Pittswood Birds

A much cooler morning, with low cloud and a moderately strong westerly wind, made it feel a little Autumnal today.

As yesterday, I walked a circuit of Migrant Alley, scanning the fields and fences for a possible very early passage 'chat', but none were found, unsurprisingly  :-)  One of the paddocks had the PIED WAGTAIL flock on it again, I counted 22 today, an adjacent paddock had 65 STARLINGS feeding on it. The sheep pasture was home to the 6 GREYLAG GEESE again, I reckon a few more may turn up to join them as Autumn progresses.

After checking the fields, I had a 90 minute sky watch, hoping for a possible wader to fly over, or more likely a House Martin or Mistlethrush to add to the months list, alas, none of those were seen, in fact very little was, just the 3 Gull species of LESSER BLACK BACKED, HERRING and BLACK HEADED GULL, plus the 3 raptor species of KESTREL, SPARROWHAWK and BUZZARD were of any note.

I headed off to the Scrubby Woods and lakes, on the way passing through the Small Holding I heard the first LITTLE OWL (53) of the month calling, then passing through the Wet Woods I met up with the TREECREEPER family again, still scrabbling around the same Oak Tree as yesterday. Arriving at the lakes I scanned the 3 water bodies, 4 MALLARDS were seen initially, but I then found the female MANDARIN DUCK (54) with just one youngster, my first sight of her this month.

In the adjacent Scrubby Woods the wind made it difficult to here much, but it was just possible to hear the likes of BLACKCAP, CHIFFCHAFF, SONGTHRUSH, GOLDCREST, and COAL TIT singing, plus the calls of NUTHATCH, STOCK DOVE, and BULLFINCH, I had hoped to hear or see something of the Turtle Dove pair, but they remain elusive this month.

Hardly any insects about in the cool, windy weather, a few Meadow Brown Butterflies and a couple of White-legged Damselflies the only ones braving the conditions  :-)

Meadow Brown

Female White-legged Damselfly