Around here it's the transition from winter to spring that tends to bring some of the more interesting visitors back to the garden. This morning I stopped preparing breakfast to watch a male great spotted woodpecker on the fat feeder in the front garden. I could almost imagine that it was drumming with the way that the beak was driving into the fat block with as much flying off to fall to the ground as was being taken. Those pieces will probably be found by the dunnocks soon enough. The green woodpeckers have been calling regularly for the last few weeks but I have yet to see one this year.
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.