Pittswood Birds

Some welcome sunshine was had this morning, however, by 11:00hrs a strengthening SW wind brought cloud cover, in turn bringing showers for the afternoon.

In the decent weather I made the 10th and final full patch walk for the month, in which a pleasing total of 46 bird species were recorded, this without the normally daily Kestrel, plus the regularly seen Bullfinch, Redwing, or any Geese being found.

There seemed to a small decrease in LESSER REDPOLL numbers at the Greenhouse Grounds, maybe 20 were present, there were certainly fewer SISKINS though, just 3 were seen, while GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, and CHAFFINCH appeared about the same, with a dozen or so of each. The GREY WAGTAIL was present around the grounds again, then as I photographed the Goldfinch below, I heard the call of RING NECKED PARAKEETS (67) and looked up to see 3 flyover, one more for the November species tally, which is now the third best from fourteen  :-)

Goldfinch

I thought it looked a bit sickly at first, but as I got nearer it flew off strongly, must have been nodding off in the warm sunshine!

I spread some more seen on the pallet at the Greenhouse Grounds, where 8 Lesser Redpoll were the first customers, a YELLOWHAMMER was nearby but didn't take to the seed. Out on the adjacent sheep pasture and paddocks of Migrant Alley there were 30-40 BLACK HEADED GULLS, but only a few ROOKS, JACKDAWS, WOODPIGEON and STARLING were with them today.

Redpoll enjoying the sunflower hearts  :-)

More were awaiting in the hedgerow

The Ashes Lane Fields provided MEADOW PIPIT for the days list, whilst the Scrubby Woods, Wet Woods and Small Holding area gave me most of what I expected, the best being LONG TAILED TIT, COAL TIT, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, JAY, STOCK DOVE, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, JAY, MISTLETHRUSH, FIELDFARE and GOLDCREST, one of which stayed still long enough for a photo. The COOT was still at the lakes, as was the KINGFISHER, but nothing more noteworthy was there today.

Goldcrest

There were 8 seen today, but probably more were present, although unseen.

SKYLARK and BUZZARD were seen going over as I walked along High House Lane, but birds of the day for me were the 6 LAPWING that flew low over the adjacent Bustard Hill :-)