Chiltern Birder

For a variety of reasons I have only been putting out fat blocks this winter. In the recent very cold weather there has been a total lack of birds in the garden. One bright spot this morning was a wren hopping into the ivy at one corner of the back wall. This is the first wren that I have seen in the garden for quite a while. On Christmas day I had to drive over to Essex for a family visit and was lucky to get a glimpse of a fieldfare on the bushes by the Magic Roundabout in Hemel. Before Christmas I was in Thame and there were about a dozen kites over the town. The concentration of kites over inhabited areas in the snow was quite striking.

Not much to see in the garden recently. I have fat bars hanging at both front and back but only very small quantities are being taken. The only thing of any note was a flock of long tailed tits in the garden a few days ago. However, driving between Latimer and Ley Hill today I did see a small thrush fly into a roadside tree. As it landed it fluttered its wings to show a flash of red. I have seen thrushes in flocks which might possible have been redwings already but that was my first positive identification of the winter.

Taking my usual walk today it was striking how the autumn colours had come on in the last few days. When the sun came out I really regretted not having the camera with me. There wasn't much to see in the way of variety or numbers of birds. A couple of probable skylarks put up on a cultivated field but the gem was naturally a red kite. Circling over the fields behind my house at tree top height it finally came over my head as I reached the edge of the field. Living where I do I suppose that I should be blasé about them by now but when one comes overhead there is no choice. I still just stop and say "wow!"

Suddenly, in the last few days, the leaves have turned red or gold. It had seemed that autumn was heading for a season of sludge colours until then. Locally I haven't seen much. Goldfinches briefly visited the garden and a flock of long tailed tits were working along a hedgerow nearby. Although I have never seen another pheasant in the garden one has been calling close to the boundary. Over at Hemel yesterday I saw a trio of cormorants flying close to the line of the canal above Boxmoor, heading up the valley. That isn't an area where they are common. Today a last minute decision was made to go to Fishers Green in the Lee Valley Country Park which meant that I was without a pair of bins. I never got around to putting a spare pair in the glove box after I changed the car earlier this year. There was a fairly standard selection of birds on the water including mute swans, black headed gulls, pochard, tufted duck, gadwall, great crested grebe, lapwing, dabchick and coot. On the fe

Despite the frequent bright sunshine the weather has turned very crisp and autumnal in the last few days. When taking some exercise this morning it was quite a suprise to see a swallow zooming across a freshly ploughed field. As the trees are pretty well in full leaf that was the only thing of any interest that I noted. In the garden recently I have had a flock of long tailed tits pay a brief visit and a very quick glimpse of what looked like a linnet. In the village a jay looking for acorns on the verge made a colourful change from the magpies

For a variety of reasons I have neglected the birds since the spring but travelling to East Anglia by train last weekend I did pay attention to what I could see out of the window. Between Stowmarket and Ipswich I was suprised to see an avocet flying alongside the train over some rather marshy looking fields. At Manningtree there is a lovely view of the estury, the train was a little fast for identifying most of the waders but there were several egrets there. These are the first that I have seen on the east coast but as I haven't been birding in the area for many years that doesn't say much. At home the garden has attracted the basic collection of blue and great tits, robins and wood pigeons. At night the tawny owls have been very audible.

An interesting few days. On Thursday I paid a visit to a small music club on board a barge on the Grand Union near Uxbridge. It was rather nice to have a swan drift past the window, not something you that happens in the typical pub back room. There was also a heron on top on a nearby boat and my first tern of the season was circling the area for a while. Today I had to make a visit to Essex. There was a pair of red kites over Ley Hill Common which was unusual, I see singletons around there regularly but not normally more than one. Driving along the former M10 I saw a buzzard and going through Epping Forest a brief glimpse of something large. I would love to definitely have it down as another buzzard but I can't be 100% sure. A pity as I have never seen one in Essex before. At the RHS garden at Hyde Hall I heard a cuckoo while loading the car up. Another customer also commented that it was the first that she had heard this year.

