Pittswood Birds

In cloudy, cool, but windless conditions, I undertook a full patch walk this morning, which yielded 46 species, that's including the TAWNY OWL (67) that I heard many times in the early hours of last night as I lay awake in bed, it sounded like it was calling from the Wt Woods  :-)

There were no other additions to the months list this morning though, however a few of the more  common summer birds had dropped in, with at least 4 CHIFFCHAFFS at the Greenhouse Grounds, another 2 around the run off pool at the Ashes Lane Fields, where 2 BLACKCAPS and a lovely LESSER WHITETHROAT were also seen.

Flyovers from HOBBY, which was seen twice this morning and SWALLOW, 7 of which are still on patch, were the other summer species noted today. Two BUZZARDS called from the Wet Woods, but remained unseen, the third and final raptor for the visit was the KESTREL, of which both male and female were seen hunting over the farmland area of my patch.

On the lakes a GREY HERON, a few MALLARDS and MOORHENS plus 13 CANADA GEESE were on the water, a pair of CORMORANTS dropped in as I waited around to see if the Kingfisher would appear, but no luck with that today.

At least 4 more Chiffchaffs were in the Scrubby Woods, along with at least 2 more Blackcaps, plus all of the scarcer woodland species were picked up here, those being TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH, LONG TAILED TIT, COAL TIT, JAY, STOCK DOVE, GREEN and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, plus there were also at least 4 SISKIN feeding around a Silver Birch tree.

The only Gull species seen going over today was the HERRING GULL, other notables seen flying over were 4, 2, 1, and 1 MISTLETHRUSHES, a GREY WAGTAIL, another Grey Heron and another Cormorant.

Nothing for the camera today,  so i'll post the Wheatear photo's that I took last monday.

 Only two records of Wheatear have been had this month so far, both singles, it's unusual to have fewer Wheatear sightings than Whinchat sightings, which has been the case so far this month.