Pittswood Birds

Another Grey and miserable morning, with a cool wind and frequent rain showers, a few bright spells were had later in the afternoon.

After hardly getting out at all yesterday, I was determined to get a full patch walk in today, where in the 5 hour visit ( plus another 90 mins in the afternoon) I recorded 45 bird species, still a bit low for an August full patch walk, with the likes of Treecreeper, Long Tailed Tit, Pheasant, Skylark, Stock Dove, Greylag and Canada Geese, plus Yellowhammer all not seen, when they could well of been expected.

I did find a few passage migrant species today, which made the visit more pleasing, with a WHEATEAR at Migrant Alley, where there were also flyovers from a group of 5 then 1 YELLOW WAGTAIL plus 2 SAND MARTINS, a pair of RED LEGGED PARTRIDGES were also seen, probably the pair seen earlier in the month, a rare sighting here!

It was also pleasing to see 4 raptor species, 2 BUZZARDS, a SPARROWHAWK and a fantastic PEREGRINE were all up hunting, while the two KESTREL young had returned to the Greenhouse Grounds, where WHITETHROAT, BLACKCAP and CHIFFCHAFF were seen along with the 50+ GOLDFINCH flock.

Kestrel on the Greenhouses

My walk through the Small Holding, Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods provided sightings of the likes of GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, SONGTHRUSH, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH, JAY, and COAL TIT, plus all the common regular stuff. The most numerous of which were in the Scrubby Woods, where a few more Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Whitethroat were seen on the Elder Bushes.

The lakes had a few MALLARD and MOORHEN on them, plus a KINGFISHER, but no Grey Heron or Mandarin Duck today, two more species that could have reasonably be expected to be on the days list.