Chiltern Birder

A little seed has been taken from the feeder. A few blue tits have been in the garden but I only saw one come to the feeder. I have put a fat block in a wire cage on the ground feeder and the dunnock has been taking that. I put some nyjer seed in the feeder today, I just wonder how long it will take the goldfinches to come bacl.

After weeks with an empty garden a dunnock and a robin finally put in an appearance at the weekend. I put some food on the ground tray and some seed in one of the feeders with little apparrent result. The dunnock was far more interested in foraging in the litter of sunflower shells under the feeders. Today, very briefly, four blue tits and two long tailed tits appeared in the garden. Only one of the blue tits paid any attention to the feeder and took about three pieces of seed. The robin gave a curious display, flying towards the hedge and suddenly hovering in a good immitation of a humming bird before flying off again.

Driving around the M25 on Sautrday night as the sun approached the horizon I was struck by the arial motorway at right angles to the road above the Lea valley. Hundreds of gulls were flying down the valley, presumably to roost on the reservoirs between Chingford and Walthamstow. I recalled a similar site in Slough some years ago, watching the gulls head east above the Bath Road. At least then I wasn't negotiating three lanes of traffic and could stand still and watch. On Sunday a short car journey had me alert for anything interesting. A party of young pheasants wandered across the road near Latimer, the cock birds almost but not quite into their adult plumage and without the long tail feathers. Plenty of small birds flew across my path, too fast to identify any although one could well have been a rather late swallow. Crows and rooks were in evidence on the fields and a kestrel was hovering close to the road. They are not as common in the hills as they are along some of the main