Pittswood Birds

This morning was reasonably bright, but with a stiff Northerly wind blowing, making it feel chilly.

I undertook the 10th and final full patch walk for May today, where in the four hour visit I recorded 43 species, Pheasant, Jay, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and even the Kestrel failed to show of the regularly seen species.

Only one more addition was made to the 'successfully bred'' list, that was the ROOK, two recently fledge young were with an adult bird on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, where the 30-40 GREYLAG GEESE had gathered once again along with 3 CANADA GEESE. Overhead there were flyovers from HERRING GULL and GREY HERON, plus a dozen SWIFTS were up feeding, but the SWALLOWS kept well in cover, just one was seen - the last species on the day list!

Whilst in the Scrubby Woods, I found a BLUE TITS nest, notable for its position as it was in a hole in the ground at the base of a tree, never seen once placed like that before!

Very little else to report today, tomorrow looks like a washout, certainly early on, so todays visit might have been the last this month, a month that has disappointed in many ways, with the monthly species total of 66 being the 8th best only from 15. So many Summer birds either didn't pass through here, or arrive on their traditional breeding grounds and the ones that did were few and far between, just four have stayed to breed for certain, the CHIFFCHAFF, BLACKCAP, COMMON WHITETHROAT and SWALLOW, plus maybe the LESSER WHITETHROAT.