakes, or the Woods, I was sure that given the pleasant conditions today the years first Blackcap would have been heard singing, but even they haven't arrived here yet, only once in the previous 13 years have they been later than this, that was in 2008 when the first bird was heard to sing on the 9th April.

I ended up back over at Migrant Alley for a sky watch from my seat, but little was seen, just a few more Meadow Pipits going over, plus a couple of BUZZARDS and a SPARROWHAWK were of note, I did have the pleasure of watching my third SWALLOW of the year circling over Ashes Lane as I walked home though   :-)

There were at least some Butterflies about, with Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Green Veined White all being seen, alas I couldn't get any images of them, another photo-less post!