Pittswood Birds

Early cloud dispersed readily this morning to leave sunny periods, in which, with light winds, it became the warmest day of the year so far here  :-)

In the lovely spring weather, I carried out a five hour full patch walk, recording an excellent 51 bird species, a couple of recent regulars were missing though, such as Greylag Goose and the Coot pair, which haven't been seen for two days now, so I assume they have left for better breeding habitat.

The highlight was finding another WHEATEAR at Migrant Alley, but almost as pleasing was seeing my first HOUSE MARTIN  (61,79) of the year as it sped over the Greenhouse Grounds, interacting with the four SWALLOWS briefly before it moved through. The KESTREL pair were seen at the Greenhouse Grounds, one of four raptor species recorded on my visit, with SPARROWHAWK, a pair of BUZZARDS and the PEREGRINE pair also being seen today.

The second Wheatear of the month, a female.

BLACKCAPS and CHIFFCHAFFS that were singing in the Scrubby Woods were the only summer birds heard there unfortunately, but all the other regular resident species turned out. NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, GOLDCREST, BULLFINCH, COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, STOCK DOVE, JAY, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, GREEN WOODPECKER and MISTLETHRUSH being the most noteworthy, the latter species was seen sitting on her nest again, hopefully she will be successful  :-)

I'm still trying to get a good shot of a Treecreeper. They are difficult to photograph and time is running out as the leaves will be back on the trees soon, making it impossible to get an image!

Another ''almost shot''  :-)

Flyovers from three Gull species helped pack out the day list, with HERRING GULL, LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL and BLACK HEADED GULL all being seen, plus a couple of MEADOW PIPITS and a GREY HERON flew over.

It was good to point the camera at something different today, this SMALL TORTOISESHELL was seen at the Ashes lane Fields, but no other butterflies were recorded, they are late this year!