Chiltern Birder

Escaped ornamentals can be a problem to identify but that wasn't the case with the black swan that I saw on Stockers Lake today. I almost missed it as it seems to spend far more time with its head down than a mute swan. Apart from that a walk around the lakes at Rickmansworth produced nothing exciting in terms of unusual species. There were plenty of tufties, pochard, coot, mallard, mute swans, cormorants and gadwall as well as a solitary shoveller. I passed a heron very close to the path who seemed quite unconcerned about my presence and was also lucky enough to see a great crested grebe swallowing a fish. Undergrowth had been cleared from some of the islands and one seemed to be full of lapwings. There are bird feeders by a couple of hides which were getting attention from blue and great tits and one also had a party of rats feeding on the discarded seeds underneath. Judging by the sizes I would guess a family party of two adults and two juveniles. On the wooded part of the

Tits are flitting in and out of the garden but most birds still seem to be out on the fields. Some of the arable fields seem to have been left fallow after harvest and the stubbles are attracting flocks of chaffinches. As I haven't been birding on our local fields lately I am relying on naked eye observations but I couldn't make out any other finch species. Looking along the hedgerows a flock of redwing was flitting along the treetops. It was very frustrating to be without the bins as they seemed very nervous and kept moving away from me.

I was driving up the A40 today and saw my westernmost kite so far in England over the Northleach bypass. The previous record was a few miles to the east over Burford . There were quite a few pheasants visible in the fields and with game in season a muntjac seemed rather over eager to get turned into venison as I came back up the Chiltern escarpment at Cadsden. At home the tits are taking fat from the block in the front garden but very slowly. I don't plan to bring any more feeders into use for a few more weeks. In the back robins and dunnocks are returning. One of the vegetable beds had been mulched with spent hops and a dunnock was throwing these up in little fountains as he searched underneth them.

The natural history articles in the papers are all talking about winter migrants but a visit to Fishers Green two days ago didn't reveal anything obvious. There was the usual selection, possibly a few more great crested grebes than usual. The one new site was by the edge of Hollywell Lake where some access to the shore has become overgrown. It was just a brief glimpse of a deer, probably a muntjac vanishing into the undergrowth. At home blue or great tits still come and peck at the bathroom air vent but the fat bar that I put out a week ago has only had a couple of pecks.

The Indian Summer weather tempted me out yesterday for a trip down to Stockers Lake. The high point of the walk wasn't the birds but walking along the section of path between the lake and the canal a grass snake suddenly crossed in front of me. It was so close that I almost trod on it and far too fast for me to get my phone out for a picture of course. On the lake itself there was nothing outstanding, plenty of coot and a good few tufties. I saw two parties of pochard, totallying 5 individuals plus a handful of cormorants and clusters of black headed gulls on suitable perches and partiesof mute swans and canada geese. Bury Lake had a lot of boating activity but was home to a family of great crested grebes, probably a late brood as the juveniles were still in their striped plumage.

I have already seen the combines out in well watered low ground but it looks as if our local wheat fields still have a little time to go. My garden is always a week or two later than down in the valley so I suppose that it is the same for arable. Blackberries are just starting to appear but they are generally rather tart. Birds don't come into the garden much now and the temperature recently has been above the melting point of my remaining fat bars. It was strange to see one actually dripping the other day. In the fields the skylarks are silent but grasshoppers were audible while the kites make a fair bit of noise at times. Walking along the edge of Cowcroft Wood today I seemed to be wading through a cloud of meadow brown butterflies at one time.

The starling chicks have been demolishing the fat bars, unfortunately their appetites are starting to run beyond my budget now that I have retired. A new visitor today was a nuthatch who kept returning for sunflower hearts which were taken away by the beakfull. Conveniently it stayed put admiring the view while I unpacked the camera. On the other hand the long tailed tits have long since moved on and I haven't seen a coal tit in the garden for quite a while. I have also noticed a lack of yellowhammers when driving locally. On a plus side I have heard swifts over Chesham and Aylesbury in recent weeks.

Heard my first cuckoo of the year today at about ten to nine. It seemed to be calling from somewhere in the Tylers Hill area. On the feeders was a great spotted woodpecker at breakfast time and I heard a green calling when I went out. The various birds are wolfing down the feed now and the starlings seem to prefer the hanging feeder to the specialist starling feeder despite the acrobatics involved.

