Pittswood Birds

For the third morning in a row, low cloud and a wetting drizzle covered the area, so I had a lie in this morning!

I eventually did get out around 08:30hrs, when it was still, dull and cloudy, with spits of rain, but very humid with it. I went and had a look for the KESTREL family at the Greenhouse Grounds, where I found both youngsters and the female, one youngster sat just 6 meters from me and the greenhouse grounds foreman as we were chatting, it just preened itself contentedly as if we weren't there! I then had a sky watch from my seat overlooking the fields and paddocks at Migrant Alley for a couple of hours, where a couple of bits and pieces of interest flew over, the top one being a PEREGRINE that flew high over, finally alighting on the tower in the village square. A CORMORANT also flew over, only the third this month, as did a lone HOUSE MARTIN, just the second one of this species for July. I heard SISKIN going over on 3 different occasions, how many birds were involved I couldn't say, as they were too high up to find. The first BUZZARD since the 8th was seen, plus GREY HERON and HERRING GULL made up the more notable fly throughs.

The sun starting to break through the cloud around 11:00hrs, making it feel very humid and sticky, so I made a visit to the Scrubby Woods to look for dragonflies and Butterflies, of the former I saw a couple of Brown Hawkers, a lone Emperor Dragonfly and a few White-legged Damselflies, while for the butterflies I recorded Large and Small Whites, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Red Admiral, Meadow Brown, Small and Large Skippers, Small Copper, Comma, Gatekeeper and best of all a patch tick Marbled White Butterfly, the 29th species I have recorded here, unfortunately it didn't hang about for a photo  :-(  Checking the main lake as I left, I saw an immature MANDARIN DUCK, so one did survive out of the brood that bred here after all  :-)

Not much of a bird visit today, I lost a bit of focus in the sticky, uncomfortable conditions, I even rushed the photo's I took, but they will do to brighten the blog!

Peacock Butterfly, absolutely pristine  :-)

Gatekeeper

Small Skipper

White-legged Damselfly