Pittswood Birds

Blue skies this morning, with just a few fair weather clouds bubbling up later and little wind, made for a pleasant enough patch walk.

I was out for a little over 3 hours, mainly checking the fields and paddocks of Migrant Alley, the Greenhouse Grounds with its associated copse, plus the Ashes Lane Fields. I didn't come across the hoped for ''chat'' or Yellow Wagtail, but it is still a little early for those here. I was glad to find the first SKYLARK (59) of the month out on the sheep pasture, they are always hard to find on my patch in August, also there, were the regulars of ROOK, STARLING, LINNET, CARRION CROW, JACKDAW, and WOODPIGEON, plus a family of 4 GREEN WOODPECKERS.

The Greenhouse Grounds were once again the preferred home of the two KESTREL youngsters, after their absence yesterday, just a couple of WHITETHROATS, a CHIFFCHAFF and a BLACKCAP were the only notable species seen in and around the Copse.

The Ashes Lane Fields also failed to produce a ''chat'' but they are less likely here than at Migrant Alley, a couple of BUZZARDS flew low over, eventually settling on an adjacent garden fence line, and a SPARROWHAWK was chased through by a pack of 30 odd SWALLOWS, they in turn put the 20 odd GOLDFINCHES that were on a patch of thistles to flight!

A short walk through the Scrubby Woods produced most of the regulars, the GOLDRESTS and TREECREEPERS were in song again, the latter had yet another brood of young, which were calling incessantly from somewhere in a large Oak. The BULLFINCH families were again watched feeding on the Elder Bushes, along with some more BLACKCAP and CHIFFCHAFF, whle COAL TIT, NUTHATCH, JAY, STOCK DOVE and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS all called in the background.

I checked the lakes.......just in case! Little was seen as is usual at this time of year, just one or two MALLARDS, a few MOORHENS, a family of CANADA GEESE and an immature GREY HERON.

Not much for the camera today, despite the nice lighting early on........

This Woodpigeon was exercising and stretching its wings.

The Migrant Hawkers have now come out in force, these will most likely be the last Odonata species i'll find on my patch this year, but it's been a good year, with 20 species being found, last year I found 19 and in 2013 I found 18, that's as far back as my Odonata exploits go!