Chiltern Birder

I commented last year on the fact that buzzards seemed to be moving in to the kestrels' niche alongside our motorways. While travelling up the M11 just before Christmas I was struck by the sight of a pair of buzzards between Harlow and Stansted. I know that the buzzard population is on the increase but I still find it suprising to see them so regularly in Hertfordshire and even across the Essex border. Further north on the A1 we did see a handful of kestrels. The other thing that struck me was that, on a journey from London to Yorkshire we didn't see any lapwings. Flocks of starlings and crows often crossed the road in front of us but never that distinctive impression of a chessboard torn up and tossed into the air. When I was commuting from Essex to Slough about 20 years ago they would be a regular sight in the fields. The press have been commenting on the demise of the turtle dove. Around 25 years ago I would regularly hear them, but seldom see them, around Abberton Reser

A flock of long tailed tits provided a little variety in the garden today. They settled on the starling feeder for a little while but, naturally, flew away when I moved to see if anything was on the sunflower hearts. The River Chess is flowing well at the moment with the old mill leat coming down from Pednormead End carrying enough water to actually turn a water wheel. More is probably due to surface water after the recent heavy rain rather than any rising of the water table. In the mean time a pair of mallards and a moorhen had returned to he pool above the Town Bridge

A brisk cold but bright day after early snow. There has been little in the way of birds but walking along Bunn's Lane where it zig zags towards White End two roe deer suddenly ran across the field in front of me. The white rumps were clearly visible as they bounded across the stubble. By the time that I reached the next leg of the lane where they were headed there was naturally no sign of them. What was striking was the way that dog walkers have vanished with the cold weather. Walking for over an hour I didn't see another person on foot or horseback until I reentered Ley Hill. This is the first clear view that I have had of roe deer here although as I have remarked before I have probably dismissed brief glimpses while driving as muntjac.

We had the first snow of the winter this morning. Just a light dusting although judging by the traffic reports from Hertfordshire my part of the Chilterns got off lightly. It didn't encourage anything special to the garden however. The peanuts were going mouldy in the feeder and I  replaced them with a new feeder containing sunflower hearts about a week ago with no effect. All I have seen have been the regular blackbirds and robins on the starling feeder. I took a walk across the fields between Botley and Lye Green Road yesterday. That area is quite suprisingly flat considering the hilltop location. I could have imagined myself on coastal marshes rather than the Chilterns but the only excitement from a birding point of view was a brief glimpse of a sparrowhawk. Because of a broken strap the bins were in their case and the bird was long gone by the time I had them out.

I took a slightly different route this morning and explored Bunns Lane which leads down to the River Chess near Holloway Lane. This was a fascinating walk with the lane forming a ledge in the hillside at one point. I saw two or three goldcrests and was suprised that they were no more nervous of my presence than a blue or great tit would be. The ones that I have seen in the past have seen much shyer. What I initially assumed to be a fourth turned out to be a wren. I found a shrub on the path that I hadn't seen before with bright pink seed cases. With a little help from the web this was identified as a spindle tree. The hedgerows had obviously been properly laid at a point in the distant past leaving the trees grown into strange shapes. In this one a shoot trained horizontally has obviously grown over the decades. Apart from that there were the usual sightings of red kite and buzzard and a very noisy mixed flock of crows and jackdaws on some stubble. I have seen buzzard so

A trip to Fishers Green yesterday was uneventful. According to the species list the bitterns are back but seem to prefer the new reedbeds away from the bittern hide. I walked around Seventy Acres and Holyfield lakes and the one remarkable thing was the lack of pochard. I only saw one or two individuals which on previous experience is most unusual for this time of year. I actualy saw more wigeon and gadwall both of which I would normally regard as being less common than pochard. I did go looking for goosander which I have seen on Holyfield in previous years but without any luck.

Things seem to be moving at last on the bird feeding front. Nothing exceptional but we have had a blackbird on the starling feeder and a blue tit on the fat block in the front garden. In the srubs at the bottom of the garden we have had a wren. It all makes a nice addition to the ubiquitous robins. Still green a fortnight ago An injured knee means that I haven't been walking much for the past week but driving along the A413 on Saturday it was obvious that the autumn colours were at their peak. Since then leaves have been obviously falling and some trees are starting to look bare.

