Pittswood Birds

With dense fog up until 10:00hrs, most of the morning was a waste of time, as little could be seen, just 15 species were noted around Migrant Alley and the Greenhouse Grounds up until the fog cleared!

Once the fog had gone though, things took a turn for the better, the sun broke through and it turned warm for the time of year. A few of the local SWALLOWS were still about, with half a dozen over the domestic stables at Ashes Lane where they breed, 4 HOUSE MARTINS joined them for a brief while before moving off SW.

This CARRION CROW posed nicely as the fog was thinning, shame there was no light to show off its plumage properly

I tried a few different settings on the camera, but what was needed was light ! ;-)

Over at the lakes I was very surprised to see 117 CANADA GEESE crammed onto the main lake, with them were 2 GREYLAG GEESE and the first MANDARIN DUCK (69) of the month, i've been hoping to get this species on the September list!

Some of the Canada Geese on the main lake

This one strayed a bit closer to me allowing for a photo.

The adjacent Scrubby Woods had only BLACKCAP representing the summer birds, resident birds were not much in evidence either, just GREEN WOODPECKER, JAY, COAL TIT, and SONGTHRUSH were of note, However, whilst there, I heard the familiar trill of SKYLARKS (70) high up, and got my bins on to 7 of them as they flew over, these bring the months list to 70 at last  :-)

I visited the Wet Woods, walking along the sunny edge, where I found the missing woodland species not seen in the Scrubby Woods a bit earlier, a large mixed feeding flock moved their way along, which included a minimum of 10 LONG TAILED TITS, 6 GOLDCREST, 5 TREECREEPERS, 4 GOLDCRESTS, 4 CHIFFCHAFFS and 2 NUTHATCH, along with just four each of BLUE and GREAT TIT.

A distant photo was taken of one of the Treecreepers

I got much closer to a Long Tailed Tit, but it wouldn't show it's face for me  :-)

Making my way across the Ashes Lane Fields I saw 9 MEADOW PIPITS fly up from the grassland, dropping down again further along, plus I saw the KESTREL was sitting on the power lines as I reached Ashes Lane, so I took some images of it.

I  returned to Migrant Alley and re scanned the fences now the fog had cleared, but no ''chats'' were found today, so a sky watch was had, where I watched at least 6 BUZZARDS up high, as well as a SPARROWHAWK and a HOBBY, four raptors for the day for the second day in a row  :-) I also watched 4 SISKIN drop down into the alders in the Greenhouse Grounds, that is until the Sprawk flushed them out again! More Meadow Pipits were heard going over and two skeins of Greylag geese flew through, involving 46 birds in all. So it turned out not a bad visit after all that fog, 43 species were tallied up by the visits end.