Chiltern Birder

The kites seem to have taken to the woods alongside the M10. I saw one again when driving there this morning. Probably a few yards west of the last one that I saw so no new record! At home there hasn't been much change although I have been told that the Greater Spotted Woodpecker was on the fat feeder in the front garden while I was at work. I hear woodpeckers of both types in the mornings at the moment but it isn't that common to see them. At my mother's house I saw something strange in the garden and had to search my memory for a few seconds to remember what a house sparrow looked like. It really is frightening how rare they have become in such a short time.

While driving to Essex yesterday afternoon I was suprised to see a kite over the A414 on the outskirts of Hemel just before reaching the motorway. I remarked to my passenger that this was my most easterly sighting of a kite. A few minutes later, about a third of the way down the M10 I saw another large bird of prey. It had the feel of a kite although I have only seen buzzards around there in the past. However it came back across the road giving an excellend view of the forked tail and the plumage. For so long the kites only seemed to fly to the west of the escarpment but now its nice to see them coming so far east.

The heavy frosts before Christmas brought a lot of birds into the garden but mostly more of the same. A few stray house sparrows appeared from time to time and a solitary long tailed tit made a single visit to the fat feeder. On Christmas Eve a walk down Bottom Lane was interesting. About a quarter mile from the nearest house there were some bullfinches in the hedgerow. The first that I have seen locally, while a red kite spent a lot of time overhead. I don't know what is happening about the crazy idea of redesignating the cluster of bridleways between Botley and Waterside as "byways open to all traffic", I just hope it has died the death it deserves. Boxing Day gave a brief glimpse of a blackcap on the lilac in the garden but the movement as I reached for the bins to get a better look frightened it off. The statutory family visit that afternoon gave a nice view of a buzzard along the M10