Pittswood Birds

Grey skies again today, with spits of rain in the air by mid morning.

A four hour full patch walk this morning yielded a total of 43 bird species, which is about average from my patch, with most of those species being exactly what I would expect to see, apart from maybe the overwintering CHIFFCHAFF that was again seen at the Greenhouse Grounds, where I put the last of the seed down for the finches, attracting the usual GREENFINCH, GOLDFINCH, CHAFFINCH, BLUE TIT, GREAT TIT, DUNNOCK, ROBIN and LESSER REDPOLL.

The LITTLE OWL was at the old shack in the Ashes Lane Fields again, the female KESTREL was at the Greenhouse Grounds and a SPARROWHAWK just made it onto the list when the male sped an inch or two over my head as I arrived home.

SKYLARK, MEADOW PIPIT and YELLOWHAMMER were recorded at Migrant Alley, where the 150 or so BLACK HEADED GULLS were again feeding on the sheep pasture with the 200+ STARLINGS.

Nothing of interest was on the lakes today, but the Scrubby Woods and Wet Woods woods provided the ever obliging GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH, COAL TIT, GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKER, STOCK DOVE, JAY, and MISTLETHRUSH. No Siskin or Long Tailed Tit today though and the only winter thrush was a single flyover FIELDFARE.

The months list has now stalled at 65 species, but has so far achieved the 5th best tally for December and is just 1 species behind the mean December total for the previous 5 years, so not too bad  :-) Maybe a Woodcock or Mandarin Duck will be recorded before the months end.

The photo's have run out again, despite trying to get some garden bird images this afternoon, the light was just too poor though  :-(