Skip to main content

Still Quiet

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 show shallow that a moorhen walked across it while I was watching.

Catching a train at St James Street Walthamstow in London this week I was treated to the sight of a pied wagtail that was almost as tame as a robin. It totally ignored me as it forraged for crombs and insects on the platform.
Labels:

Comments

Valerie Harland said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
11:13
Valerie Harland said…
Why not grow your own sunflowers. No need to start them off in pots, just bung 'em in the ground, along a fence or hedge for shelter. They make a lovely display. Much squirrel activity in my garden recently, which means an oak tree hunt next spring or I'll have a forest. Maybe I could train a robot to do that. LOL
15:08
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finally

 Health issues mean that I haven't been paying any attention to my blogs but I was roused from my afternoon cup of tea today but a most unholy racket. Yes the parakeets have finallyarrived in my part of Chesham with a flock of five in the tree in my neighbours garden. It had to come eventually as they have been in Rickmansworth for years. Not much else happening apart from the usual circling kites and the occasional buzzard. I haven't seen anything eating my rowan berries but the tree is being steadily stripped. Usually its a mix of wood pigeons and blackbirds. Collared doves seem to be back in this end of the village as I saw a pair while waiting for the bus this week. They used to be garden regulars but hadn't seen any near the house for years.
Post a Comment
Read more

Harvest

The arable fields between Ley Hill and Latimer have been harvested over the last couple of days. This morning I saw a group of yellowhammers in the middle of the road by a field gate. From the look of things they were eating spilled grain. Instead of flying into the hedgerow they flew away from me along the road at windscreen height. I haven't seen much else recently apart from a distant glimpse of a partridge and the occasional red kite.
Post a Comment
Read more

Returning to the Garden

High summer and early autumn is always a quiet time for birds in my garden. I no longer feed after my summer holiday as I have ended up throwing away far to much mouldy fat or seed. Normally I would wait until November before putting the feeders back out but a party of long tailed tits appeared in the front garden today so I think that it might be worth while trying a single fat bar for the moment. For the past couple of weeks I have seen a lot of roadside signs saying "beware of deer" in places where I wouldn't normally see them. Last weekend I decided that they might be justified when I encountered a herd of roe deer in the road between Ley Hill and Latimer. While muntjac are seen often enough the roes tend to be shy and this was only the third time that I have had a good look at some in all the years that I have lived here.
1 comment
Read more