Pittswood Birds

Another sharp frost this morning soon lifted under an overcast sky, but with virtually no wind it didn't feel too bad out.

I undertook a four hour full patch walk today, finding a slightly below par total of 42 bird species, with Greenfinch, Pheasant and surprisingly, Pied Wagtail all being unrecorded. I made a redoubled effort to try and find a Snipe around the sheep pasture and paddocks of Migrant Alley and along the drainage ditch at the Ashes Lane Fields, plus more effort went into searching the Scrubby Woods for a Woodcock, but all my effort to find these species for this years list went unrewarded.

The best sighting of the day for me, by far, was the flock of 53 LAPWING that flew over from the North of the area, the most I have recorded here for some years. It was also good to see the three local raptor species up hunting, two BUZZARDS were in the Wet Woods, where a SPARROWHAWK was also seen, plus the female KESTREL was in one of the large gardens off Ashes Lane.

With the lakes still frozen, nothing but the MALLARDS were seen there, although a GREY HERON did fly low over before moving off. I managed to re locate the GOLDCRESTS that were missing on yesterdays walk, with a flock of at least 7 feeding in the Wet Woods, along with them were a pair of COAL TITS, plus nearby, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH and a small flock of 4-5 LONG TAILED TITS were seen.

Only a single SISKIN was noted today, that being a flyover, of which the the same could be said for YELLOWHAMMER and MEADOW PIPIT.

A brief spell of afternoon sunshine allowed me to take a few 'Blog Brighteners' from my garden feeding station, where 13 LESSER REDPOLL were active, no wonder I didn't see any during my walk!

Half a dozen Lesser Redpoll clearing up the Sunflower hearts

Lesser Redpoll

Some of the breeding plumage is starting to show through now  :-)