Pittswood Birds

A rash of showers blew in on a strong and gusty wind this morning, making conditions unpleasant for the 3 hour patch walk.

Despite the poor weather, there was still some bird activity to be found, with HOUSE MARTINS being seen throughout my visit, small parties flew SW, the sky was rarely without a few passing over, with them were 5 SWALLOWS, all single birds.

A CHIFFCHAFF was in the Greenhouse Grounds, with another seen along the drainage ditch in the Ashes lane Field. NUTHATCH, BULLFINCH, COAL TIT, GOLDCREST, MISTLETHRUSH, SONGTHRUSH, JAY, GREAT SPOTTED and GREEN WOODPECKERS were all found in the Scrubby Woods, while the adjacent lakes provided me with the first GREY HERON (59) of the month, plus a brief glimpse of a KINGFISHER.

Ending my walk with a sky watch from my seat at Migrant Alley was worth getting damp and windswept for, as I saw not only the usual 3 raptors of BUZZARD, SPARROWHAWK and KESTREL, but also had the good fortune of seeing a pair of PEREGRINES (60) fly low over the sheep pasture, I know not weather these are the local birds that have been recorded here over the past few years, I have my doubts, as Peregrine used to be seen frequently and todays sightings are the first since August, still, it's a nice way to bring up the 60th species for October  :-)  Also seen on my sky watch were CORMORANT, 7 single SKYLARKS and a small skein of 4 GREYLAG GEESE, as well of course, many more the House Martins!  MEADOW PIPITS came and went from the sheep pasture, with at least 20 birds seen perched along a fence line.

So with Octobers list at 60 species, it now sits in 9th place out the 13 Octobers, how many more species can be found ?  The winter visitors of Fieldfare, Lesser Redpoll, Siskin, or maybe a Brambling could turn up this month, plus Yellowhammer and Canada Goose have yet to be recorded, even with all these species the October list would only reach 7th place............. more patch watching needed!!

No Photo's today, the ' Blog Folder' has run dry  :-(