Pittswood Birds

A slight frost, with a slight mist for this mornings full patch walk, some sunny spells were to be enjoyed, but equally so was there some cloudy spells.

A modest bird species total was recorded considering it's April, with 46 being found, a few of the woodland species were missing, like Nuthatch, Jay and Coal Tit, presumably they are keeping low during nesting activities. I did see LONG TAILED TITS, BULLFINCH, TREECREEPERS, GOLDCRESTS, STOCK DOVE, GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKERS though, and it was good to here the BLACKCAPS singing again, one from the Scrubby Woods and one from the Greenhouse Grounds, those and the CHIFFCHAFFS are making for a more springlike sound to parts of my patch.

The MISTLETHRUSH nest was checked, all is ok so far with the female bird sitting tight, the lakes were scanned, but just the normal residents were found, however, I was pleased to see one of the COOTS again after not being seen for 3 days, maybe it was here all the time and the other is on nesting duties  :-)

All was much the same on the sheep pasture and paddocks of Migrant Alley, no sign of a Wheatear, I think i've missed out this spring, the place is just so disturbed now  :-(  There were still a few HERRING and LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS about for a short while, plus the LITTLE OWL was over in the nearby Greenhouse Copse, the KESTREL pair flitted to and from their nest box at the Greenhouse Grounds, the only other raptor seen today were the numerous BUZZARDS that floated high overhead.

Flyovers from SKYLARK and MEADOW PIPIT were the best of the sky watch, which also had me watching the local SWALLOWS feeding over the sheep pasture, 4 are now 'home'. 

The final species added to my list was a bit of a surprise, my first RING NECKED PARAKEET (77, 62) of the year was seen to fly from a large ash tree in a garden along Ashes Lane, making its raucous call as it went.

I took a few images of the Little Owl again today, as it was in ''stick free'' view, i'll post them once i've edited them, in the meantime here's a Pied Wagtail from my visit to Bough Beech yesterday, photographed as it bathed and preened  :-)

It was quite distant and the images are cropped quite a bit, but they are ok I reckon  :-)

Once it had bathed, it flew up onto a pile of wood to preen

all the time keeping a watchful eye out for 'sprawks'  :-)

Clean, shiny and ready to go!