Pittswood Birds

This morning was overcast and dull, later in the morning a NE wind picked and by mid afternoon a few sunny spells were enjoyed.

I carried out a 5 hour full patch walk today, which yielded me a total of 45 species, notable omissions today were Pheasant, Long Tailed Tit and Songthrush. Also missing today were the more exciting birds, no passage migrants were seen at Migrant Alley today! There were in fact few summer birds left on my patch, a few SWALLOWS hawked for insects over the sheep pasture and paddocks, along with, at times, small groups of HOUSE MARTINS. Just two CHIFFCHAFFS were seen, one at the Greenhouse Grounds, where the only WHITETHROAT for the day appeared, and one over at the Scrubby Woods, where 3 BLACKCAPS were found.

I did at least add MISTLETHRUSH (61) to the months list, a pair and a single flew over the Ashes Lane Fields, other notable sightings were 7 CANADA GEESE feeding on the field at Bustard Hill, a GREY WAGTAIL that flew over Ashes Lane early on, the KINGFISHER on the lakes, plus the constant call of SISKIN as they flew over, but apart from that it was a pretty standard day, with the likes of GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BULLFINCH, BLUE TIT, COAL TIT, GREAT TIT, WREN, DUNNOCK, ROBIN, PIED WAGTAIL, GREEN WOOD PECKER, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, JAY, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, STOCK DOVE and BLACKBIRD all being familiar fare.

My sky watch later in the morning produced the three raptor species of BUZZARD, SPARROWHAWK and KESTREL, plus a GREY HERON, and two Gull species, those being HERRING and BLACK HEADED.

Something a bit different photographically. I found no less than four of these Elephant Hawkmoth Caterpillars feeding on a Fuchsia in my garden, they are huge caterpillars, 4 inches long and an inch in diameter, but lovely looking things!

Elephant Hawkmoth Caterpillar

They are not great fangs coming from the head end, but legs  :-)