Chiltern Birder

Our resident bullfinch seems to have found a mate, yesterday I saw both a cock and a hen bird in the garden. That is the first hen bullfinch this season. I did notice that she seemed rather more adept at using the perches on the feeder than her partner. The feeder isn't 100% squirrel proof, I have twice found one actually on the feeder but have not seen how they reach it. While not perfect it is a great improvement. Mostly the squirrels now seem content with eathing the broken portions of sunflower seed that lay on the ground. With the feeder now on the lawn the volume that gets dropped is clearly visible. Among the other birds we have had occasional visits from a greenfinch as well as the usual goldfinch, chaffinch, blue and great tits, robin, dunnock and blackbird. The first signs of spring are coming through, at Boxmoor, thanks to temporary traffic lights, I had a chance to appreciate a bank covered in celandine. With the extra couple of hundred feet of altitude the plants...

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.

Faced with a beautiful afternoon and a garden in urgent need of attention I natually went for a walk instead. Cowcroft Wood nature reserve is a couple of fields away from the house and as it has been dry it was a nice alternative to my usual walk. There wasn't much in the way of bird life visible although there was a lot of song audible. The celandine is out and looking lovely with a promise of a magnificent display of bluebells later. Suddenly there was a disturbance at treetop height accompanied by a loud mewing. It took me a second to realise what it was as I have never heard a buzzard in the area although I have very occasionally seen them from the car. It flew across my line of sight and stayed in the area for quite a while as the calls were audible for quite a while. Apart from that we had a very brief glimpse of a muntjac and a brief view of a pheasant catching the sun at the edge of the wood.