Pittswood Birds

It was overcast but bright this morning, cloud thickened to bring rain by 15:00hrs, the first a a while.

I got round for the usual full patch walk today, it being the first day of the month and found 45 species, but it was a hard fought tally, at times the walk was totally birdless.

Here's what what seen in the order of appearance;

HOUSE SPARROW, GREENFINCH, BLUE TIT, WOODPIGEON, JACKDAW, BLACKBIRD, ROBIN and GREEN WOODPECKER were the first birds seen as I walked along Ashes Lane, then heading into the Greenhouse Grounds I added, MAGPIE, GOLDCREST, SONGTHRUSH, GREAT TIT, WHITETHROAT, LINNET, GOLDFINCH, WREN and DUNNOCK. The nearby Greenhouse Copse was almost devoid of birds, just CHAFFINCH and CHIFFCHAFF were found there.

A circuit of Migrant Alley was made, where the usual STARLING, CARRION CROW, ROOK and SWALLOW were all seen, a flock of mixed Gulls flew over which had BLACK HEADED, HERRING and LESSER BLACK BACKED among them, a PIED WAGTAIL was on one of the paddocks.

Walking across to High House Lane and scanning across to Bustard Hill, the hoped for Skylark didn't materialise, they are hard to find here in August! I did see a BLACKCAP and a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER as I walked the lane though.

The Small Holding and Wet Woods only added JAY and NUTHATCH to the days count, while the Scrubby Woods gave me BULLFINCH, COAL TIT,  and TREECREEPER. The lakes were almost deserted, but a couple of MALLARDS and a MOORHEN were found.

I made my way out of the woods and entered the ashes Lane Fields, where there were 8 CANADA GEESE on one of the fields, walking the adjacent Pub Field, 2 GREYLAG GEESE flew over, then a STOCK DOVE did likewise, the 40th species of the day.

Having completed my patch circuit, i headed over to my sky watching seat at Migrant Alley, where I added KESTREL, BUZZARD, HOBBY, SWIFT and HOUSE MARTIN to end the first species list of August.

Hopefully there will still be many more species to find this month, as every year since 2008 has provided 70 species or more  :-)

Nothing for the camera today, so I'll post the Common Darter images I took yesterday.