Pittswood Birds

I made the 10th and final 'full patch walk' of January this morning, in dull, overcast conditions, but it was at least dry and quite warm for the 3 hour visit.

A total of 42 species was recorded, but nothing new for the months list was among them, January now looks like remaining on 62 species, unless I can winkle out anything on a short visit tomorrow, this will be the same tally as in 2008 and 2012, and would put it in joint 10th position from the 16 Januaries recorded.

The highlight of todays birding was finding that the 2 male and single female GOOSANDER had returned to the now only half frozen lakes, with them were a dozen CANADA GEESE and a pair of GREYLAG GEESE, as well the usual scattering of MALLARDS and MOORHENS - quite busy for these lakes!

All the regular woodland species were recorded this morning, apart from Stock Dove, some of which were giving a bit of song, like COAL TIT, GREENFINCH, GOLDCREST, SONGTHRUSH, MISTLETHRUSH, WREN, ROBIN and DUNNOCK, plus a GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER was drumming from the Wet Woods too, spring is approaching!

Over on the farmland is was a bit quieter, but SKYLARKS were up singing over Bustard Hill, plus around 100 BLACK HEADED GULLS were on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley. The KESTREL pair were seen at the Greenhouse Grounds, but no other raptors were about this morning.