Another Pittswood sunrise

My full patch walk this morning was undertaken in remarkably warm conditions, and even with the wind picking up mid morning, it still felt more like summer than late Autumn. All very pleasant, but it doesn't encourage the winter species to visit my patch, in fact I havn't recorded a winter thrush all weekend.

Small numbers of SISKIN, seen in various localities, and a few flyover LESSER REDPOLL did remind me however that winter is just around the corner. A few large flocks of WOODPIGEON were seen flying high over, heading south, and directly opposed to them were a dribble of MEADOW PIPITS and SKYLARKS going north, involving maybe 25 -30 birds in all, and just a single YELLOWHAMMER was noted, it dropped down into the hedgerow at the Pub Field.

Raptors were up and hunting once the warmth of the sun cleared the slight mist, with KESTREL, SPARROWHAWK and a pair BUZZARDS all seen over Migrant Alley, where a flock of GOLDFINCH numbering around 35 birds fed in the Alder trees that mark the boundary between it and the Greenhouse Complex. CANADA GEESE, GREY HERON, HERRING and BLACK HEADED GULL made up the flyover species.

At the lakes and Scrubby Woods, it was quite busy, with TREECREEPERS, NUTHATCH, GOLDCREST, LONG TAILED TIT, GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKERS all putting in an appearance, but the highlight of the day was at last find something with the MALLARD and MOORHEN on the main lake - a COOT (67) my first since June, a real scarce bird on these lakes, but a welcome addition to Octobers list. That now stands at 67, just one off the second best tally, achieved in both 2008, and 2009, but still way off the highest tally of 77 achieved last year!

Coot ....Not a very good photo, but I was sliding down the bank at the time!

Great Spotted Woodpecker

HOUSE SPARROW,  If you look carefully you can see colour rings on each legs, Orange over Purple on the right leg and a single Purple on the left leg. This bird was rung by a friend of mine just up the lane, as part of a Re trapping  adults for survival scheme. The coloured rings tell me this bird was ringed on 20 May 2007 as a Juvenile. It has been seen just twice before, both in 2007, one in August and one in December. I wonder where its been since then  ?

PS whilst writing this post, I can hear both Tawny and Little owls calling, taking the daylist to 46   :-)

A crisp, cold, but sunny 4 hour full patch walk was had this morning, however, for such a lovely Autumnal day, the birdlife was a bit on the scarce side.

A frosty Sunrise

The first bird on the list this morning was a MISTLE THRUSH, later in the walk another group of 3 flew over the Pub Field, these birds have been quite scarce here this Autumn. A GREY WAGTAIL was feeding on the edge of the run off pool at the Tree Nursery, always good to find one of those on my patch, as is finding a LESSER REDPOLL, two of these were feeding in a Silver Birch at the College Grounds, but they made it difficult to get a photo despite the nice light, they insisted on feeding in the shade!

Lesser Redpoll

A flock of GOLDFINCH were feeding in an Alder tree by the Greenhouse Complex, with them was a single SISKIN, and half a dozen LINNET. Migrant Alley was good for a few flyover species, including a single YELLOWHAMMER, 2 MEADOW PIPIT, 8 SKYLARK, a KESTREL and three gull species HERRING, BLACK HEADED, and LESSER BLACK BACKED.

Nothing new was on any of the lakes, MALLARD and MOORHEN were the usual inhabitants, and in the surrounding Scrubby Woods a few of the regulars were found, the best of these being NUTHATCH, TREECREEPER, BULLFINCH, LONG TAILED TIT, and GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, in general though there were far fewer birds about than I would expect this time of year, the day list ended on 43 species, which is around average here for late October.

Later this afternoon, I was having a 'garden bird watch'  when I spotted a BRAMBLING come in to take some sunflower hearts, so I was out like a shot to try and photograph it, I did manage a couple of photo's but I think this one was spoilt by the chain holding the feeder up!

Brambling - a superb garden visitor  :-)

Whilst waiting for the Brambling to come back in, plenty of activity was noted, including COAL TIT, a flock of Long Tailed Tits ( scarce in my garden in recent years!) two Nuthatch, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker, as well as all the BLUE, and GREAT TITS, CHAFFINCH, GREENFINCH and Goldfinch, however the Greenfinch's are well down in number just three, compared two over 30 last month!

Goldfinch