I have had to be away from home quite a lot on the past few weeks which means that I have not been feeding as often as I would like through the two bouts of heavy snow. There have been a couple of firsts in the garden though. At the back the ground tray has been standing in a gap shovelled out of the snow. One one occasion a wood pigeon was feeding from it totally ignoring a stock dove which was pecking at its head. On another occasion I came home to see a jay fly away from the feeder in the front garden. Jays are common enough in the woods around here but that was the first that I have ever seen come in to the garden. I have never positively identified a stock dove in the area before, flocks feeding in fields are normally passed in the car and I never get a clear view.
Once upon a time you could find me birding on the Thames marshes almost every weekend through the winter. For various reasons I am now seldom able to travel to good birding sites. I am lucky, however, to live in the beautiful Chiltern Hills and this blog is to document the birds that I see on my own patch.