I have already seen the combines out in well watered low ground but it looks as if our local wheat fields still have a little time to go. My garden is always a week or two later than down in the valley so I suppose that it is the same for arable. Blackberries are just starting to appear but they are generally rather tart. Birds don't come into the garden much now and the temperature recently has been above the melting point of my remaining fat bars. It was strange to see one actually dripping the other day. In the fields the skylarks are silent but grasshoppers were audible while the kites make a fair bit of noise at times. Walking along the edge of Cowcroft Wood today I seemed to be wading through a cloud of meadow brown butterflies at one time.
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.