Chiltern Birder

Yes, it is actually light when I set out for work now so I am starting to see more birds. Plenty of corvids of course and assorted sbjs in the hedgerows plus the occasional suicidal cock pheasant wandering around in the middle of the road. Yesterday I was pleasantly suprised to see a heron right by the side of the road in the water meadows at Latimer. I think some hedgerow must have been cleared there as I don't remember a view into the field at that point. I think it is about the closest that I have ever been to a standing heron. He would have been away in a flash if I had been on foot. I think I have only seen cormorants at this point on a couple of occasions but I did see one flying up the valley recently. After birding in the Lea Valley it seems odd to think of a cormorant as unusal but they are nowhere near as common in the Chilterns.

A heavy fall this time, closing local schools and making driving very difficult in the village. As well as a sudden abundance of sledges in the str eet there was a lot of activity on the feeders. The ground tray was covered and almost impossible to identify but a little work with the spade uncovered it once it had stopped snowing. Earlier I had thrown food under the hedge where the ground was partially exposed and had the sight of wood pidgeons shovelling the snow aside with their heads in order to find seeds that had fallen through. The starlings were very active on the feeders as well as tits and robins. There were one or two sparrows but they were greatly outnumbered by the chaffinches which seem far more common this year. The pleasant surprises were a coal tit and a song thrush. The thrush is seen occasionally but the resident blackbird usually chases it away. The goldfinches abandoned the nyjer seed this afternoon and suddenly took to the high energy mix on the main feeder. This i