The fat feeders have attracted several robins. In the back garden we have distinguished three individuals, not so sure about the front although we have had a blue tit on that feeder. Nothing has been observed going to the peanut feeder at the back. A walk today by Bottom Lane and Trapps Lane to Waterside revealed little in the way of birds although at one point there is a fantastic view across the Chess valley with most of the housing hidden in the folk of the hill. The river itself is flowing well below the junction with Moor Road, I am not sure where all the channels go across the moor but there seemed to be a heavy flow coming from a culvert and nothing coming through the old mill leat across the road. This may come from a spring or borehole as the flow upstream from this point is negligable. There was sufficient water for a group of mallards to swim but above the moor the flow became very slight and sluggish. It was nice to see a wren when walking up Duck Alley but there was no f

I actually had some birds coming to the feeders today. Brief visits by blue tits, great tit and coal tit plus a blackbird taking some chopped apple on the lawn. Nothing to write home about but its a start. No starlings or finches so far but there was a dunnock a couple of days ago.

An interesting day today with several instances of birds being mobbed. First I saw a spat between a crow and a black headed gull having a spat. It seemed a pretty even match with both being agressive. Later on I was watching three kites circling low over a field. I was hoping for a good look at one on the ground but no luck, however as I was watching I heard a buzzard mew behind me. It came over and the kites flew towards it causing it to veer away. I was struck by the size difference never having seen the two species in such a close juxtaposition before. The kites returned to the field only to be taken on by a single crow. Walking on I soon heard the buzzard again behind a hedge and when I reached a gap I saw the three kites mobbing it until it flew away. Turning round I saw another four on the other side of the valley. That is the most that I have seen at one time on this size of Chesham. Other than that there wasn't much of note, the redwings and long tailed tits both seem t

For the first time in months I have actually seen some birds in the back garden. First a great tit and then a flock of blue tits landed on the feeder brackets and seemed to take insects sheltering in the joints with the pole. It seemed like a good idea to pick up some peanuts while I was shopping and put a feeder out again. Has anything come to the feeder? Of course not. A neighbour seems to have had a far more interesting visit, as I was returning with the shopping I saw a heron land in the back gardens opposite. Quite a suprise on a naturally waterless hilltop. The pond owner's fish are probably a far more expensive food than my bag of peanuts.

Entering Cowcroft Wood last week there was a flock of birds high in the tree tops which made the wood sound quite spring like. The contrast this morning was quite striking with hardly anything audible. For a little while there has been a flock of birds active on the recently ploughed field in the corner between Cowcroft and Ladywood. They are very nervy and I can't get close enough for a positive id with the lightweight bins that I carry when walking. Carting the scope up there is too much like pack drill but after two sessions I am quite happy that they are redwing. The sound of a large flock of canada geese was quite unusual so far from water. They were grazing on stubble over near Great White End Park Farm. At the edge of Ladywood I could hear a flock of long tailed tits but they stayed hidden by the leaves. I had a better view before the weekend when they were working along the hedgerow. When I got down to Bottom Lane I did hear a skylark on the field.

The autumn colours are changing rapidly now, there are far more gold and copper colours visible. A trip to Thame today by bus was suprising in that the only kites seen were over Thame itself. The watermeadows outside the town were partially flooded which is more than I have seen for a while and gulls were present in greater numbers than is normal around here. On Saturday, driving back from Haddenham late at night I saw a small deer beside the road at Cadsden. I had a better view than is usual at night and realised from its elegant look that it was a roe as opposed to the rather pig like appearance of a muntjac. I now wonder how many times in the past I have dismissed brief glimpses of roe deer as muntjac. In the garden I haven't seen any activity on the fat bar but there are a few beak marks so something is taking it when I am not looking.

Out for a walk today the first hints of autumn are visible with a few trees showing hints of gold among the green. It has been a poor year for both top fruit and berries with no quinces setting on my trees and no crabb apples in the lane while blackberries have been fewer and smaller than usual. I have put out a fat block, much earlier than usual but it has only been there a couple of days, not long enough to see any reaction yet. While walking a buzzard announced itself with a loud mew before appearing over the ridge right in front of us. We were given the opportunity to compare calls a few minutes later when an equally vocal kite came into view. The jackdaws were noisy and seemed to be flying high very much after the manner of martins or switfts. There were also smaller birds, too small to make out even with binoculars but with flight patterns similar to martins.

