Pittswood Birds

Only a short patch visit was made today, the rain and wind swept in by 09:00hrs, which lasted for the remainder of the day.

I spent the short visit walking a circuit of Migrant Alley, then had a sky watch while I waited for the rain to arrive. Only 4 GREYLAG GEESE were on the sheep pasture today, but early dog walkers may have already put any others to flight, the ROOKS and JACKDAWS remained as always though. The Wooded Headland and Greenhouse Copse had between them a few BLACKCAP and CHIFFCHAFF, plus I heard the YELLOWHAMMER singing from High House Lane, some 400 meters away. Two WHITETHROAT were in the hedgerow of the Greenhouse Grounds, where the KESTREL young were seen, along with the adult male, one of the youngsters was comical to watch as it tried to pounce on the PIED WAGTAILS that were in the greenhouses, it continually ran the length of the guttering trying to figure out how to get at them!

My short sky watch provided me with a few HERRING GULLS, 1 LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, 4 BLACK HEADED GULLS, 1 GREY HERON, 7 SWIFTS, a singing SKYLARK and a single BUZZARD, but the visit was proved worthwhile, when a SAND MARTIN (63) was seen flying amongst the local SWALLOWS, that takes the July list onto 63, which puts it in joint 9th place out of 14, the same tally that was achieved in 2012.

No images from today, as the weather was so poor, but I have a few garden bird images taken from my feeding station yesterday.

There are up to a dozen GREENFINCH eating the sunflower hearts, most of them juveniles, lets hope disease and Sprawks give them a break this year!

Similar numbers of GOLDFINCH are also visiting, again most being juvenile birds.

Its good to have a pair of HOUSE SPARROWS coming and going as they take food away to their

 young

House Sparrow female

Up to 7 COLLARED DOVES also make use of my feeders

A pair of WOODPIGEONS are becoming very bold as they hoover up the spilt seed  :-)