Pittswood Birds

It was damp, dark and dreary this morning, with occasional light rain.

There was a lot of disturbance from the sheep farmer at Migrant Alley when I arrived at 07:00hrs, so much of the bird life had been flushed, I just recorded half a dozen MEADOW PIPITS flying about. Similarly there were workers at the Greenhouse Grounds, where many of the SISKINS and GOLDFINCHES had been flushed from the Alder Trees, a CHIFFCHAFF was still calling though and the KESTREL sat up in it's nest box out of the drizzle.

I headed for the Lakes, where I found 3 of yesterdays 7 MANDARIN DUCKS, but just 4 MALLARDS and 3 MOORHENS kept them company.  The Adjacent Scrubby Woods had of note, a COAL TIT, a TREECREEPER, a NUTHATCH, at least 2 GOLDCREST and at least 4 BULLFINCH present, but no Long Tailed Tits were found there today.

I searched a very dark Wet Woods, but came away with just a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, plus a few more Moorhens and the usual GREAT and BLUE TITS.

By 10:00hrs I was back over at Migrant Alley, assuming my position on the sky watching seat, which had a little bit of interest during my 90 minute vigil. HERRING and BLACK HEADED GULLS flew over in small numbers, a SPARROWHAWK chased the STARLINGS out on the sheep pasture - unsuccessfully and 2 SWALLOWS flew through, there was also a light passage of HOUSE MARTINS moving SE, several flocks of 10-15 birds were watched flying into the gloom. Not a very productive  5 hour visit, but at least the Swallows and House Martins were recorded, this could be the last sighting of the year for these two species, their median average last sighting date is the 9th October for Swallow and 8 October for House Martin, we will see  :-)

Back to the 'blog photo folder' for todays images.....................

A while back, during a warm sunny morning, I watched this DUNNOCK sunbathing

It sat quite contentedly as I took a series of images