Chiltern Birder

After a sudden drop in activity before Christmas things seem to be back to normal now. Both sunflower heart and fat levels are falling rapidly in the feeders again and the flock of goldfinches is back. A pair of bullfinches have been regulars for the last week or two and a nuthatch drops by occasionally. A brief visit to the back garden by a great spotted woodpecker has added to the species count. In the front garden we are seeing far less activity and the fat feeder on the quince tree has only been replenished once this season. I suspect that for some reason we aren't getting the woodpeckers at the front of the houses at the moment as they have been heavy consumers of fat in the past.

I was away at the weekend when we had a cold snap with snow. When I came home the seed feeder was still one third full. Since then there seem to be far fewer birds on the feeder whenever I look. Were there a lot of fatalities or did the bad weather start other people feeding so the birds have just moved to feeding stations nearer their roosts? I can't tell but I must spend more time watching over the Christmas period.

The weekend's snow has covered the garden. There is a bare patch under the feeder but the tracks over the rest of the garden are all made by birds. This morning, before refilling the feeder I saw my first nuthatch of the winter in the garden. Last week we also added a pied wagtail to the garden't species count. A blackbird has finally ventured out from under the shrubs at the bottom of the garden to take the meal worms and raisins that I scattered on the snow together with a wood pigeon.

We had our first serious frost of the season last night. I went out today and it was glorious with the later autumn colours and a light that an artist would die for. Naturally the phone had been left on charge so I oouldn't take any pictures. The frost was burning off at the start of the walk and the sun catching the moisture on an autumn sown crop revealed what looked like the trail of a giant slug across the field. Despite having watched the Horror Channel yesterday I looked for a more prosaic explanation and the disturbance at the edge of the field gave it away as a wandering badger. Throughout the walk there were plenty of signs of badger activity and they haven['t found it necessary to make any serious incursions into the gardens yet. Walking in some of our local green lanes the sun coming through the branches meant that many birds were only in silhouette. The rather exotic small black bird turned out to be nothing more exciting than a great tit when I shifted my viewpoi...

The starlings followed the same pattern as the goldfinches. Yesterday there was a solitary bird, today a flock cleaning out the fat feeder. Yesterday the feeders had been covered with long tailed tits while blues and greys have been regulars alongside the goldfinches. When I restarted feeding less than a week ago I was lucky to see the occasional robin or dunnock in the garden and I thought that I might be putting the food out far too early but I have been proved wrong. A couple of the visitors may have been one offs but the full list is: blue tit, great tit, long tailed tit, coal tit, greenfinch, chaffinch, bullfinch, goldfinch, starling, wood pigeon, dunnock, robin, wren. That pretty well accounts for all the usual regular visitors I will have to keep watch for anything more exotic.

Day 1 of feeding we had a solitary goldfinch turn up. On day 2 we had a flock, the word seems to be getting around that a new season of bird feeding has started. We also had a pair of greenfinches which was a suprise as they have been so scarce in the garden for the last few years. The finches just bite a piece of each sunflower seed that they take so a lot ends up on the ground to fatten up the wood pigeons.

I had seen a dunnock, a wren and a robin in the back garden in quick succession so I rather tentitavely put out some feed on Tuesday with a few sunflower seeds in a hanging feeder, some fat bites on the ground feeder and a fat bar in a feeder on a tree in the front. There was no sign of anything yesterday but this morning the ground feeder had been cleared so I wondered if the badgers had been in the garden. A camera trap a few days ago had shown nothing. This afternoon I noticed that some of the seed had been taken and kept watching. Soon I saw goldfinch, blue tit and great tit on the seed feeder and a robin on the ground feeder, which I had topped up. I hadn't expected any take up for a few weeks yet so I am pleased at the result and will have to order by full winter stock of feed soon.

They certainly haven't reached us yet but they seem to have penetrated into north London. I was at a funeral at Golders Green Crematorium this week and a flock was making a racket in the garden of remembrance.

I first hoped that the rustling sound under the eaves was due to nesting birds but the sound of movement across the loft put paid to that theory. I have known rats in the loft in other properties and this didn't sound quite right. Talking to neighbours the problem extended along the entire row of houses. A professional identified the intruder as that peculiarly Chiltern problem the edible dormouse. I checked my loft and found grains of expanded polystyrene scattered over the insulation out of some blocks that the previous owner had left there. I put up a camera trap which wasn't triggered and I haven't heard anything since. As they hibernate for around 6 months I imagine that I will now have some quiet nights until the spring.

