Pittswood Birds

Fog covered the area early this morning, clearing by 08:30hrs to reveal a grey sky with spots of rain on a strengthening SW wind. Once again it was remarkably warm for the time of year.

I let the fog clear before venturing out, allowing for a rare sit down breakfast to be had  :-) Although late out, my visit to the greenhouse Grounds proved interesting, with a mixed flock of 20-30 birds seen in the Alders, comprising of SISKIN, GOLDFINCH and LESSER REDPOLL. The seed I put out along the boundary hedgerow had attracted 6 CHAFFINCH, 4 GREENFINCH, 3 GREAT TITS and 5 BLUE TITS, plus a ROBIN and DUNNOCK, nearby there were 3 YELLOWHAMMER, which were joined briefly by a REED BUNTING. The KESTREL was up hunting again, after not being around yesterday.

I headed over to the lakes via the Ashes lane Fields, where there were 6-8 MEADOW PIPITS present in the pasture. I wasn't optimistic about finding much on the lakes and at first was proved right in my pessimism, but a scan of the ornamental lake came up with a cracking male TEAL (57) nice to get that on the November list  :-)

Teal - Not todays bird, this an archive photo, the light was just too dire for photo's this morning!

I walked back homewards through the Small Holding area, which had quite a few common birds about, including GREEN WOODPECKER, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, COAL TIT, GOLDCREST and the first LITTLE OWL (58) record of the month, when one called from it's unseen roosting site.

I spent a bit of time watching the birds at my garden feeding station early this afternoon, which without the presence of the Sparrowhawk was a little more like i'm used to seeing it. The first BLACKBIRD for at least 4 weeks ventured in, as did a REDWING, which came to eat the berries from my holly bush, albeit very briefly, the first record of this species in my garden on a November date. Most of the other regulars were busy feeding, with visits from BLUE TITS, GREAT TITS, COAL TIT, WREN, CHAFFINCH, GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, STARLING, COLLARED DOVE, NUTHATCH, MAGPIE, JACKDAW, WOODPIGEON and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, the only missing birds were the House Sparrows. A nice looking pair of GOLDCRESTS also visited, which proved to tempting for me to ignore with the camera, but the light was just so rubbish, I needn't of bothered, I only kept one image, the best of a poor bunch!

Goldcrest