Pittswood Birds

A combination of poor weather and a bout of man flu has meant no patch visits since Monday, but there was a window of opportunity this morning to get out, before the rain moved through, even though I still felt a bit rough!

During a blustery 3 and a half hour visit I manged to kick off the February list with a decent tally of 42 bird species, nothing unusual, mostly the regular stuff, so here's what was seen as I recorded it..........

Leaving home and meandering along Ashes Lane I picked up COLLARED DOVE, WOODPIGEON, ROBIN, DUNNOCK, JACKDAW, STARLING, HOUSE SPARROW and CHAFFINCH before entering the Small Holding, where CARRION CROW, FIELDFARE, REDWING, SONGTHRUSH, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, BLACKBIRD, GOLDFINCH, BLUE TIT, MISTLETHRUSH and WREN were all recorded.

GREAT TIT, STOCK DOVE, GREEN WOODPECKER, MALLARD, MOORHEN, GOLDCREST and TREECREEPER were all seen or heard as I made my way to the lakes, where I added CANADA GOOSE, GREYLAG GOOSE and GREY HERON to my list. A walk through the Scrubby Woods added BULLFINCH, NUTHATCH, LONG TAILED TIT, MAGPIE and JAY for the month.

The next species for the month was a BUZZARD, which flew across the Ashes Lane Field as I passed through, but the only other species seen there which had not been recorded yet was the MEADOW PIPIT, 2 flew up and gave their distinctive call notes. The female KESTREL was seen hunting over the adjacent Pub Field, unusual to see her there.

I visited the Greenhouse Grounds and picked up GREENFINCH and PIED WAGTAIL then did a circuit of the fields and paddocks of Migrant Alley, adding just BLACK HEADED GULL, ROOK, and a flyover HERRING GULL. Walking homeward along High House Lane I heard SKYLARKS singing over Bustard Hill to finish the morning off.

The February list was incremented by two more species, when both SPARROWHAWK and COAL TIT were seen at my garden feeding station  :-)