Suddenly, in the last few days, the leaves have turned red or gold. It had seemed that autumn was heading for a season of sludge colours until then. Locally I haven't seen much. Goldfinches briefly visited the garden and a flock of long tailed tits were working along a hedgerow nearby. Although I have never seen another pheasant in the garden one has been calling close to the boundary. Over at Hemel yesterday I saw a trio of cormorants flying close to the line of the canal above Boxmoor, heading up the valley. That isn't an area where they are common. Today a last minute decision was made to go to Fishers Green in the Lee Valley Country Park which meant that I was without a pair of bins. I never got around to putting a spare pair in the glove box after I changed the car earlier this year. There was a fairly standard selection of birds on the water including mute swans, black headed gulls, pochard, tufted duck, gadwall, great crested grebe, lapwing, dabchick and coot. On the fe
Once upon a time you could find me birding on the Thames marshes almost every weekend through the winter. For various reasons I am now seldom able to travel to good birding sites. I am lucky, however, to live in the beautiful Chiltern Hills and this blog is to document the birds that I see on my own patch.