Pittswood Birds

The weather had changed today, gone were the blue skies and sunshine, back were the low cloud and light patchy rain.

I spent 4 hours out this morning, during which an early walk over to the paddocks and sheep pasture of Migrant Alley produced much the same as previous mornings, although subtle changes were noted, giving away the presence of the encroaching Autumn, like the two CHIFFCHAFFS that were seen in one of the field boundary hedges, not a place they care to frequent most times of the year. Also the gathering numbers of SWALLOWS that were over the sheep pasture, most of them this years young, hinted at Autumn, those and the 60+ STARLINGS that fed out on the paddocks, again, mostly this years birds.

After the circuit of Migrant Alley, I took up my sky watching seat, and was rewarded today with another feature of early Autumn, a flyover of 4 LAPWINGS (59), one for the JULY list. I also watched a procession of HERRING GULLS go over, all heading SW, as well as 5 BLACK HEADED GULLS. A SKYLARK was up singing, plus half a dozen SWIFTS wheeled around the sky for a while, the cackle of Geese heralded the arrival of the 6 GREYLAGS, which dropped down on the pasture. Beside my seat, in the boundary hedgerow that separates Migrant Alley from the Greenhouse Grounds, a WHITETHROAT gave some short bursts of song, and a party of 16 LONG TAILED TITS moved through, with them were a few BLUE and GREAT TITS. A TREECREEPER was heard calling from the Greenhouse Copse, where a SONGTHRUSH was also singing. Just as I was leaving, the KESTREL family showed up, and perched up on one of the Greenhouses.

I made my way over to the Woods, via the Small Holding, where I chanced upon the family of COAL TITS I had first seen a week earlier. The Woods were very quiet, but I did hear calls from GOLDCREST, NUTHATCH, GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKERS, as well as another Treecreeper, plus a bit of song from both BLACKCAP and Chiffchaff. I checked the lakes, but a party of overnight fisherman on the small lake kept everything away, except the MOORHENS!

Nothing for the camera today, didn't even take it with me in the poor light, but ive got a few images left from my blog folder  :-)

Ruddy Darter

Common Blue Damsels in the 'mating wheel'

Thought i'd post the last of yesterdays Golden Ringed Dragonfly images too, as it was such a mega find!  LoL

What a Dragon!