Pittswood Birds

Grey skies, a moderate SW wind and drizzle in the air.............again  :-(

Despite the grey, damp conditions, the first SKYLARK song of the year was heard, one over the Ashes Lane Fields, mixed in with the MEADOW PIPITS and two more over Migrant Alley. One of the Ashes Lane Fields was again covered in FIELDFARE and REDWING, around 250 birds in all, mostly fieldfare, with those were around 200 STARLINGS.

I recorded the first GREY HERON (57) of the month, when one flew low over the Greenhouse Grounds, so of the semi regular species to be found on my patch in February, just the Cormorant and the Tawny Owl remain unseen now, anything else will be a bonus, but a bonus there was, among the 80ish BLACK HEADED GULLS at Migrant Alley, a MEDITERRANEAN GULL (58) was found, also 3 COMMON GULLS were with them, but the only HERRING GULLS noted were a few flyovers.

In the Wooded parts of my walk there was a bit of song noted, mostly from GOLDCREST, ROBIN, SONGTHRUSH and MISTLETHRUSH, but TREECREEPER and COAL TIT were also heard, along with the STOCK DOVE.

There were 8 CANADA GEESE on the lakes again, but nothing else of note on the water today. The Kestrel pair seem to have moved off, hopefully not for long, but the other two regular raptors of BUZZARD and SPARROWHAWK were both seen hunting over the area.