Chiltern Birder

 Health issues mean that I haven't been paying any attention to my blogs but I was roused from my afternoon cup of tea today but a most unholy racket. Yes the parakeets have finallyarrived in my part of Chesham with a flock of five in the tree in my neighbours garden. It had to come eventually as they have been in Rickmansworth for years. Not much else happening apart from the usual circling kites and the occasional buzzard. I haven't seen anything eating my rowan berries but the tree is being steadily stripped. Usually its a mix of wood pigeons and blackbirds. Collared doves seem to be back in this end of the village as I saw a pair while waiting for the bus this week. They used to be garden regulars but hadn't seen any near the house for years.

It was quite an exciting moment this morning when I spotted three redpolls on the lawn. I think they were in the garden yesterday as well but they are quite nervy and fly off at the slightest movement at thew window. Today I managed to see them from upsairs and had the little monocular that I carry when not explictly out birding handy. They were working over the patch under the feeder where the goldfinches drop fragments of sunflower seed. At night the badgers are still cleaning up everything in the ground feeding trays with at least two individuals visiting the garden. I had, legitimately under covid rules, to visit the Rush Green area of Romford at the weekend. What struck me immediately was the sound of ring necked parakeets in the taller trees. The usual blue and great tits were audible as well as house sparrows. I was brought up two or three miles to the north and back then all we saw in the gardens were sparrows and starlings.

I was walking through Latimer today and heard what sounded to me like a ring necked parakeet calling in Parkfield and another among confiers further up the road. This is certainly the closest that I have encountered them to Chesham although I have seen and heard them in Rickmansworth and once in Chemies. I seem to have seen so many roe deer recently that walking through the woods to Latimer without seeing any seemed quite unusual. What I did realise today is that I have seen more roe deer than muntjac durling lockdown, when driving at night in normal times it is the other way round. Out and about the bluebell season is long gone but plenty of opportunity to appreciate the delicate flowers of the grasses, at least until they are cut for silage, plus the occasional field poppy. The garden has gone very quiet, the blue tits seem to have followed the starlings and I can go several days without topping up the feeders.

I was away from home during the storm so spent Sunday worrying about my garden fence. Coming home on Monday the train was crawling up to the junction after Moor Park when I realised that a parakeet was flying along with us. The weather had turned clear and bright and with the very low relative velocity I could see the bright green plumage clearly. This was definitely the best view that I have yet had of a parakeet, normally I see little more than a silluette, and the first that I have actually seen, rather than just heard, outside of the build up area of London. When I got home the fence was intact although with a disturbing amount of play in one of the posts. The big surprise was that the sunflower heart feeder was missing. I thought that it had just blown off but it was nowhere to be found and I suspect that it had been stolen by a squirrel. I have observed one carrying off a feeder before.

The ring necked parakeets are working their way up the Chess valley. I was at the Van Hage garden centre at Chenies today when one flew overhead. Previously I have seen and, more often, heard them at Rickmansworth on a few occasions. I am not sure of they can establish in the Chilterns. Certainly where I live at 500 feet above sea level the difference in winter weather from the lower ground is noticeable before considering the London heat island. During the bank holiday I was in Bampton in Oxfordshire. The house martins were active in what appeared to be good numbers. I also heard swifts, I can't compare with previous years but it didn't seem as noisy.

The bullfinches haven't returned but we are regularly seeing goldfinches on all four ports of the seed feeder. I am having to top up the sunflower seeds every few days now. We are also seeing chaffinches and all the usual tits, blue, great, long tailed and coal. There was also a starling on the fat ball holder today but these aren't going down at anything like the speed of the seeds. I won't fill the other fat feeders for a little while yet. At ground level we have the usual selection, dunnock, robin, blackbird and wood pigeon but the pigeons don't seem to be frequent visitors as the ground feeder isn't being cleared yet. It took several days for a spillage of sunflower seeds to be cleared, I don't know if it was birds, field mice or badgers that were responsible. I was out and about in east London last weekend. Parakeets were very obvious in Hackney, I heard them from inside the car in Victoria Park Road (yes they are that loud) and saw them over Broadway M...

I recently treated myself to a new spotting scope and monopod . Taking these on a walk round Stockers Lake was a dream, they were so light and compact that they could be packed in a rucksack until I was in a good viewpoint, just right when taking a walk with good birding opportunities rather than settling down at a single point with a heavy tripod. The walk round the lake revealed some early signs of spring. I came across a patch of coltsfoot in flower while the grebes were in full breeding plumage and a goldcrest was in full voice. The herons were also nest building and with the benefit of a scope rather than bins I got a nice view across the lake of one settled in a tree. The surprise was not one but two pairs of Egyptian geese.One pair flew away on the other side of the lake while the other pair swam close to me. Other birds on the lake included shoveller, tufted duck, coot, greylag geese, canada geese, common pochard, lapwing, mallard, black headed gull, herring gull, cormorant ...

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...

I went to the Chelsea Flower Show on Tuesday and was puzzled by the strange calls in the trees. It was only when something green flashed across my sight line that I realised that they were ring necked parakeets. From the racket that they make I am sure that a lot of people with them in their gardens must think that their necks should be wrung! I seldom miss the flower show and this is the first time that I have been aware of parakeets in the Royal Hospital grounds.