Chiltern Birder

October is probably the quietest month for garden feeding. It seems a little busier than previous years, I put out a small amount of food in one feeder and it vanished in a week. I have filled one seed feeder now and food is being taken. With the lighter mornings now the clocks have gone back I have noticed a robin and a great tit but the garden is still generally quiet. When this batch of food is taken I will put out another feeder as well. I haven't had any real birding opportunities this month and neither have I seen much while travelling around. A brief glimpse of a large bird of prey on the M25 (probably a buzzard) and another even more briefly glimpsed near Leighton Buzzard (possibly a kite). The one nice sighting a couple of weeks ago was a pair of lapwing flying across the road on the flat land just on the Hemel side of the Leighton Buzzard by pass.

With the days getting shorter it is only getting dark as I come home and only just light in the mornings. I was was just thinking this morning that I would probably start seeing muntjac in the dark when one walked slowly out in front of the car. The real surpise was that I hadn't actually left the village at that point. Although I have had damage in my garden this is the first that I have actually seen among the houses. With the numbers around Chesham this year red kites hardly seem worth mentioning but I did see one being mobbed yesterday. By a trick of the rather poor early morning light they seemed quite close and giving the impression of a single blackbird or starling doing the attacking but, knowing the size of a kite, I assume it was a crow.

Red kites are becomming quite commonplace over Chesham now. This morning I had an excellent view of one circling over the town centre and have seen several others recently. Once in the town of course it is the colony of jackdaws that is obvious with a chorus of "jack jack jack" as the soundtrack for any shopping trip. Out of the town jays suddenly seem more obvious as several have crossed my path in the last couple of days. Autumn is finally making an appearance with leaves starting to turn and a good crop of berries on my rowan tree. I wouldn't normally expect any garden birds at this time of year but I have seen suggestions that the rather odd seasons that we have experienced by disrupt feeding patterns so I may put a little food in one feeder to test reaction.