Not the earliest year but still a nice suprise. Walking into Chesham along Botley Road one crossed in front of me and flew across a field of horses. This field is popular with the swallows probably because there are always animals grazing with associated insects around them. I also saw an orange tip butterfly on the same walk and noticed that flowers were out on the horse chestnuts. Spring develops so rapidly! In the garden the starlings are becoming a lot more active.

The starlings are starting to appear now and I saw a party come down to the ground feeder and clear out the dried mealworms in seconds. They don't seem much interested in the suet pellets despite loving the fat bars. They are taking beakfuls of fat back to the nest, several times I have seen one come to the feeder, take a mouthful for itself then load up its beak for the return trip. In Cowcroft Wood the bluebells are coming out and there should be a magnificent display in a few days. The celandines are fully out with some dazzling displays.

After the long wet winter we now seem to be getting a very warm dry April. I have been watering a lot of seedlings so the level in the water butt is getting pretty low. A little overnight rain definitely wouldn't go amiss. The warm weather has its benefits, this afternoon I walked up to Ley Hill Common and sat in the sun outside The Crown with a glass of beer watching a red kite circling in a totally clear blue sky. I bought a small tub of dried meal worms this afternoon and put some out on the ground feeder, which already had some fat pellets. Forty minutes later the meal worms had gone but the pellets were hardly touched. I'll have to keep a watch and see what is its that likes them.

The local magpies have been expressing a lot of interest in the blackbirds' nest and the alarm calls have sent me out into the garden to chase them off on a couple of occasions. I was rewarded for the good deed later with an excellent view of a great spotted woodpecker on the feeder in the front garden. The dunnocks seem to have lost interest in the honeysuckle so I imagine that they found it too close to the back door, and to my potting bench, for a nest. Goldfinches and chaffinches have been regular visitors along with blue and great tits and of course the resident robin. One nice sight last week was a buzzard and a kite in the air together over Botley. With them both circling it was a great opportunity to study the differences in the silhouettes.

We now seem to have pretty steady custom on the feeders. Great tits and a few blues come to the fat feeders while chaffinches take both fat and sunflower hearts. Goldfinches are pretty regular for the sunflower hearts but don't touch the fat feeders. Robins and blackbirds occasionally take fat from the feeders as well as foraging at ground level. Dunnocks feed in undergrowth and don't even seem to come out to the ground feeder. Wood pigeons trample plants around the feeders and sometimes take fat as well while the long tailed tits are occasional visitors. The ground feeder had a visit yesterday from a field mouse who quite calmly sat there nibbling at a piece of fat block for some time. No sign of woodpeckers or starlings however.

There must be a pair of chaffinches nesting nearby as a cock bird has become a regular visitor to the feeders taking both fat and sunflower seeds. The goldfinches are still showing up occasionaly for the sunflower seeds as well. I think a pair of blackbirds are nesting in my neighbour's leylandii hedge, judging by their behaviour probably in the bit overhanging my garden that I was hoping to trim now that the weather has improved! Just for once the robins aren't fighting. There were two in the garden a day or two ago, one on the feeder and one on the rockery. The one on the feeder flew down to the rockery and presented his (?) mate with a tit-bit from the fat bars. I saw him do this again a little later. In the garden the celandine is now out and the daffodils are just starting to bloom, always a little late in the rather exposed position on the 500 foot contour.

The feeders seem busier now that the weather has cleared. Chaffinches are more common and seem to take small quantities of fat. The goldfinches are still coming but restrict themselves to the sunflower hearts. Taking a walk in the Lea Valley Park yesterday I went south from Fishers Green rather than north. At Hooks Marsh there was a large white bird, at first I thought it was a swan but it didn't seem quite right. Moving slightly to a better angle and using the bins it was revealed as a very large egret. From the size alone I assume a great white.

