Pittswood Birds

I was awoken at 03:45hrs by the sound of a TAWNY OWL (61) hooting from the Wet Woods area that lies to the rear of my house, a welcome boost for the June list! Shortly after, the dawn chorus broke, with BLACKBIRDS, SONGTHRUSH, ROBIN, DUNNOCK and WOODPIGEON all being heard as I tried to wake up  :-)

After a swift cup of tea, I spent just a couple of hours out visiting my patch, as I had other plans for the rest of the morning, but the time spent walking a circuit of Migrant Alley and looking over the Greenhouse grounds was worth the effort, as I added another species to the June list when a SISKIN (62) was heard calling as it flew over, unbelievably, just the second this year! A GREY HERON was also seen flying over, as were 2 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULLS and 4 HERRING GULLS. A group of 15 STARLINGS were seen drinking and bathing in one of the water troughs, until moved on by a couple of ROOKS.

I walked past the nest site of the WHITETHROAT in the Greenhouse Grounds, hoping to see some fledgling activity, but one of the adult birds scolded me from a nearby bush with a beak full of food, so it looks like the young are still in the nest. I fared a bit better with the KESTREL family, where one youngster was out of the box on a nearby roof, but the other was still in the box, but I have decided to add them to the 'successfully bred' list anyway, that moves on to 34 species now.  :-)

Nothing for the camera this morning, but these Welsh Siskin images have been sitting in the blog folder for a while now, I thought it would be apt to post them today.  :-)

Siskin - a scarce species on my patch in June, but not entirely a surprise, as I have recorded Siskin in two previous Junes, those records being in 2002 and 2014

Siskin brings the months bird species total to 62, which is in tenth place out of fourteen