Chiltern Birder

Driving home from the station this evening I noticed a couple of birders in the lay-by in Stony Lane between Little Chalfont and Latimer. I have no idea what they had been watching but saw nothing interesting from the car. I have seen red kites in the Latimer area on a couple of occasions and once and egret flying up the Chess valley but just a crows and pigeons tonight. Getting back to the title, I was struck by the combination of winter and summer last weekend. On Saturday I was walking in the National Trust woods at Ashridge. A flock of what looked like small thrushes kept moving away from me, I had foolishly left the bins at home and couldn't make a firm identification but would put a very high probability on a flock of redwing. I also saw a solitary muntjac who was quite unconcerned by my presence. At the NT's feeding station behind the visitor centre pied wagtails, chaffinches and great tits were all in evidence. The morning's walk was rounded off with lunch at The Gr

He was back again today, about mid morning. Scraping around the feeders to uncover scraps made a bit of a mess of the lawn. After taking a drink he wandered down the garden and settled down in a sheltered corner by the lilace for a couple of hours. I looked at one point and the cat was sitting by the window, the pair of them totally ignoring each other. When I opened the window to let the cat in he crouched down but made no other attempt to move. It finally rained today, a nice change from the cold dry north easterlies that we have been having. Gentle light rain which soaked the ground nicely but did very little to refill the water butt. Not much else in the way of birds in the garden this morning, the wood pigeon cleaned up most of the ground feeding tray again and the squirrel is still cleaning how the sunflower hearts, also ignored by the cat. Actually I have never seen her take a bird but she is a keen mouser but not keen enough to save all the bulbs that I had in the lean-to. I no

I was contemplating setting up this blog for some time. While checking my emails I heard a characteristic call, very close. Looking out of the window, for the first time ever, I saw a cock pheasant in the garden, pecking among the fallen husks between one of the feeders. After turning over the scattered sunflower cases with beak and claws he walked over to the water dish to drink before wandering down the garden. Otherwise it had not been a particularly interesting day on the feeders. A fat wood pigeon cleaned up most of the food on the ground feeding tray and the squirrels were more in evidence than birds on the ground hopper which is filled with sunflower hearts. The goldfinches were on the nyjer seed feeder first thing plus a solitary siskin. That feeder has been far busier during the last couple of months. The siskins are now regular visitors.