Chiltern Birder

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.

As we often do on the Spring Bank Holiday we visited Bampton in Oxfordshire. The lack of swifts over the village was noticeable during the day. On one occasion a grand total of three flew overhead. Then just before five the sky seemed to explode with them although numbers still seemed low when I tried to count, not an easy process as they insist on moving all the time. In previous years I have regarded this as very much on the edge of the range of the Chiltern red kites but this time there were several individuals over the village for most of the time. I was also lucky today to see one perched on a lamp post on Gore Hill in Amersham. You seldom have an opportunity to see the bird in a context that gives you a true guide to its size. On the same journey a kestrel was, sadly, an unusual sight for me hovering over the roundabout by the Beaconsfield motorway services.

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...

After a long period without putting feeders out the birds seemed to have abandoned my garden and what food I put out this month was being ignored. Finally today I had a solitarty blue tit and a robin coming to the starling bar (no starlings of course!) Yesterday a trip down to Thame naturally gave the usual crop of red kites and, becoming unusual these days, a kestrel hovering over the road between Thame and Longwick.

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...

With the fine weather and a holiday it seemed a good idea to take advantage of the fact that I live in some very beautiful countryside. A walk in the Ley Hill area took me up Broomstick Lane, where escaped cultivated bluebells were mixing with the wild. Then into Cowcroft Wood where a substantial badger set seems to have had somebody digging. (I won't add my thoughts on that as Blogspot has rules about bad language). Although birds were audible there was nothing to be seen and the walk continued out onto Ley Hill Common and along the side of the golf course towards the community wood, now named Crabtree Plantation. One tree had several hollow sections where branches had fallen and a nuthatch was taking advantage of the previous night's rain to plaster mud around one of these. Its mate was on the next branch. A little nearer the road was a recently discarded pair of bright red knickers, I did wonder if the cloudburst had cooled somebody's ardour rather precipitately. In the ...