A trip to Fishers Green didn't reveal any exciting rarities but did yield some suprises. There seemed to be gadwall everywhere, far more than the tufties or mallard, I don't think that I have ever seen such numbers before. I am not a compulsive list maker but while walking back to the car I did think that I should have been counting. They did prove to be much more timid than the more usual waterfowl. They would fly off if they became aware of me on the path even at quite long distances. Apart from that there were the usual suspects with coot, mute swans black headed gulls, great crested grebes, canada geese and cormorants as well as the mallards and a handful of tufted duck and only one pair of pochard. There had clearly been some late broods as there were juvenile coot and great crested grebe around. The latter were still in their striped plumage. An odd sight was Holyfield Weir which was lined from end to end by canada geese. A marked change from the usual row of assorted gul

A visit to Chesham today revealed that the Chess was flowing at Wey Lane. Not very much and the stream was badly clogged by willow herb but it was flowing. You certainly wouldn't believe the flow there was once powerful enough to turn a sawmill. A walk down Duck Alley revealed that the flow was continuing through the water gardens but I didn't have time or energy to continue down to the moor. Locally there hasn't been much in the way of birds apart from the kites. The fields locally have been harvested, ploughed, reseeded and the first leaves of the winter crop are already showing. I saw a large flock of what seemed to be finches or sparrows. Even with binocularsI couldn't be sure but I think there was a mixture of species. Driving between Latimer and Ley Hill yesterday there was a large bird of prey sitting on one of the posts carrying a power line. The back and wings seemed quite grey. I only had it in sight for a second and can't be sure of id although it seeme

As we have had a fair bit of rain recently I had a look at the river while I was in Chesham today. Water was rising from the spring by the Water Meadow car park but nothing coming down from Pednor. With a small but distinct flow under the Town Bridge I walked downstream. At Meades Water Garden (a landscaped former mill pond) the water soaked away with nothing flowing out. Its going to be a long time before we see fish at Water Lane.

Taking a walk today I thought about taking the bins but decided that I was unlikely to see anything interesting. Naturally, while walking along the edge of Cowcroft Wood I saw a hawk silluetted against the sky. No markings but swept back wings like a swift. I walked on wondering what it was (I have never been good on the smaller raptors). Glancing back I saw it again, this time heading down towards Bottom Lane and the River Chess. A few minutes later the red kite that swept across in front of me in all its glory was instantly identifiable. A couple of minutes with a field guide once I was home settled the identification.

On Monday I went over to Bampton in Oxfordshire. Normally when I go there at this time of year the swifts are very noisy but this year I didn't hear one. The local crows, however, were taking offence at the presence of a red kite and swallows and house martins were visible. Yesterday I encountered a red legged partridge sitting on a gate beside the road. I was able to stop the car and have a good look at his very handsome markings.

As I had to go over to East London yesterday I took the opportunity to go up to Amwell which I hadn't visited for some time. Since my last visit the lakes have been taken over by the Herts and Middlesex Trust who have put access with hides and a nature trail. It makes seeing the birds a lot easier but has also made the whole area seem tamed and less exciting. Despite the improvements the first spottings of interest were while crossing the canal with a cock reed bunting perching in the bushes and a pair of common terns flying along the cut. On the margins of the lake were lapwings, one bird with a magnificent crest as well as a variety of roosting water fowl and cormorants. According to the notice board redshank were nesting and I managed to see one at the waters edge as well as an oystercatcher fly across the lake. Other birds of note were heron, shoveller and gadwall. When I first visited this site around 20 years ago there was a pair of egyptian geese in residence, either they

I had quite a suprise last night driving home. Between Latimer and Ley Hill I saw a polecat at the edge of the road. It was facing me and the "bandit mask" was very clear in the headlights. A little way down the road and the elation rapidly vanished when we saw a recently killed young badger. Locally cuckoos have been very vocal and in Chalfont St Peter I heard a swift calling overhead. This was nice as the wet start to the spring meant that they had a severe food shortage. In the hot weather a garden pond was being visited by breeding damselflies, I am not an expert on odontae but one pair seemed to be common blues and the other possibly small red.

Finally I have had a bullfinch in the garden. I had done nothing to attract it, indeed I have not been feeding the birds for a while. I was just eating breakfast and happened to be looking out of the window at the moment that he perched in the garden. No doubt flocks of them have been through the garden when I wasn't looking. There are now decent numbers of swallows locally but I haven't seen any swifts or house martins yet.

