Pittswood Birds

Another dreadful summers day, with dark skies, a cool North wind and drizzle turning to rain later in the morning, weather more akin to December - in fact I remember some days in the December just gone that were warmer than today!

I dragged myself out this morning and got round for the first full patch walk of the month, where the birds were few and far between at times. Here's the species that were recorded, in the order of appearance.........

Walking from my house along Ashes Lane the first birds seen and heard were ; WOODPIGEON, JACKDAW, GOLDFINCH, COLLARED DOVE, STARLING, WREN, ( which had at least 3 newly fledged young with them), BLACKBIRD, WHITETHROAT, CHAFFINCH, DUNNOCK and rather surprisingly a LESSER WHITETHROAT, giving hope that there is a pair about breeding somewhere.

Across the Ashes Lane Fields and the Pub Field little was added, a couple of GREY HERONS flew over and a BUZZARD was up for a short while, a ROBIN sang and a few ROOKS were in with the sheep on the Pub Field, where 2 SWALLOWS were also seen.

Out onto Migrant Alley I added both GREYLAG GOOSE and CANADA GOOSE, small numbers of each were on one of the paddocks, but nothing else was added from here to the days list. I checked the Greenhouse Copse, where I added BLACKCAP, PHEASANT, BLUE TIT, and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, then onto the Greenhouse Grounds where I added GREAT TIT, SONGTHRUSH, MAGPIE, CARRION CROW, PIED WAGTAIL, GREENFINCH, the KESTREL pair, of which the male brought in prey for the female, plus lastly a GREEN WOODPECKER.

Heading along High House Lane I added HOUSE SPARROW, LINNET and a SKYLARK that sang from the adjacent cut silage field at Bustard Hill. A walk through the Small Holding added just LITTLE OWL to the months list, sitting at its usual perch.

Onto the Wet Woods, where MALLARD and MOORHEN were seen, plus the MISTLETHRUSHES were heard alarming, their young have either perished in the dire conditions yesterday or fledged, hopefully the latter and I will find the young at some point. The Great Spotted Woodpecker nest was no more, the dead Alder tree that was home to many a years brood had been blown down, the old trunk lay in 3 broken pieces across the woodland floor, I looked around for signs of the young, but none were found, I suppose they may have fledged in time, but unlikely.

The lakes only added MUTE SWAN to the June list, but they had now hatched out a single chick, as they did two years ago, one more for this years 'successfully bred' patch list!

The Scrubby Woods was good for CHIFFCHAFF, NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH, TREECREEPER, STOCK DOVE, COAL TIT and the last species on todays list -  GOLDCREST. I noted the Coal Tits had ceased to visit their nest hole, another case of did they perish or have they fledged ?

So the June list kicked off with 45 species, 46 with the JAY I saw in my garden this afternoon, there are still some common species to be found yet, Long Tailed Tit, Swift and Sparrowhawk mainly, but hopefully I can get 60 species for June, a tally surpassed in all of the 14 previous Junes  ;-)


No chance of any photo's today!!!