Chiltern Birder

I have seen birds from the car which I could not positively identify as swallows for several days but walking to the polling station this evening I had my first positive identification. The field next to the Hen and Chickens is used for horses who provide the perfect environment for the swallows' prey. The wild flowers have come on a lot since Easter. Clover, forget me not, speedwell and buttercups were all very obvious on the verges as well as a single field poppy. Returning home I went into the back garden and saw a kite being mobbed by crows. Nothing unusual around here but it is the first time that I have seem one from the back garden. The front garden and hte street outside the house yes, but never from the back before.

My next door neighbour had left some rubbish bags in the bin in his porch. This morning the bin was upended, the bags opened and rubbish scattered around his lawn. I assumed a fox or dog at first but then found a path practically bulldozed through my front flowerbed. Badger damage to a garden is pretty unmistakable. On the birding front I saw a pair of partridges as I was driving into Latimer from Ley Hill last week. Not much in the garden but today a woodpecker was drumming somewhere across the fields and after digging over a bed prior to planting out some seedlings I turned away for a second to find a blackbird collecting worms from the bed. Normally I would expect a robin to be present when digging like this but this time it was the blackbird.