I saw my first swallows of the summer yesterday, a pair perched on a phone line near Chipping Onger in Essex. Considering how cold it is at the moment the old saying came straight to mind. Last weekend there was a huge number of swifts over the Walthamstow reservoirs but driving through the area again today there were none. I did glimpse tufties and pochard on the water. I haven't heard a cuckoo yet which is suprising, at home green woodpeckers have been very audible but unseen.

It was nice to see a pair of red legged partridges in the road on Sunday. Naturally they ran away rather than take to the air. At home I have been trying to see if a robin is nesting in the front hedge. On Sunday one kept moving around different parts of the garden with a beak full of worms. I stepped indoors for a minute and when I returned he was back in the quince tree with an empty beak. There was no sign of great tit activity over the weekend so I am not sure of the status of the next in the bat box.

Driving home through Latimer yesterday evening I was surprised by an animal crossing the road with a strange lumbering gallop. My first assumption was that it was a cat or fox but it didn't seem quite right. As it crossed in front of me I realised that it was a badger. I have never seen one run like that before, every other one that I have seen has been bumbling along close to the ground. This morning it was nice to see yellowhammers on the phone wires between Ley Hill and Latimer . They will probably be a regular site throughout the summer now. Sheep are being kept in the area and at the moment the gambolling of lambs is a regular sight.

Actually a scattered selection of observations over the past week or so. The front garden has been attracting a variety of birds and last weekend I realised that something was nesting in the bat box fixed to the front porch. I was soundly scolded by both coal and great tits while I was gardening and wasn't sure which was using the box. This weekend I was able to observe a great tit flying to it, perching first on the edge of the porch then dropping down, out of my line of sight but with the box the only place it could go. I also noticed great tits appearing to have an arguement with a chaffinch last week. I hadn't thought of chaffinches as a threat to nestlings but the tits may have thought otherwise. On the subject of mobbing, this weekend I saw a crow going for a heron above Ferry Lane in Walthamstow. It reminded me of an incident many years ago on Hampstead Heath. I flock of crows was mobbing a heron which finally landed in a tree. The first crow to go for it suddenly found

Spring is definitely here now. The forsythia is absolutely glorious and the daffodils are out. I have not been able to spend much time watching the garden birds but I did see a great spotted woodpecker in the back garden recently. Driving home last night I saw a shape on the verge in the middle of the village. It was quite a suprise when it suddenly took flight as I drove past and turned out to be a barn owl.

Having been away from home a lot this winter I have actually been at home this weekend, although spending much of it in bed with a bad cold. A look back over the blog revealed that I was at home for the same reason on a working day 12 months ago. Opening the back door this morning I could actually hear a skylark. Not unknown but on such a fine Sunday it was nice not to have the bird song drowned out by lawn mowers and power tools. I haven't seen much in the way of birds at home although the dunnocks were displaying yesterday. The cold weather seems to have held bacl the flowering of the forsythia. Normally I would expect to to be just about to break but it will be a few day yet.

There haven't been many birds in the garden at all. Blackbirds, robins and dunnocks seem to be the main residents. It was a delight today to suddenly get four long tailed tits on the fat feeder. The first time that I ever saw a red kite it was being mobbed by crows and they still don't like them. In Chesham on Monday a single crow was seeing off a kite over the Watermeadow car park.

Finally this winter I saw a great spotted woodpecker on the fat feeder at the front of the house, and a handsome chap he was. I was enjoying the sight so much that I forgot to walk the few feet to where I had left the camera bag. I am part way through demolishing my old lean to and the work bench is currently standing on the lawn which means that there is a nice snow free foraging area attracting more dunnocks than I usually see at one time. With the deep snow I have swept the top surface and stood a ground feeder on it as an impromtu bird table. Last seen the contents were being demolished by a squirrel who ingored every attempt to chase him away. Apart from that I am getting blue tits, chaffinches, robins, blackbirds and wood pigeons. The goldfinches haven't returned and the long tailed tits seem to have moved on.

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.