Chiltern Birder

 I had been wondering over the last couple of days if the redpolls would return after last year's visit. Luckily today I saw two on the feeders. As they did seem to prefer ground feeding last year maybe they will clean up some of the mess the goldfinches and bullfinches leave. The finches tend to bite sunflower seeds so that they eat the middle section while the two ends fall to the ground.  The only other sighting of note in the garden has been a collared dove. Not unusual in itself and they are common at the other end of the village but it is the first time that I have seen one in the garden for several years. I paid a brief visit to the Upper Ray Meadows between Aykesbury and Bicester on Wednesday. I picked the wrong shoes and ended up with the half melted frost soaking my socks. With the dampness on the uppers refreezing I decided to call it a day before noon but still managed to see a flock of redwing, four lapwing, a snipe and an unidentified wader that flew across too q...

So far winter hasn't brought anything exciting to the garden but, with the mild weather, it is clear which are the most favoured bird foods. The finches, of course, love the sunflower hearts. The blue and great tits are also showing a preference for sunflower seed and largely ignore the fat balls in the adjacent hanging feeder. I have even seen them waiting on the feeder arms for the finches to leave a free port rather than peck at the fat balls. I also hung a FlutterButter peanut butter feeder next to the seed feeder and that has been totally ignored. We were getting a small group of starlings who were making a big dent in the fat block and the front and the fat balls in the back garden but they have moved on and I am starting to become concerned that the remaining contents are going to become mouldy. At ground level I am feeding raisins, fat pellets and dried mealworms. The robin will take fat pellets and mealworms but can't clear the feeders on his own. A blackbird will t...

I took a trip to College Lake near Tring yesterday. With lots of invisible songbirds in the bushes I really should make an effort to learn a few calls. On the islands the common terns were very visible while the lapwings had clearly nested successfully as there were a number of chicks around. I did get a nice view of one parent driving off a crow. I hadn't realised how well camouflaged the redshank were until I had a glimpse of what looked like a pair of disembodied red legs at the waters edge. After a quick lunch I took a walk on the towpath of the Grand Union Canal as far as Marsworth. There was nothing unusual visible on the reservoirs but coming back a heron flew past a few feet above the water following the line of the canal. At home I woke early today and went to put the bins out at 6am. Without much disturbance the birdsong was very loud with, faint in the distance my first cuckoo of the year. In the garden a pair of bullfinches seems to have taken on the role on "b...

You don't really think about "pregnancy" in egg laying animals but for the last few days it has been striking that there are some very plump hen birds around. I first noticed a greenfinch but there has been a particularly gravid looking chaffinch that has been sitting underneath the feeders eating bits that fall rather than trying to perch. The greenfinch was the first that I have seen for quite a while but apart from the regulars the only other bird of note has been the great spotted woodpecker who has perched in the garden on a couple of occasions but hasn't come to the feeders. Badgers have been visiting fairly regularly. On one night I put out a choice of raisins and fat pellets and found that the badger only took the fruit while a field mouse came out to take the fat. I have seen badgers take tallow based fat products and the pellets were suet based so I tried two fat balls, one of suet and one of tallow. Naturally the badgers stayed away that night! I have...

On Sunday I stopped off at Fishers Green in the Lea Valley Park. From a birding point of view it wasn't particularly fruitful. The footbridge over the Lea was closed so I couldn't get to the hide facing the reed bed on Forty Acres Lake. Following the Flood Relief Channel up to Holyfield Lake gave a nice view of a flock of lapwing in the air. When I used to visit the park regularly this lake was usually good for a sight of a goosander in the winter but my necessarily brief visits in recent years haven't resulted in a sighting. The Grebe Hide gave me a nice view of some common pochard, something that was curiously absent on my last visit to the Colne Valley. Many years ago I saw a smew from this hide and I always go there full of hope in the winter and am always disappointed. Holyfield Lake  The real highlight was a nice view of a goldcrest in the bushes adjacent to the Flood Relief Channel. At first I assumed that it was a wren but realised my mistake when I could see t...

With a nice clear brisk day it seemed like a good idea to go for a walk around the lakes at Rickmansworth. Bury Lake by the car park had its usual collection of mute swan, mallard, tufties and gadwall. At a distance away in the trees was what sounded like a ring necked parakeet but it was heading away so I didn't get a view. Moving onto the north side of Stockers Lake the low sun and clear sky made visibility difficult. The open water seemed pretty clear anyway but I couldn't make out any details although from the calls it was clear that there were no wigeon present this time. Once I reached the west side things became clearer. Come of the smnaller islands had been cleared of trees and undergrowth to make them suitable for ground nesting birds. A flock of around 30 lapwing were well hidden until they suddenly took to the air and spent several minutes wheeling around the lake before returning to land swooping past an inpurtbable heron. This more than made up for the lack of...

