Chiltern Birder

Tits are flitting in and out of the garden but most birds still seem to be out on the fields. Some of the arable fields seem to have been left fallow after harvest and the stubbles are attracting flocks of chaffinches. As I haven't been birding on our local fields lately I am relying on naked eye observations but I couldn't make out any other finch species. Looking along the hedgerows a flock of redwing was flitting along the treetops. It was very frustrating to be without the bins as they seemed very nervous and kept moving away from me.

I was driving up the A40 today and saw my westernmost kite so far in England over the Northleach bypass. The previous record was a few miles to the east over Burford . There were quite a few pheasants visible in the fields and with game in season a muntjac seemed rather over eager to get turned into venison as I came back up the Chiltern escarpment at Cadsden. At home the tits are taking fat from the block in the front garden but very slowly. I don't plan to bring any more feeders into use for a few more weeks. In the back robins and dunnocks are returning. One of the vegetable beds had been mulched with spent hops and a dunnock was throwing these up in little fountains as he searched underneth them.

The natural history articles in the papers are all talking about winter migrants but a visit to Fishers Green two days ago didn't reveal anything obvious. There was the usual selection, possibly a few more great crested grebes than usual. The one new site was by the edge of Hollywell Lake where some access to the shore has become overgrown. It was just a brief glimpse of a deer, probably a muntjac vanishing into the undergrowth. At home blue or great tits still come and peck at the bathroom air vent but the fat bar that I put out a week ago has only had a couple of pecks.