Pittswood Birds

Blue skies disappeared by mid morning, as has often been the case recently, leaving a few sunny spells and a gusty wing for the rest of the day.

Being August, I am anticipating the arrival of some passage birds, but so far nothing at all has turned up here on my patch, in fact it is very quiet all round. Very little was of note this morning, a few WHITETHROATS, plus the young KESTRELS at the Greenhouse Grounds kept me amused for a while, a SPARROWHAWK flew over Migrant Alley, and a little later the other regular raptor, the BUZZARD was seen over the Ashes Lane Fields.

A female MANDARIN DUCK was again on the main lake, while the Small Holding, Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods provide all the regulars, except Long Tailed Tit, the best of those being, BULLFINCH, COAL TIT, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, BLACKCAP, CHIFFCHAFF, SONGTHRUSH, JAY, STOCK DOVE, GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKERS.

Whilst in the Scrubby Woods I watched a Southern Hawker Dragonfly come to rest low down on a thistle, just the right pose, a decent background, but in indifferent light, I did get some nice images of it though................

Southern Hawker Dragonfly, Male

This afternoon I made a visit to Sevenoaks Wildfowl Reserve, with the idea of finding some Odonata, but the skies soon went very dark, so that plan went out the window. I ended up in the Willow Hide, where an obliging Kingfisher sat on the provided stick, trouble is the stick is 20 meters away! The light was dismal as well, so I took a few record shots and left frustrated!

Kingfisher, out in the gloom!