Yellowhammers, Telephone Wires and Juveniles

Not all at the same time. The starlings seem to be moving on but I have had a baby blue tit being fed by the ground feeders for the last couple of days and a juvenile robin turned up investigating my mix of sunflower hearts and oatmeal in the hopper. As I had to go to work I didn't see if he returned for the fat and special robin mixture that I put on the tray.

With fewer birds visible among the greenary I tend to notice those on telephone wires much more. There seem to be a couple of perches that are so well used that one could believe that somebody had put model birds there permenantly. Just coming into Ley Hill from Latimer one wire is a regular for swallows while in Ley Hill itself a pair of wood pigeons seem to have taken up residence on another. One at least must be real as there was only one there tonight.

I was lucky this evening to have a yellowhammer pose in the road in front of the car, double lucky that nobody was following. Also on another wire was an unidentified bird with a beak full of insects.

With the warm weather the larger birds of prey seem to have moved out of the district. I have not seen a kite or a buzzard around Chesham for some time now. Certainly not since the heat wave beagan.

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Returning to the Garden

High summer and early autumn is always a quiet time for birds in my garden. I no longer feed after my summer holiday as I have ended up throwing away far to much mouldy fat or seed. Normally I would wait until November before putting the feeders back out but a party of long tailed tits appeared in the front garden today so I think that it might be worth while trying a single fat bar for the moment. For the past couple of weeks I have seen a lot of roadside signs saying "beware of deer" in places where I wouldn't normally see them. Last weekend I decided that they might be justified when I encountered a herd of roe deer in the road between Ley Hill and Latimer. While muntjac are seen often enough the roes tend to be shy and this was only the third time that I have had a good look at some in all the years that I have lived here.

A Little More Normal

After a couple of days of frost the garden looks more like a typical winter's day with birds visiting throughout the day. Blue tits are the main visitor plus one or two marsh (or possibly willow) tits and the occasional great tit. A flock of long tailed tits paid a fairly brief visit. Robins in the back garden have paired, seemingly a little later than the ones in the front. Due to ill health the ivy on my back fence hasn't been trimmed and has developed a good crop of berries. The only bird that I have seen showing interest has been a wood pigeon which spent some time yesterday feasting on them. In the front I put out a fat block yesterday afternoon which, so far, has attracted a grey squirrel. The pair of robins and the occasional blackbird are active on the hanging table.

More Starlings

At least one brood of starlings have been regular visitors to the feeder and today the fledglings got the hang of taking the food for themselves. Other broods must be less developed as adults were still taking away quantities of fat. The tits aren't so common at the moment, I don't know if this is because they have dispersed, if wild food is available or if pressure from the starlings has driven them off. Single blue tits are dropping in fairly regularly and a coal tit took fat away as well. The woodpecker seems to have become a regular visitor and still has a brood to feed. He definitely comes before the starlings in the pecking order and keeps them off the feeder until he has finished. The new feeder with perching rings is popular with the chaffinches and the goldfinches, the latter suddenly seem to prefer the high energy mix to the nyjer seed. With all this demand for feeding young ones the fat is going down very rapidly and I am putting larger quantities out on the ground t...

Chiltern Birder

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