Chiltern Birder

With the fine weather and a holiday it seemed a good idea to take advantage of the fact that I live in some very beautiful countryside. A walk in the Ley Hill area took me up Broomstick Lane, where escaped cultivated bluebells were mixing with the wild. Then into Cowcroft Wood where a substantial badger set seems to have had somebody digging. (I won't add my thoughts on that as Blogspot has rules about bad language). Although birds were audible there was nothing to be seen and the walk continued out onto Ley Hill Common and along the side of the golf course towards the community wood, now named Crabtree Plantation. One tree had several hollow sections where branches had fallen and a nuthatch was taking advantage of the previous night's rain to plaster mud around one of these. Its mate was on the next branch. A little nearer the road was a recently discarded pair of bright red knickers, I did wonder if the cloudburst had cooled somebody's ardour rather precipitately. In the

Leaving the house yesterday morning I was suprised to see not red kites circling overhead but two buzzards. I do see them occasionally in my part of the chilterns but not with any regularity. Just to retain a semblence of normality however, barely more than a dot in clear sky there was also what was obviously a kite. Its curious how you learn to identify birds, it was definitely too far away to even pick out the forked tail but the whole "feel" of the bird was unmistakable.