Chiltern Birder

A little birding at Fishers Green and Amwell wasn't particularly exciting in terms of water fowl apart from a handful of wigeon. The one puzzle being a large greyish white goose on Holywell Lake at Fishers Green. While I would love to put it down as a snow goose but from the size, much bigger than the greylags and canadas, I would guess a domestic escape. There was some interest among the birds of prey. Buzzards are becoming common in western Essex and I have seen them over the Roding valley several times this year but this was the first time that I have seen one in the Fishers Green reserve. Looking for somewhere for lunch I saw a pair of red kite circling abover the village of Standon in Hertfordshire, just east of the A10. This is by far the most easterly sighting that I have had.

When I spotted that the forecast had changed and this afternoon would stay dry I decided to sample the lakes at Rickmansworth Aquadrome. Water levels were very high and some paths flooded. Bury Lake produced little of special interest with mute swans, tufted duck, mallard, coot. black headed gulls and a heron. The latter was close to the path keeping totally still and totally unfazed by passers by. He kept so still while I took a couple of pictures with my phone that I was beginning to think that it was a model but then he finally turned his head slightly. I wasn't wearing boots which made, the potentially more interesting, Stockers Lake mostly inaccessible but from the tarmac path on one side I did see a pair of shoveller and a pochard. The low sun made it difficult to identify most of the birds from that angle. I don't know if I was just unlucky or if they don't like the area but I didn't see any red kites. I had been wondering how far towards London they were sp...

An interesting few days. On Thursday I paid a visit to a small music club on board a barge on the Grand Union near Uxbridge. It was rather nice to have a swan drift past the window, not something you that happens in the typical pub back room. There was also a heron on top on a nearby boat and my first tern of the season was circling the area for a while. Today I had to make a visit to Essex. There was a pair of red kites over Ley Hill Common which was unusual, I see singletons around there regularly but not normally more than one. Driving along the former M10 I saw a buzzard and going through Epping Forest a brief glimpse of something large. I would love to definitely have it down as another buzzard but I can't be 100% sure. A pity as I have never seen one in Essex before. At the RHS garden at Hyde Hall I heard a cuckoo while loading the car up. