Chiltern Birder

After the cold weather it is now very warm. Garden activity is much the same with occasional starlings and long tailed tits as well as dunnocks, blackbirds, robins and blue and great tits. A chaffinch made a brief visit this morning, the first that I have seen in the garden for a while. The blackcap hasn't returned but I saw one by the side of Botley Road this morning as well as swallows swooping over the paddocks nearby. Both great spotted and green woodpeckers have been audible but none have been visible.

We took a trip out to Marsworth this morning. Plan A had been to walk around the reservoirs but, being the first nice day of the year, the car park was full as were nearby laybys. The number of people carrying scopes suggested that something rare had been sighted. Finding a parking space on the other side of the village we walked along the tow path towards Leighton Buzzard and saw a solitary swallow skimming the water. There was nothing else of note on the walk but back home the blackcap has been returning to the feeders. Always the cock bird.

With the warmer damp weather I was delighted to see a blackcap in the garden for the first time in over five years. It was a cock bird which returned to the fat feeder several times during the day. The robins have responded to the end of the cold snap by becoming far more agressive towards each other. We have also had the usual selection of birds with great tits, dunnocks, long tailed tits and blackbirds. In the garden the shrubs seem keen to catch up after the cold spell, the forsythia is finally in flower and the buds are breaking on the quince trees.

The prolonged cold spell has meant that spring is only just arriving. The crocuses have just come out and I am still waiting to see some blossom on the forsythia. In the garden we had a brief visit from a small group of house sparrows at the weekend. Apart from that the garden birds have been much the same as normal with blue and great tits, blackbirds, robins, dunnock and long tailed tits.