Pittswood Birds

There was a dense fog this morning, which ruined any chance of finding much early on, however some sunny spells later in the morning were much appreciated after the rain of recent days.

See anything? No, neither could !, blasted fog!!

The only thing of interest noted in the fog was a LITTLE OWL, which flew from the bushes shown in the photo, which was taken at the Wooded Headland to the north of Migrant Alley.

The fog slowly lifted whilst I was at Migrant Alley, but the only migrant seen there was a flyover YELLOW WAGTAIL, which I think came out of the Greenhouses along with the PIED WAGTAILS that roost there.

I made my way across to the Ashes Lane Fields, where a very smart looking LESSER WHITETHROAT was seen with a COMMON WHITETHROAT along the drainage ditch, also, 3 MISTLE THRUSHES flew over, and it whilst watching these I noticed 6 BUZZARDS soaring high over the Greenhouses / Migrant Alley.

I made some effort checking the Scrubby Woods area, where some of yesterdays missing species turned up, a flock of at least 6 LONG TAILED TITS were joined by BLUE and GREAT TITS, plus at least 3 CHIFFCHAFFS and a TREECREEPER. A NUTHATCH and a COAL TIT called from nearby, plus the BULLFINCH families were heard calling too. Fewer BLACKCAPS were seen on the Elder Bushes today, but many more BLACKBIRDS had arrived from somewhere!

The lakes had a couple of species on them that weren't seen yesterday, those being a lone CANADA GOOSE and 2 GREY HERONS, there were also 2 KINGFISHERS chasing about over the main lake.

After spending some time with the Dragonflies along the edge of the Wet Woods, I went back over to my seat at Migrant Alley, where an hours sky watching didn't produce too much, just a CORMORANT, a few HERRING GULLS, 2 SAND MARTINS, and a few more Buzzards were about it. Looking over into the Greenhouse Grounds I saw just one KESTREL today, plus noted 3 more Common Whitethroat.

My 6 hour visit yielded 47 species today, much more typical of an August visit.

Not much to photograph early on in the fog, but the Dragonflies were very obliging today, especially the Southern Hawkers.

This male Southern Hawker sat for ages warming itself in the sun

The blue markings on each segment down the abdomen show this is a male

This male had some green markings though, only the last four segments being blue. A female was seen, but stayed perched up high out of camera range

There were at least 6 of these Migrant Hawkers about too, they weren't quite so obliging, but I got some decent images.

Maturing Male

Another male

Ive got a few more Southern Hawker images to show, but i'll post them on another day.

This noisy thing flew low over again, getting fed up with it to tell you the truth, I couldn,t even be bothered to correct the Exposure compensation  :-)