During the past week the changes in colour of the trees have started noticing. This is particularly apparent when driving on the A41 from Berkhampsted to Tring as I did to visit College Lake. I don't know if this is a factor of pollution from the road or of soil and aspect, the terroir as they would say in a vineyard. College Lake itself was unexciting except for one bird of prey that steadfastly remained perched in a position that didn't give a clear view. From the size a peregrine and a hobby were both possibilities being suggested in the hide. There were still a handful of swallows around. I went to a gig in Harrow on Monday night which meant driving back through Latimer around midnight. This is always a good route for seeing wildlife at night although the best view was a fox in Pinner. In Latimer village I had the briefest glimpse of a badger's hindquarters as it vanished into the hedgerow. Sadly I had a much better view of a deceased one in Blackewell Hall Lane. This...

For the last three weekends the activity by swallows and martins has been very obvious. Last weekend at Fishers Green in the Lea Valley they were skimming over the Flood Relief Channel no doubt building up reserves for the long migration. This week I took a trip to the Forest of Dean and decided to check out a stream at Parkend which was recommended for seeing dippers. Naturally I didn't see one and ended up taking a trip on the steam train to Lydney and back before going over to the Nags Head reserve. There wasn't much to see here either but the wild boars had been active with almost every area of open grass grubbed up. The photos show damage outside the visitor cente and the view from the Lower Hide.

I decided that I needed to get back to some moorland walking and spend yesterday in South Wales at the edge of the Brecon Beacons. Parking at the Keepers Pond car park in the Blaenavon World Heritage site I headed off onto The Blorenge. Much of the mountain is heather moorland which makes for very difficult walking but I picked up the route of an old tramway leading to a limestone quarry near the summit. The walking was usually easier than in the photo where the top layer of small pebbles has been washed away where it crosses a small stream. As far as birding is concerned it wasn't hugely rewarding, there are red grouse on the mountain but in a number of visits I have never seen one. Skylarks were abundant on this part of the mountain as were meadow pipits. The stonechats seem to prefer perching on the wires of the powerline that serves the TV transmitter mast to the south of my walk but I did get good views of two individuals. What did seem incongruous was a couple of cock b...

We don't see swifts locally but I heard my first of the year a week ago at Much Hadham in Hertfordshire. The following Monday a trip to Haddenham in Oxfordshire revealed some more. That village still seems to have a good population of house sparrows as well. A bee identification chart in a free paper last weekend had me looking at our buzzing friends visiting the flowers. The garden is getting a fine selection and I could count three species just standing still and looking at one point in a flower bed for a few seconds. I found one immediate identification issue, in real life the bees mostly have the abdomen curved making it quite difficult to count the bands. I have picked out both garden and tree bumblebees though. After the bank holiday I noticed that the grass was growing over both regular badger tracks so I reset the camera trap which showed that nothing had been past during the hours of darkness. Something had been at the bottom of the garden, out of range of the camera, ...

The first of the year was last Sunday (7 May) when I heard one to the east of the house in the morning and to the west in the afternoon. Naturally I haven't heard one since. Otherwise bird activity in the garden is now light with goldfinches and bullfinches the most regular visitors. The breast feathers on the cock bullfinches are now very faded but the black crown stays glossy. While driving yesterday I had a brief glimpse of what may have been my first house martin or first swallow of the year. On a winding country road I really couldn't risk turning my head to actual look straight at it to get a firm identification. In the garden the badgers have been very active and there seem to be at least two individuals visiting. A few days ago I went to aerate the compost heap and found a bumble bee nest inside it. This morning I went into the garden and found the lid right off and a hole dug into the compost. Judging by the flattened grass nearby I looks likely that one of the ba...

I thought that we had a solitary pair of bullfinches coming into the garden until today. This afternoon we had a pair of cock birds in the garden plus one hen. Having been watching these birds regularly it was clear that the red breasts were fading slightly and they had a very slight hint of orange rather than the very pure brick red of earlier in the season. One suprise in the front garden last week was a solitary cock sparrow. I can never really get used to the fact that a species that was the most common in my childhood garden is so rare here. Out and about the bluebells are just coming out and a few walks in the woods will be in order in the next couple of weeks. While driving towards Latimer a pair of red legged partridges posed in a field entrance allowing me to stop and give my passenger a good view. Back in the garden there were a couple of holes in the vegetable bed that were clearly caused by a badger. Luckily away from the seedlings that I planted out last week. The occa...