Yesterday I took advantage of an overcast morning to visit the College Lake reserve near Tring. The advantage of the cloud cover is the lack of reflected sunlight on the water so you can actually see the birds rather than just silhouettes. There were good displays of primroses around the edges of the paths but the most spectacular feature was the acrobatic display flights by the lapwings. There are quite a few pairs nesting on the islands so there were usually several birds in the air at the same time. There was the usual collection of waterfowl with shoveller, gadwall, tufties, mallard, coot, mute swans and both Candada and greylag geese. Remarkably well camoflaged on the shingle were some redshank, I could hear them but it was only when one took flight that I could find them and even then once I took my bins off the spot I couldn't be sure of finding them again. At home the badgers are still visiting but catching them on camera is still not as exciting as seeing one in the...

With the hot weather at the weekend a walk among the bluebells was thought a good idea. With a perfectly still warm day the scent of the flowers hung in the air and in the Chilterns the flowers were still at their best. The following day we went to College Lake near Tring. I hadn't been to this reserve for the best part of two decades. When I first visited it was just a hole in the chalk full of water with a few coot swimming around. Now it is landscaped and well populated although the layout makes the whole thing feel staged at times. In the hot weather on Sunday light and heat was reflecting off the chalk and made walking in some parts quite uncomfortable. In the shady parts there were some nice displays of dog violets. Islands created in the lake had attracted a lot of breeding water birds. Terns were very much in evidence, a marked contrast to Fishers Green where the black headed gulls seemed to be monopolising the tern rafts. We also saw oystercatcher, redshank and lapwing...

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...

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...

With several things that I needed to do coming together I ended up taking a lengthy tour of the country over the last week. One thing that struck me was the lack of kestrels along the roads, they used to be so common along main roads and motorways. Starting from Chesham last Sunday we spent the day in the Cotswolds. Steeple Barton Abbey gardens were open and being one of the first to arrive we were lucky to see a green woodpecker making off for a quieter location. The lake was criss crossed by swallows skimming the surface like tiny exocets. The first buzzard of the trip was seen between Chipping Norton and Burford then turning onto the A40 we saw a red kite above Burford School. Much further west and we might see the Chiltern and Welsh populations merging. On Tuesday I had to drive from Burford to Wensleydale. Buzzards used to be something to see in the wilds of Wales but I kept seeing them along the main roads in locations where I would have expected kestrels. I was suprised to see s...

As well as the usual suspects the last couple of days have given us visits by long tailed tits and coal tits. The real treat, however, was a house sparrow in the tree at the bottom of the garden. They come to that tree very occasionally but I never see them on the feeders. I had to make a trip to Bristol today. Being behind the wheel of a car isn't the best location for birding but on a long journey there are a few that can be recognised. Kites were in evidence between Great Missenden and Oxford as usual and I also saw swallows on a phone wire. I know that they have been around for a while but somehow I seldom get to see them until later in the season. In the Cotswolds I saw two buzzards, curiously both were being attacked by a single crow. On the return a lapwing flew across the road between Oxford and Thame, and a few minutes later a grey hawk like bird which I would put down as a possible cuckoo.

A business trip to Oxford today showed just how commonplace the red kite has become. I am not complaining but I saw pairs at Chesham, Askett, Longwick, Thame and the Oxford Services. The clear weather meant that in several cases the colouring of the plumage was distinctly visible. After last years dry autumn it was good to see the water meadows around Thame flooded this year. Even nicer was a flock of lapwings in a field just above the water level. The trip meant that I had an opportunity to see my garden feeders in daylight. While having breakfast I saw chaffinch, blue tit, great tit and coal tit. That made me think it was time to expand the feeding and now have one seed feeder, one fat bar and seed on the ground tray.

October is probably the quietest month for garden feeding. It seems a little busier than previous years, I put out a small amount of food in one feeder and it vanished in a week. I have filled one seed feeder now and food is being taken. With the lighter mornings now the clocks have gone back I have noticed a robin and a great tit but the garden is still generally quiet. When this batch of food is taken I will put out another feeder as well. I haven't had any real birding opportunities this month and neither have I seen much while travelling around. A brief glimpse of a large bird of prey on the M25 (probably a buzzard) and another even more briefly glimpsed near Leighton Buzzard (possibly a kite). The one nice sighting a couple of weeks ago was a pair of lapwing flying across the road on the flat land just on the Hemel side of the Leighton Buzzard by pass.