Chiltern Birder

The selection of birds in the garden is becoming more varied. This morning I saw two tits on the feeder in the front garden, one a blue and the other with a black crown. The fine distinctions between marsh and willow tits are not somethat that I have committed to memory and the view wasn't cler anyway but the crown seemed sooty rather than glossy so I am guessing a willow. Long tailed tits are pretty active and redwings are still around in the nearby countryside. Finches seem to have abandoned the garden entirely.

It was nice to see a pair of goldfinches on the sunflower seeds on Thursday. I then went away for a couple of days and found very little reduction in the amount of food taken from any of the hanging feeders. The long tailed tits have been active on the feeder in the front garden but the main beneficiary of my largesse seems to be a very fat wood pigeon who dominates the ground feeder.

With the comparatively warm, wet and windy weather there is less activity on the feeders than I would expect at this time of year but the long tailed tits have finally started coming into the garden. One thing that I have noticed is the difference that feeder position makes. In the back garden there are two feeders on poles, one with a fat bar and one with sunflower seeds. The blue tits will fly to one of the bushes, look around, fly to the feeder and grab a seed or piece of fat and return to the bush to eat it. In the front there is a fat block hung in one of the quince trees. Here the blue and great tits will sit on the feeder and and eat what they take on the spot.

I put some food out on the ground feeder this morning and the resident cock blackbird was straight there as usual. Not quite as tame as a robin but he is sometimes on the feeder before I can get back into the house. Today, however, a second male came down to the feeder a minute or two later. Normally this would involve a bit of flapping and one would fly off but not this morning. They really went for each other trying to peck and grapple and one ended up on his back with the other pecking at him. It looked as if a small black bird of prey had pounced. After some struggling one of the birds flew off. There had been so much rolling around that I couldn't tell which one. In the front garden blue and great tits are regulars on the fat feeder but so far there has been nothing of special interest.

The seaside seemed like a good place to blow away the cobwebs on New Year's Day so a drive down to the Thames Estuary seemed to be in order. The tide was at its lowest ebb so most birds were a long way out where the food was nearer the surface but there were a few old friends and one surprise. A few redshank were foraging in the creeks and out on the mud there were several groups of brent geese. Singletons included a greater black backed gull and a grey plover. I haven't been down to the estuary since last winter and not for several years before that visit so I was not sure what is common there now. It was striking that there were no turnstones around the cockle sheds, these used to be very common. While walking something white at the corner of my eye didn't look quite right for a gull and turned out to be the first little egret that I have seen on the Thames. It was active, moving frequently so I am not sure if I saw the same bird several times or different individuals...