Pittswood Birds

Again the morning was fine, with long sunny spells, the wind picked up and cloud increased as the day wore on though.

Another 5 hour full patch walk, in which a disappointing total of just 42 species was recorded, brought no rewards as far as adding species to the June birds list or breeding bird list and there are 10 more species still to find to make it to the 13 year June average total. I still hope to find Tawny Owl, also a flyover House Martin or Yellowhammer, maybe even the Lesser Whitethroat will turn up, or the Spotted Flycatcher, both might just be breeding in one of the large gardens on my patch. Black Headed Gull, Mandarin Duck, plus perhaps the Tufted Duck that have been visiting the lakes throughout the this year might also be seen, but that still leaves me short by 2 species!

The best of todays meager pickings however, concerned a few flyover HERRING and LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS, plus a couple of local low flying BUZZARDS over the Ashes Lane Fields. The KESTREL pair were watched hunting and taking food to their nestlings, hopefully in a couple of weeks this species can join this years 'successfully bred' list  :-)

The Scrubby Woods, and Wet Woods provided all that I could expect in June, with COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, BULLFINCH, GREENFINCH, GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, MISTLETHRUSH, STOCK DOVE, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER and GREEN WOODPECKER being the best of them, but there was no sign of yesterdays Marsh Tit.

Dragonflies were few today, a newly emerged Four Spotted Chaser was found in the Scrubby Woods and a few White-legged Damsels were along the edge of the Wet Woods, similarly few Butterflies were seen, a Small Copper was the first here for June.

Four Spotted Chaser

These Herring Gulls are courtesy of my wales trip  :-)

Buzzard - yes, a Welsh one!