Pittswood Birds

This morning was mainly fine, with light winds, scattered cloud and long sunny periods.

No posts for the last two days, Wednesday had little to report, whilst on Thursday I escaped to the coast with my better half  :-)

So today it was time for a full patch walk, where in the 5 hour visit just 42 species were found, with the likes of Pheasant, Long Tailed Tit, Mistlethrush, Swift and Sparrowhawk all going unrecorded for the normally regularly encountered species, although of course the latter was seen this afternoon as it visited my garden  :-)

I did however add another species to the July bird species list when a couple of CORMORANTS (58) flew over the Ashes Lane Fields, plus I also added JAY to the 2016 'Successfully Bred'' patch list, an adult was seen with a lone, recently fledged bird in the Wet Woods. The young BUZZARD was seen well as it sat on a gate separating the Wet Woods from one of the adjacent Large gardens, the only other raptor species about today were the KESTRELS, two of the young were seen with the adult female hunting around the Greenhouse Grounds area.

It was good to see another family of recently fledged SONGTHRUSHES at the Small Holding area, a couple more were heard singing, but little else sang today, just CHIFFCHAFF and BLACKBIRD were heard.

Nothing on the lakes to excite, just a few CANADA GEESE, the odd MOORHEN and a couple of MALLARDS, while the wooded areas of my patch yielded most of what was expected, the best being BLACKCAP, COAL TIT, BULLFINCH, GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH and STOCK DOVE.

I spent some time looking for Butterflies and Dragonflies and found the first GATEKEEPER Butterfly of the summer, which is the 18th butterfly species of the year. Few dragons were about, just a Ruddy Darter, White-legged Damselfly and a Brown Hawker, the latter gave me a quick record shot!

Brown Hawker. One day I'll get close enough to get a proper photo!

Ruddy Darter

Comma Butterfly.