Pittswood Birds

A day of two halves weatherwise, up until 13:00hrs it was overcast cool and windy, but thereafter it became slowly sunnier and warmer.

In the cloudy, windy morning visit, I found just 43 species, I would expect 48-50 for a May visit, but I have to take what I can get! Birdsong was a little subdued, the 2 WHITETHROATS at the Greenhouse Grounds did their bit, as did the CHIFFCHAFF and BLACKCAP at the Greenhouse copse.

Only the LINNETS were of much note on the Fields and Paddocks of Migrant Alley, but two HERRING GULLS and a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL that flew over, were ok birds for May. Up to 10 SWALLOWS gleaned what insects they could on over sheep pasture.

Only the Nuthatch wasn't recorded out of the scarcer woodland species, but they are nesting in the Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods, 2 pairs of different COAL TITS were seen, up to 6 GOLDCRESTS, 2 pairs of BULLFINCH and a 2 pairs of TREECREEPERS, they all have nests on the go and talking of breeding I found my first newly fledged BLACKBIRD of the season, but thats still only the fourth species to go on the ''successfully bred'' list.

Just after midday I made an afternoon visit to the scrubby Woods to look for Dragonflies and Butterflies, I didn't have too much hope at first as the sky was still cloudy, but slowly the sun made an appearance and within 10 seconds of doing so a TURTLE DOVE started to sing, just briefly, but enough to gladden the day no end. As it got warmer, the sky was full of twittering HOUSE MARTINS for a few minutes, as well as at least 5 SWIFTS as they passed over on their way NW, two BUZZARDS circled low over the woods and my second HOBBY of the year zipped low over too, that took the days bird list to 48, much better :-)

As the temperature rose, I was more optimistic about finding some Dragons and Butterflies, of the latter I saw Holly Blue, Large, Small and Green Veined Whites, Peacock, Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, my fist Brimstone of the month and quite a few Orange Tips, of which I got some pleasing photo's of, I'll post them tomorrow, as I also found a couple of Odonata species, the first being a Beautiful Demoiselle, which I also got lots of images of. The first Azure Damselfly turned up too, and another sighting of the fantastic Downy Emerald was had, but it didn't stay for photo's! 

Here's the Beautiful Demoiselle images, an immature male I reckon  :-)

It was quite obliging, moving from place to place to get the best of the sunshine which kept comming and going.