Pittswood Birds

It was frosty, crisp and cold for my 7th full patch walk of January, but with wall to wall sunshine, it soon warmed up nicely.

There were signs of spring in the woods today, with the drumming of GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKERS, the ''teacher teacher'' calls of GREAT TITS and the master mimicry of STARLINGS ( mimicking Black headed Gull, Blackbird, Little Owl and  Green Woodpecker amongst others!) all heard as I ticked off the other resident woodland species, the best being the more scarcer species of BULLFINCH, COAL TIT, LONG TAILED TIT, GOLDCREST, NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER and JAY, the only missing semi regulars were Stock Dove and Pheasant.

The lakes were frozen over, as they have been all week, just a few MALLARD were standing on the ice, plus a couple of MOORHEN scurrying about.

All the thrush species; SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, MISTLETHRUSH, FIELDFARE and REDWING were recorded, most of them retreating to the larger gardens, especially those with berry or fruit trees still standing, as the fields and woods were frozen hard, denying them access to their invertebrate prey.

MEADOW PIPIT, SKYLARK, KESTREL and  LITTLE OWL were the pick of the other species recorded today, which tallied up to a reasonable 40, but nothing new for the month / year list.

With the light comes photo's ! Not the best efforts, but a garden session cleared the cobwebs from the camera this afternoon........

Both male and female Great Spotted Woodpeckers visited, favouring the suet feeders!

They soon find the suet no matter where I put it!

The Starlings also favour the suet feeders, 'boring black birds with spots' they are not!

Two Songthrushes have been coming in regularly, between them and a Redwing they have polished off the berries from my small holly tree

A decent flock of around 10 Long tailed Tits are frequent visitors

plus, of course lots of these little chaps, 15 - 20 at a time  :-)