Yesterday I took advantage of an overcast morning to visit the College Lake reserve near Tring. The advantage of the cloud cover is the lack of reflected sunlight on the water so you can actually see the birds rather than just silhouettes. There were good displays of primroses around the edges of the paths but the most spectacular feature was the acrobatic display flights by the lapwings. There are quite a few pairs nesting on the islands so there were usually several birds in the air at the same time. There was the usual collection of waterfowl with shoveller, gadwall, tufties, mallard, coot, mute swans and both Candada and greylag geese. Remarkably well camoflaged on the shingle were some redshank, I could hear them but it was only when one took flight that I could find them and even then once I took my bins off the spot I couldn't be sure of finding them again. At home the badgers are still visiting but catching them on camera is still not as exciting as seeing one in the...

With a little remodelling of my garden in mind I marked out the planned paths with chipped bark. This proved to be a mistake as the badgers spend a fair bit of time scraping it out of the way to find food underneath. I have found chips scattered widely across the garden and the camera trap has verified my suspicians about the culprits. The badgers seem to visit on most nights, last night the camera revealed two separate visits, one by a pair. Seeing the route that they take into the garden has also proved my suspician that they are responsible for the gap in one of my fences. At different times of night various cats also explore the garden. I have one confrontation recorded, I am glad to say that it didn't wake me up, and do wonder if I will get to record any interaction between the cats and other wildlife. On the birding side everything has settled down. A wren seems to be active in the front garden and a pair of long tailed tits must be nesting nearby as they are regulars on th...

I have seen evidence of badgers in both the front and back gardens from time to time but have never had a confirmed sighting until now. After several nights showing wandering domestic cats a clip from the early hours of this morning was much more exciting.   To view the video in Youtube please click here

With warm weather the last couple of days it is becoming obviously spring like. The forsythia is out as are the celandines under my front hedge. Yesterday I saw two brimstone butterflies. I have just acquired a camera trap and it after two nights the only activity in the garden was the ginger cat that I disturbed when putting out on the first night. I am still seeing all the usual species in the garden although the numbers of goldfinches are way down.

I think that we must have both nuthatches and long tailed tits nesting close by as well as the bullfinches and all the regulars. Nuthatches are normally very occasional visitors to the garden but I have been seeing one regularly including two separate sightings today. In the front garden I have regularly seen a pair of long tailed tits. If I stand still they are happy to carry on feeding on the fat bar. The recent high winds have done some damage to the feeder. The sail like effect of the squirrel baffle has bent one of the joints in the feeder pole. The new pole is a screw fitting so I can't canibalise a section of the old pole. I was looking at a spring loaded sleeve for the pole which is supposed to stop a squirrel climbing it although considering the height to which they can jump I am not sure of how well they will work.

The edge of the storm has simply blown the birds away from the back garden. The wagtail landed by developed a strange sideways drift as he tried to run across the lawn. The squirrel baffle acted as a sail in the high wind and I decided to take the feeder down rather than risk damage if it blew down.

Our resident bullfinch seems to have found a mate, yesterday I saw both a cock and a hen bird in the garden. That is the first hen bullfinch this season. I did notice that she seemed rather more adept at using the perches on the feeder than her partner. The feeder isn't 100% squirrel proof, I have twice found one actually on the feeder but have not seen how they reach it. While not perfect it is a great improvement. Mostly the squirrels now seem content with eathing the broken portions of sunflower seed that lay on the ground. With the feeder now on the lawn the volume that gets dropped is clearly visible. Among the other birds we have had occasional visits from a greenfinch as well as the usual goldfinch, chaffinch, blue and great tits, robin, dunnock and blackbird. The first signs of spring are coming through, at Boxmoor, thanks to temporary traffic lights, I had a chance to appreciate a bank covered in celandine. With the extra couple of hundred feet of altitude the plants...

When I first started this blog eleven years ago greenfinches were the predominent finch visiting the garden. These days they are most unusual so I was please to see one bullying the goldfinches on the feeder today. It has been a very active morning in the garden a brief visit from a coal tit as well as the usual blues and greys. Among the finches our solitary cock bullfinch paid us a visit as well as chaffinches of both genders. Down at ground level the pied wagtail is still around as well as the usual selection of wood pigeon, robin and dunnock. Since writing the above at lunchtime we have also had a brief visit by a nuthatch.

