Today is the fourth anniversary of the ''Pittswood Birds'' blog, a milestone I thought I would never achieve, as i was initially only going to do the blog for a calendar year!  Looks like I'll be doing another year though  :-)

This afternoons visit however was not one of the more memorable ones, My walk over to the Lake area was met with lots of disturbance, and once at the lakes a noisy leaf sucking machine being used by one of the nearby garden workmen gave off an aggravating sound! Only 4 of yesterdays MALLARDS remained on the lake, with 3 MOORHENS, a GREY HERON that flew over me whilst I walked through the Small Holding earlier had probably been flushed from the main lake.

Around the lake vegetation, and in the Scrubby Woods a few of the regulars were found, LONG TAILED TITS, GOLDCREST, TREECREEPER, BULLFINCH and NUTHATCH were the best of them, the SPARROWHAWK was up above the area, he knows where most of the birds are  ;-)  after all, he's looking for them just like I am!

As yesterday, I made my way over to the Tree Nursery, and gave the Laurel bushes a good scouring, finding SONGTHRUSH, BLACKBIRD, DUNNOCK and ROBIN, nothing more exciting, although at one point I saw 7 MAGPIES getting excited about a section of shrubs, I made my over, thinking of finding some rare Shrike, but it turned out to be a Fox  :-)

Migrant Alley was my next stop, but here there was also some disturbance, a tractor was mowing the sheep pasture ( for some reason!)  I saw a MEADOW PIPIT fly up, and watched the LINNET flock vacate the area, as did the few GOLDFINCH that were there. PIED WAGTAIL, SKYLARK, REDPOLL and SISKIN were the best of the flyovers, and a mixed skein of 5 CANADA GEESE with two GREYLAG GEESE that went over, had me hoping for something more unusual, but not today!

This Red Admiral was sunbathing on the Oak tree seen in yesterdays photo, showing the footpath from the Wet woods to the lake area.

Blackbird at the Tree Nursery

A strong SW wind blew this afternoon, negating the effect of any warmth from the watery Autumn sunshine, and it was the wind that made the walk through the Small Holding, Wet Woods and Lake area a rather dull affair, as little could be heard above the roar of the wind through the tree tops, although at one point whilst in the Wet woods I thought I could hear the calls of LONG TAILED TITS high in the canopy.

A view into the Wet Woods ( now bone dry!)

Walking the path from the Wet Woods to the Lake area normally throws up a Treecreeper, Goldcrest or Nuthatch, sometimes all three, however today they were all elsewhere. On reaching the lake, I at last saw a bird  -   MALLARDS,  24 were spread between the 3 water bodies, 14 of those on the main lake, an increase on yesterday giving me hope that something might join them soon. 8 MOORHEN and a GREY HERON completed the water bird life. A quick look around the Scrubby Woods and the general area only produced a SPARROWHAWK, which further compounded the lack of bird life here!

This is the footpath from the Wet Woods to the Lake area, looking back towards the woods. Behind the hedge on the left is the garden with ''lolipopped' oaks and a well manicured large lawn, on the right is the garden that is well wooded

I eventually made my way over to The Tree Nursery, and Migrant Alley, I walked through the Laurel shrubs in the Nursery, hoping to flush up something interesting, and did actually manage to see a male BLACKCAP fly out and into the boundary Hedgerow, the last one seen was on the 9th. Also four BLACKBIRDS and two SONGTHRUSH flew up, and dropped down further along the shrub line.

This is a view to the East from the edge of the Wet Woods looking over a sheep pasture, and the Tree Nursery to the left of the Oak tree. Behind the hedge is the Pub Field

I arrived at a blustery Migrant Alley, and had time to do a circuit of the sheep pasture and paddocks, where 16 LINNET, 8 GOLDFINCH, and a flock of 200+ STARLINGS were found, the latter flock was scanned for a Rose coloured Starling, but of course, that wasn't there  :-)

Flyovers included HERRING, BLACK HEADED, and LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, 2 single LESSER REDPOLL, a YELLOWHAMMER plus the sighting of a KESTREL and a pair of BUZZARDS up hunting over the area. That was it for today!