Skip to main content
I took a trip to College Lake near Tring yesterday. With lots of invisible songbirds in the bushes I really should make an effort to learn a few calls. On the islands the common terns were very visible while the lapwings had clearly nested successfully as there were a number of chicks around. I did get a nice view of one parent driving off a crow. I hadn't realised how well camouflaged the redshank were until I had a glimpse of what looked like a pair of disembodied red legs at the waters edge.

After a quick lunch I took a walk on the towpath of the Grand Union Canal as far as Marsworth. There was nothing unusual visible on the reservoirs but coming back a heron flew past a few feet above the water following the line of the canal.

At home I woke early today and went to put the bins out at 6am. Without much disturbance the birdsong was very loud with, faint in the distance my first cuckoo of the year. In the garden a pair of bullfinches seems to have taken on the role on "bookends" on the seed feeder while, judging by a flattened track across the edge of a flowerbed, the badgers are frequent visitors.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No Choice

Taking my usual walk today it was striking how the autumn colours had come on in the last few days. When the sun came out I really regretted not having the camera with me. There wasn't much to see in the way of variety or numbers of birds. A couple of probable skylarks put up on a cultivated field but the gem was naturally a red kite. Circling over the fields behind my house at tree top height it finally came over my head as I reached the edge of the field. Living where I do I suppose that I should be blasé about them by now but when one comes overhead there is no choice. I still just stop and say "wow!"
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

Warm Winter

A recent visit to Fishers Green didn't find anything exciting in the way of water fowl. There was a decent sized flock of wigeon at the far end of Holyfield Lake but nothing rare. Walking back on the other hand I was delighted to see a treecreeper on one of the bushes alongside the Flood Relief Channel. The pale grey chest caught my eye so easily. At home I am feeding but there isn't much being taken. Based on previous years I should have ordered some more fat bars for delivery before Christmas but it looks as if my existing supply will hold out for the rest of 2015. Visits to the feeders are brief with log gaps but we had a pair of goldfinches today and during the last month we have had long tailed tits and one visit observed by a coal tit. After a long absence we also had a goldcrest in the garden although its interest was in the Old Man's Beard growing through next door's leylandii hedge rather than anything I had done.
Post a Comment
Read more