Pittswood Birds

There were more blue skies and sunshine to be enjoyed this morning, once the mist and grass frost had lifted.

I had just a two and a half hour visit today, as I was off to Sevenoaks Wildfowl reserve later in the morning, but in that short time I found some bits of interest around the Greenhouse Grounds and Migrant Alley.

The line of Alder Trees on the Greenhouse Grounds boundary was pretty busy, with at least 8 SISKIN, a LESSER REDPOLL, 15 GOLDFINCHES, plus ones and twos of BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, and CHAFFINCH. Below the Alders, in the Bramble, a female BLACKCAP was found, as well as a couple of BLACKBIRDS and a SONGTHRUSH, while further into the grounds, in the nettle bed, WRENS, ROBINS and DUNNOCKS were foraging, along with 2 CHIFFCHAFFS, it was while looking at these that I heard the call of a YELLOWHAMMER (75), then looked up to see 2 drop in further along the boundary, good to get this species on the September list, I was a bit worried they were not going to show this month  :-)

Young Goldfinch....

....and another one

Female Blackcap hiding in the Brambles.

it wasn't long before the Geese flew over again on their daily commute, many hundreds of both GREYLAG and CANADA GEESE went over, but never near enough, or in the right light for an image of a single one!

Whilst walking a circuit of Migrant Alley, the flock of 50+ STARLINGS were again seen on one of the paddocks and the flock of 30+ MEADOW PIPITS were again seen on the sheep pasture. Flyovers from a GREY WAGTAIL, plus flocks of 9 SKYLARK, 10 MISTLETHRUSH and multiple small groups of SWALLOWS were noted.

I visited the Ashes Lane Field, but the only birds on the drainage ditch fence line were a couple of BUZZARDS, they were attended by 4 MAGPIES, more Swallows flew through whilst I was there.

More Goldfinch were also seen, with a group of 4 feeding on Teasels

My visit to Sevenoaks was primarily to see if I could get a Kingfisher image, but despite seeing a few, they never alighted on the provided perches. I did get a few images of Great Crested Grebes, Teal, Gadwall, and Cormorant, which I can use to brighten the blog on later posts  :-)