Pittswood Birds

This morning was very different to yesterday morning, gone was the blue sky and sunshine, back was the cloud, which by 10:00hrs gave some showery bursts of rain, it remained quite warm though and very sticky.

Before the rain came I made a circuit of Migrant Alley, and the Ashes Lane Fields, then checked the Greenhouse Grounds with its associated Copse. The Greenhouse Grounds had been stripped virtually bare of all its long grass, wildflowers and thistles, a gang of eastern European migrant workers, glad of a job, spent most of yesterday afternoon and today strimming the brilliant habitat down to sad piles of mulch. Just a small area of the grounds is now wildlife friendly, but for how much longer? Fortunately this is where the WHITETHROAT is nesting, though no young were observed today, the female birds was again seen carrying food, lets hope they fledge quickly!

The female KESTREL had moved across to hunt over the Ashes Lane Fields, where I spied a male PHEASANT (45) in the hedgerow, something for the July list! A GREY HERON (46) flew over, also new for the July list, but not much else was seen before the rain came.

In a brighter, but very humid spell this afternoon, I made a visit to the Scrubby Woods, via the Wet Woods, in the latter I found another TREECREEPERS nest with audible young, an adult was seen bringing in food, this species has bred well on my patch this year, with at least four broods that I know of. In the Scrubby Woods there was a bit of bird song, with CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP, SONGTHRUSH, GOLDCREST, COAL TIT and DUNNOCK all singing, I also saw a pair of BULLFINCH (47) to add to the July tally.

Nothing but CANADA GEESE, the odd MALLARD and a couple of MOORHEN families were on the lakes, whilst I was there though, the six GREYLAG GEESE that I had seen earlier this morning on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley dropped in.

I had search for Dragons and Damsels, which were few in number, but I did see singles of both Banded and Beautiful Demoiselle, as well as two Emperor Dragonflies, plus a few Azure, Common Blue and White-legged Damselflies, the latter of which I took a few images of, not too good in the poor light though.

Male White-legged Damsel

Another male

The ''puffed out'' white legs can be seen clearly on this close up

 The two images above are of the same WLD in the same place, but note how the light changing affects the image

I also found a female to photograph

Taking images from both side  :-)

NO POST TOMORROW AS I'M OFF TO THE COAST FOR A MUCH NEEDED BREAK FROM THE NOISY STRIMMERS  :-(