I saw my first swallow locally this morning while walking along Botley Road into Chesham. It wasn't the first however, four days ago I was at Fishers Green where there was a huge flock taking insects just above the water surface. There were also at least two cuckoos calling in the area and the sight of a warbler on the reeds showed why they were there. Unfortunately the view was too brief to get a firm identification and the Lea Valley Park website suggests that both reed and sedge warblers were present. It was nice to hear cuckoos for the first time since 2010. There was nothing else excpetional in the Lea Valley, the tern rafts were full of black headed gulls and the canada geese had goslings and a few coot chicks were visible. Today I travelled to Thame by bus and, without the need to concentrate on driving, it was striking just how many red kites there are now. There were some lovely views with the birds coming down below tree top level. Near Chinnor one was keeping pace with t

A walk this morning took in Cowcroft Wood again. Bluebells are now out but not in any great numbers, there are wide areas where they are just in leaf. I must read up on wild flowers, I recognise the celendine and primroses, both giving fine shows but ther are others that I can't identify. On the birding front the walk was mostly the usual suspects, tits, chaffinches, blackbirds, robins, wood pigeons and assorted corvids. I heard skylarks and pheasants, it was very striking how far the pheasant's call will carry. The high spots were a green woodpecker in the wood and house sparrows in Ley Hill. The sparrows seem to concentrate at one end of the village where there are a lot of privet hedges. Red Kites are no longer unusual although always special but the number circling over Great Missenden on Easter Day were striking. I didn't make an exact count but it was the sort of sight that I used to associate only with the villages along the escarpment from Chinnor down towards Benso

I was thinking recently that I hadn't seen many jays around and promptly saw two last week and two more today. That is about the most intertesting thing in the bird line locally at the moment. I still have no starlings coming into the garden and waiting for the swallows. I have heard that they have arrived in the south of England but none have climbed this hill yet. The woodland flowers are appearing with some nice displays of cowslips. In Cowcroft Wood the first few bluebells are just coming out.

According to the radio this morning the bluebells are already out in some parts of the country. A long walk in Cowcroft Wood showed that this was not the case here, in the way of flowers the celendines are just starting to bloom but not the bluebells although parts of the wood will probably be magnificent once they are out. By way of birds there were just the usual tits, blackbirds and robins plus some woodpeckers. A green was very vocal but we only had a very brief glimpse as it flew away. A great spotted posed at a little distance. Curiously we ran into a friend from London in the middle of the wood, as Pratchett says, "million to one chances happen all the time".

Suddenly everything is looking spring like again. Daffodils are now out and blossom is in the hedgerows. Walking today the skylarks were in full voice and I had a nice view of one ascending, not straight up as folklore demands but in a spiral presumably mapping out its territory. Both partridges and pheasants have been very visible in the lanes in recent days. Mating rituals are taking place, I saw a pair of pigeons "billing and cooing" on a phone line today and grebes nodding when driving past the Walthamstow reservoirs at the weekend.

A glorious day for a walk today, too glorious considering the present drought. I took my usual circuit down Bottom Lane then across the field path back towards Tylers Hill Road. Bluebells were in leaf in the hedgerow, hopefully natives rather than garden escapes, and a few snowdrops were in flower. A few minutes later I was serenaded by a skylark, the first that I have heard this year. A little further down the lane I heard a buzzard mewing although by the time I was out in the open it had gone. In fact, apart from a few crows and pigeons and a solitary blackbird everything seemed to be out of sight although the various songsters were making plenty of noise and I could hear a green woodpecker somewhere over towards Botley Road. In the garden I have seen a long tailed tit on the starling bar as well as the regular blackbirds and blue tits. Still no starlings however which is a huge change on previous years.

After a remarkably mild winter we have had a week of very cold clear weather followed by reasonably heavy snow overnight. Despite the freeze the birds have not rediscovered my garden although the numbers of blue tits coming to the fat bar seem to be increasing slowly. It is still the same fat bar, in previous years I would probably have been onto the third by now. The snow did bring a blackbird onto the feeder and a pair were roosting in my neighbour's leylandii hedge. I will have to be careful to check that I am not disturbing a next when I next trim my side. Nothing much of note, the Chess is still dry and there have been a disturbing number of dead badgers on the roads recently.