Pittswood Birds

It was mostly sunny this morning with a light northerly wind, much more pleasant than yesterday  :-)

After an initial walk around the fields and paddocks of Migrant Alley, where there was little to note but the GREYLAG and CANADA GEESE, plus flyovers from a few  HERRING GULLS and a lone LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, I walked over to the Wet Woods and Scrubby Woods to look for newly fledged birds, firstly checking on the KESTREL box at the Greenhouse Grounds, where I saw the male bird carry a food item in  :-)

In the Wet Woods I can hear the young GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS calling from the nest hole, plus at least 2 MISTLE THRUSH young are on the verge of fledging nearby. TREECREEPER and NUTHATCH were seen collecting food for their young, but no fledglings yet.

A scan over the nearby lakes to check the MUTE SWAN nest showed that they are still incubating eggs, but the MALLARDS are failing to rear any young at all so far.

I spent two hours in the Scrubby Woods looking out for both Odonata and young birds, of the latter, I found the first LONG TAILED TIT young of the year as they noisily chased the parent birds through the Oaks, where both GOLDCREST and BLUE TIT families are concealed among the foliage. Overhead the local BUZZARDS called, I wondered to myself how long it had been since their call was heard around here before their recent comeback to the area.

On the Odonata front, I found White-legged Damselfly, Azure Damselfly, and Beautiful Demoiselle, plus has fleeting glimpses of a Hairy Dragonfly, not much then, but I did get a few images of the Demoiselles today  :-)

Female Beautiful Demoiselle