The new squirrel baffle has revealed just how much food the goldfinches waste. Yesterday I cleaned a layer of splilled sunflower seed fragments from the baffle and today I had to repeat the process much to the enjoyment of the wood pigeons. This may also have been instrumental in a return visit from the pied wagtail. On the other hand the bullfinch keeps coming back and takes what is on the baffle itself. While both seed and fat feeders are well used in the back garden the feeder at the front of the house is seeing very little use. In previous years this has been popular with great spotted woodpeckers but at the moment it just seems to be the robin. If it hadn't been so cold I think that the fat bar would be mouldy by now.

Not a rarity but a newcomer to my garden today was a pied wagtail. It landed on the feeder before dropping down to the lawn. On the other hand a robin seems to have taken to sunflower seeds and, with some difficulty, flutters onto a feeder perch to grab one or two seeds before flying off. This is despite there being spillage available on the ground which attracts the chaffinches. I have bought a longer feeder pole which, so far, seems to have defeated the squirrels. An advantage of the height is that I can see the feeders while seated in my armchair rather than standing at the window, with the risk of disturbing the birds. The garden is busy for much of the day now with goldfinches and blue and great tits flocking to the feeders together with random visits by long tailed tits although starling numbers are way down. At ground level in the past few days we have had bullfinch, chaffinch, dunnock, blackbird  and robin. Our resident wren has either moved on or failed to survive the ...

Despite the frost and fog I noticed that far more birds seemed to be singing. In addition a woodpecker was drumming this afternoon. On the other hand, walking into Chesham this morning the winter visitors were still around with a redwing foraging by Codmore Playing Field. In the garden the goldfinches put in a reappearance but only briefly. The main visitors were a mix of blue and great tits who descended on the shrubs as a flock and paid individual visits to the feeder. We also had a chaffinch which preferred feeding on the ground. Moving the seed feeder seems to have also reduced the number of birds visiting the fat feeders.

I took a trip over to Stockers Lake again. Conditions and species were much the same as in my post of 29 December. The one thing of note was that the grebes are into their breeding plumage, we should be seeing some head wagging displays very soon. At home, I had been away for 3 nights and the seed feeder had been emptied. The goldfinches didn't reappear after it was refilled, hopefully they will be back in a day or two. The main entertainment was the squirrel trying to get to the feeder. It took the grey bandit between 4 and 9 attempts to make it. He needed the baffle to be tilted at just the right angle so he could catch the base of the feeder with his fore paws and then swing his body to catch the pole with his hind legs.

I decided to see how many different species come to the garden on a typical winter day. The total came to eleven: blackbird blue tit bullfinch chaffinch dunnock goldfinch great tit long tailed tit robin starling wood pigeon The squirrel managed to crack the baffle with an impressive leap from a bush at the side of the garden. I trimmed back the branches, which I had been meaning to do in better weather anyway, and his follow up attempt resulted in an equally impressive tumble as the baffole tipped him off as intended. I don't know if the next act was chance or design but I caught him making several leaps at the baffle from ground level gradually pulling it down a little. The next leap from the bush meant that he just managed to reach the the central pole. I have how tightened the fastenings and we will have to see if that is sufficient. The bushes will also get some additional trimming in better weather. ...

Things can change rapidly at this time of year. In the last two days, after a short absence, the blue tits have appeared in the garden in force again. In particular they have taken to the fat feeders as well as grabbing sunflower seeds. It is very striking how, when they take a seed, they fly to a sheltered spot to eat it before returning for the next but will perch on the fat feeder for minutes at a time. Both great and coal tits have also been in evidence.

I have finally invested in a squirrel baffle as they were cleaning out the seed feeder in no time at all. The feeders were placed for best viewing from the living room window but of course that was an easy jump from the fence. The first alternative position wasn't much better but the third location finally worked although I might now keep the bins by the armchair rather than reply of naked eye viewing. Once they had discovered that they couldn't run straight up the pole a squirrel proceeded to study the feeder from every angle, including a branch at the edge of the garden before deciding that there was no way up. Mostly the squirrels are now taking the buts that the birds drop they do try the occasional leap. The baffle is designed to tilt and they just slide off again. From the way, at different times, it is tilted at different angles they have made a number of attempts although I have only observed one. What the baffle has shown up is the sheer volume of food that the finch...