Chiltern Birder

Not much to say except that I saw a polecat last night, the third occasion in my life. Driving home up the hill from Boxmoor to Bovingdon around midnight a mustelid ran across the road in front of me. It was dark but the glimpse that I had of the face was that of a polecat or polecat-ferret.

With the warmest day of the year so far and magnificent displays of bluebells locally I decided that a walk in the woods with the camera was called for. The abandonment of traditional hedge laying allows these wonderful sculptural forms to develop over the years   To get back to birding I was also lucky to see a hobby fly across the path of the car and perch on a nearby power cable. The swift like silhouette was quite unmistakable. In the garden the wrens do seem to be in residence in the bat box, as I was standing close to it one went past my left ear at speed to perch in the rowan tree.

I had a rather nice suprise this morning, before breakfast I glanced out the living room window just in time to see a blackcap on the feeder. This is the first that I have seen in the garden for three years. Wrens have been active in both the front and back gardens and one was singing in the front as I prepared breakfast. Last week thy seemed to be active around the bat box but I am not sure at the moment if they have actually nested there.

A distressing aspect of driving in this area is the number of dead badgers by the road side. It was refreshing therefore to see a live one on Saturday night. It was about midnight going up Frith Hill from Missenden towards Chesham. Not much activity in the garden, just the usual visitors. With the mild winter I am not replacing foods as they run out and the goldfinches and squirrel have cleaned out the sunflower hearts already.