Chiltern Birder

With the mild weather we are not seeing a lot of birds in the garden yet. The fat feeder in the front garden is seeing very little activity. In the back the starlings are busy with the fat feeder and goldfinches are regulars on the sunflower seeds. There are random visits by blue tits and this morning I was lucky enough to see a coal tit pay a very brief visit. At ground level a pair of wood pigeons stamp over the plants and a dunnock and a wren occasionally come out of hiding. Not far away in the fields there is a lot of activity. A flock of skylarks was busy among recently sprouted brassicas while yellowhammers were flitting through a hawthorn hedge. It was pure chance that one was still for long enough to be identified with the naked eye. Normally I only see them from the car when they find singing posts on roadside hedges in the spring. Away from home the River Chess is in a fairly poor way, at the moment rising from the spring by the Water Meadow car park in the town. It is sh...

The fat block on the feeder in the front garden has been taken very slowly and it was only this week that I actually saw a blue tit feeding although that probably has more to do with the fact that I normally do the washing up in the evening. I did decide that it was time to order my winter feeding supplies (fat bars, sunflower hearts, dried mealworms and raisins) and start feeding in the back garden. The first fat bar went out yesterday and I was rewarded this morning by the sound of squabbling starlings (are there any other sort?). There were four or five, this years brood judging by the state of the plumage, on the fat feeder. I returned to checking my emails, sitting with my back to the window when a large shadow swept across the screen. At the same time the noise was cut off. Looking out of the window I could see one hiding under an overhanging branch in the hedge and one on the fence looking up at the sky. It had since gone quiet but I returned to the window before hitting the...