Making a trip from Ley Hill to Rickmansworth this morning I was passing Codmore Wood when a buzzard suddenly flew out of the hedgerow right in front of the car and flapped at headlight level into the wood opposite. If I had been driving fractionally faster I would have hit it. While at Rickmansworth I had a short stroll around Bury Lake which produced nothing of special interest although I did see a hen reed bunting. I did see a red kite which is the first time that I have seen one over Rickmansworth. In the garden we had a visit from a pair of goldfinches who spent a lot of time eating sunflower seeds from the feeder. Apart from that pair and a solitary hen chaffinch we have only had the usual visitors.

An evening trip down to Hillingdon yesterday was rewarding in wildlife sightings. On the way out a muntjac was poking its head out from the hedgerow by Latimer crossroads as if waiting for a gap in the traffic. Maybe natural selection is favouring the ones who don't run straight out. Comin back at around midnight Blackwell Hall Lane was very rewarding. First a barn owl was perched on a branch above the road. Its always striking how they show up in the headlights. Second there was a badger snuffling along on the verge. I had the camera in my bag on the passenger seat but he headed for the hedge as soon as I slowed down. Finally the strangest sight on a country lane, a police car! I have seen patrols in that area several times recently, normally seeing one is as surprising as seeing a badger. I assume that there have been some problems with machinery or stock thefts recently.

Taking a walk yesterday it was striking how we seem to have gone from an extended autumn to spring without any proper winter in between. Living on a hill top the ground around here mostly dries out very quickly so a lot of my walk through Cowcroft yesterday was on hard ground. Even where the thick mud remains it has turned from liquid to the consistency of modelling clay. As I wrote those two sentences the room darkened and it started raining again! The jackdaws were making a lot of noise in the woods and I saw one trying to fish something out of a hollow tree. Clinging to the side of the trunk with the sun behind it my first reaction was that it was a woodpecker but changing the angle slightly revealed the truth. I did wonder if there were eggs in the hole. I didn't see any woodpeckers but, as so often happens, I could hear the rather mocking call of a green. While walking along the bridleway at the edge of the wood I saw a pair of muntjac among the trees. One looked at me a

Living on a hill top I haven't been affected too much by the flooding but the rain seems to be washing away our local byways. I was walking this morning and noticed that water flowing down Broomstick Lane and Bottom Lane was cutting quite deep channels. In Bottom Lane much of the surfacing put down to make it safe for horses has washed away. With the accumulated dirt and leaves washed out in Green Lane I was walking on the bedrock in several places. Sink holes have been a serious problem in Hemel Hempstead. I wasn't expecting any around here but in a field near Ladies Wood a minature one has appeared. Its about three or four feet across and 18 inches deep at the edge of the headland. In birding terms things have been very quiet. While I was out I did see a goldcrest but nothing else of any note. Driving on the M25 yesterday I did get the hat trick of birds of prey with a buzzard between junctions 25 and 24, a kestrel near Potters Bar and a kite near St Albans.

I paid a return visit to Stockers Lake near Rickmansworth today with the benefit of a pair of wellingtons. It was an interesting visit, the lake had all the usual waterfowl with coot, tufted duck, mallard, gadwall, mute swans and herons. I didn't see any shoveller this time but the wigeon were a treat as I hadn't expected them on a lake without adjacent grazing and a real surprise were the red crested pochard which I had not seen in the wild before. At one point a row of stakes in the water, each one topped by a gull gave me the opportunity to include leg colour in identification but they were all black headed. From talking to other birders I seem to have missed some goldeneye and an escaped black swan. In the adjacent scrub there were the usual woodland birds with a small flock of redwing and a probably female reed bunting.

When I spotted that the forecast had changed and this afternoon would stay dry I decided to sample the lakes at Rickmansworth Aquadrome. Water levels were very high and some paths flooded. Bury Lake produced little of special interest with mute swans, tufted duck, mallard, coot. black headed gulls and a heron. The latter was close to the path keeping totally still and totally unfazed by passers by. He kept so still while I took a couple of pictures with my phone that I was beginning to think that it was a model but then he finally turned his head slightly. I wasn't wearing boots which made, the potentially more interesting, Stockers Lake mostly inaccessible but from the tarmac path on one side I did see a pair of shoveller and a pochard. The low sun made it difficult to identify most of the birds from that angle. I don't know if I was just unlucky or if they don't like the area but I didn't see any red kites. I had been wondering how far towards London they were sp