Pittswood Birds

There was some early sunshine this morning, but it soon clouded over, bringing rain by midday, which lasted all afternoon.

I got a full patch walk done before the weather turned, where I found a poor bird species total (for August) of just 42 species, however there were a few good patch species seen in amongst them. A WHEATEAR was again present on the sheep pasture / paddocks of Migrant Alley, as was a YELLOW WAGTAIL. There were 43 SWALLOWS  seen on the fence lines, while up above, a few HOUSE MARTINS flew over.

Young Swallow at Migrant Alley

They have bred well this year, with a minimum of 11 pairs present.

In the nearby Greenhouse Grounds and Greenhouse Copse I saw 4 BLACKCAPS, 3 CHIFFCHAFFS and 3 COMMON WHITETHROATS of note, the GOLDFINCH flock continue to feed on the thistles, with small numbers LINNET and GREENFINCH among them. GREEN WOODPECKERS were very vocal in both habitats.

A LESSER WHITETHROAT was a good find at the Scrubby Woods, which also had GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER, BULLFINCH, JAY, STOCK DOVE, SONGTHRUSH and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER present, all which hadn't been found earlier on the walk. Coal Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Nuthatch, and Pheasant were all missing today. The lakes were near empty, just a couple of MOORHEN and 4 MALLARD were present on the 3 water bodies.

An hours sky watching back over at Migrant Alley added flyovers from the likes of CORMORANT and HERRING GULL, as well as the raptors of BUZZARD, KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK, but not a single Goose flew over, which is unusual given their daily flyovers this month.