Pittswood Birds

Another cool and cloudy morning, with a strengthening southerly wind greeted me this for this mornings patch visit, the cloud broke a little later and some sunny spells were had this afternoon.

Another look for a possible Spotted Flycatcher in the last known territory over at the far and of Ashes lane, proved fruitless again, however, I went on to find 47 other species during the 8 and a half hour visit, none were new for the May list though.

Much of todays sightings were as yesterday, the only species added to then, being a YELLOWHAMMER that was singing at the Greenhouse Copse and a CORMORANT that flew over Migrant Alley early on in the visit.

Two BUZZARDS were hunting over the Ashes Lane Fields and Pub Field, the only other raptor today was the male KESTREL that spent most of the day hunting along Ashes Lane.

Of the regular resident woodland birds, only the Nuthatch avoided detection, but as I searched for those, a MISTLETHRUSH pair were seen in the Scrubby Woods feeding at least 1 newly fledged youngster, one more for the 'successfully bred' list  :-)

Flyovers from SWIFT, HOUSE MARTIN, HERRING GULL and the already mentioned Cormorant were the highlights of a chilly mid morning sky watch.

The afternoon part of my patch visit was spent chasing Butterflies and looking for Dragons and Damsels, few were seen, but finding my first Hairy Dragonfly was the highlight of the day for me, I even got a record shot of it  :-)

My first Hairy Dragonfly of the year, the same date as its first sighting last year.

A couple of these Large Red Damsels were also seen, along with some very flighty Azures

This Brimstone Butterfly gave me a rare opportunity to photograph this species, but it was just a bit too high up and in some very fierce light.