Pittswood Birds

A mostly cloudy morning with the odd spell of sunshine, but still feeling quite warm and muggy.

Still not feeling 100% after my cold virus, but I got round for a four hour full patch walk today, during which I found a good tally of bird species for a July day, 47 in all. None were new for this months list, but I did get to see 2 LESSER WHITETHROAT young, good to have confirmation of successful breeding of this now rare patch species. Had they bred 10 meters further along the bramble strip, they would have almost certainly perished, as the crew at the Greenhouse Grounds are busy ripping it all out, doesn't bode well for next year though  :-(

Long Tailed Tit, Mistlethrush and Pheasant failed to show today, they could have made it a 50 species day, but all the other common and regular patch species were seen or heard. A pair of LITTLE OWLS duetted over at the Small Holding, they must breed here but I rarely find any young ones. The three local raptor species were all up hunting, those being BUZZARD, KESTREL and SPARROWHAWK, the first two species mentioned had young in tow.

Not much flew over, just a couple of HERRING GULLS, a LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, a few SWIFTS and a GREY HERON, of which there was also one on the lakes, along with a few CANADA GEESE and the GREYLAG GOOSE that thinks its a Canada Goose!

A short look for dragonflies around the edge of the Scrubby Woods was a bit more promising, I recorded Brown hawker, Beautiful Demoiselle and got another decent sighting of a Downy Emerald as looked through the woodland - if only I could get in there with them!

I was back home by 10:00hrs, and felt so rubbish I lost the rest of the day milling around my house and garden feeling sorry for myself........must be man flu!