Pittswood Birds

This morning, blue skies and a light NW wind greeted me as I set off for a full patch walk.

I hadn't got far along Ashes Lane, when I heard SISKINS flying overhead, but these passage birds were nothing to the goodies that lay awaiting at Migrant Alley! A first scan of the fence lines provided me with views of at least 15 SWALLOWS, with those, were at least 50 HOUSE MARTINS and 4 SAND MARTINS. I moved slowly along the fenceline, hoping for a photo of a Sand Martin or House Martin, but they were far too wary, the SWALLOWS proved a little more obliging though. During my approach, I could hear YELLOW WAGTAILS flying up out of the sheep pasture, their calls seemed everywhere, but the most birds I saw together was 6.

Swallow

Swallow

Looking along the fence further up, I saw first one, then two WHINCHATS, fantastic! Two Whinchats, a real pleasure to see. They were being continually dived at by the Swallows, they distracted the Whinchat, enabling me to get a bit nearer so as to get a photo....

I got a quick couple of shots off, before they sussed me and flew off into the paddock

The excitement didn't stop there though, and in the next paddock I found a WHEATEAR, it proved too flighty to approach for a photo, and flew off to the nearby hedgerow, then, incredibly, a few feet from it, a cracking male REDSTART popped up! All this time, yet more Yellow Wagtails were heard above me, Migrant Alley was providing the goods today!

I had my fill of the Redstart and Wheatear, then moved across to the Greenhouse Grounds and associated Copse, at the point the two meet is a very small bit of rough grassland, it was here that I had yet more excitement, when no less than 3 TREE PIPITS (100, 60) flew up!! The 100th species of 2015! Ive only had 2 records of Tree Pipit in the past 13 years, both single flyovers, so to get 3 on the floor on one visit is pretty spectacular for my patch! They continued to chase about the area, continually giving their distinct buzzing flight calls, I eventually got some record shots, but they were always distant and/or in the wrong light  :-(

Tree Pipit! Brilliant patch record!

Another one!

Superb patch bird

I checked out the Greenhouse Grounds and found WHITEHROAT, BLACKCAP and CHIFFCHAFF in singles, plus a few GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, PIED WAGTAILS and a GREY WAGTAIL, plus all the time the Yellow Wagtails could be heard flying about!

I was loathe to leave, but wanted to cover the rest of my patch and so eventually moved on to finish the full patch walk, where in the wooded parts I recorded virtually all that I could expect  to see, apart from Mistlethrush, which still eludes the months list! Best of what was seen included a KINGFISHER on the lakes, where a GREY HERON also fished, plus I found a mixed feeding flock of LONG TAILED TITS, with them were small numbers of BLUE TITS, GREAT TITS, GOLDCRESTS, TREECREEPERS, and CHIFFCHAFFS.

I headed back to Migrant Alley via the Ashes Lane Fields and the Pub Field for a sky watch from my seat, not finding any more surprises on the way. My sky watch though provided views of at least 6 BUZZARDS, a SPARROWHAWK, a few HERRING GULLS and a KESTREL that fed on a mouse as it sat on the greenhouses. Of course, I also have frequent scans of the fence lines to watch the Whinchats, Wheatear, Redstart and Yellow Wagtails, all of which were still present, the Wheatear gave me a few photo's this time, ( i'll show them on a later post), however the Tree Pipits seem to have moved on though . What a fantastic morning that was! In the end I had accumulated 51 species  :-)

Oh! In all my excitement I forgot to add, I saw this Silver Washed Fritillary too, another patch rarity!  The 24th patch butterfly species of the year.

They don't come more tatty than this, but I was pleased to see it on my patch  :-)