I had another full patch walk this morning as the weather was fine, there are still a few of the semi  regular species to be added to the year list, like Mistlethrush, Treecreeper, Grey Heron, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard, but I didn't record any of them!

However, among the 42 species I did see, were a couple of crackers for the 2015 list, the first being 4 GOOSANDER (47) that were on the main lake, one being a superb male, but even better (in respect for my patch) was finding a male GADWALL (48) that was associating with them, I didn't get this species on last years patch list, indeed, it is only the fourth year I have recorded one!

I only added one other species to the year list this morning, when I found two COMMON GULLS (49) on the sheep pasture at Migrant Alley, they were with the wintering flock of BLACK HEADED GULLS there.

Other highlights for the morning were flyover LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL and YELLOWHAMMER, a LITTLE OWL at the Greenhouse Copse and the KESTREL pair at the Greenhouse Grounds, also noted were the MEADOW PIPIT flock at the Ashes Lane Fields, which is now 30+ strong  :-)

There was no light at all to photograph the Goosander or Gadwall on the lakes early on, but I did get a distant shot of a nice male BULLFINCH that was with a female at the Greenhouse Grounds, I also tried to photograph the Black Headed Gulls, but they were not very approachable!

Bullfinch

Black Headed Gull

Happy new year to everyone!
Welcome to another year with Pittswood Birds, the 14th now, and the 8th to be covered by this daily blog.

Kicking off the the new year at the crack of dawn, which is not especially early at 07:30hrs, I left the house and wrote BLACKBIRD in my notebook, the first bird of 2015. This was steadily added to as I walked along Ashes lane, with CARRION CROW, ROBIN, GREAT TIT, JACKDAW, DUNNOCK, BLUE TIT, KESTREL, MAGPIE and WREN all being found.

Crossing the Ashes Lane Field, few species were added, around 30 MEADOW PIPIT were still about, WOODPIGEON, PIED WAGTAIL, and REDWING flew over plus a SONGTHRUSH fed on the lawn of a nearby garden.

Reaching the lakes, which had virtually now defrosted, the expected MUTE SWAN, COOT, MALLARD and MOORHEN were added to the years list, as was the KINGFISHER, good to get this species on the list early on  :-) A group of FIELDFARE flew from the banks of the main lake, calling as they went, while a walk through the Scrubby Woods added GOLDCREST, GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER, GOLDFINCH, COAL TIT, CHAFFINCH, PHEASANT,, LONG TAILED TIT, GREEN WOODPECKER, plus flyovers from BLACK HEADED GULL and YELLOWHAMMER.

Moving on, through the Wet Woods and the Small Holding, new species dried up somewhat, but I did mange to add COLLARED DOVE, BULLFINCH, NUTHATCH and STARLING to the 2015 list.

As I walked down High House Lane I was pleased to see 6 LAPWING sitting in the adjacent arable field along with 30-40 more Black Headed Gulls,  plus HOUSE SPARROW and SKYLARK were added to the list.

I checked the Greenhouse Copse next and found the LITTLE OWL at roost, then scanned the sheep pasture and paddcoks of Migrant Alley, were there were at least 140 more Black Headed Gulls, a minimum of 300 Starlings, plus the fisrst ROOKS of the year, at least 80 were present.

The final part of my walk across the Pub Field and back round to the Greenhouse Grounds, didn't add any more species from the ground, but flyovers from HERRING GULL, LESSER BLACK BACKED GULL, JAY, STOCK DOVE and lastly, a CORMORANT rounded off the morning.

So I finished up with a creditable 45 species for the first morning walk of 2015, which was added to this afternoon when GREENFINCH was seen at my garden feeders, one of 17 species I counted at the feeders, a good start to the 2015 garden bird count  :-)

The 2015 year list will be available to view on the tab under the header photo

No pics from today in the gloomy, windy weather, but here's a few from the garden feeders I took earlier this week  :-)

Coal Tit

Greenfinch

Goldfinch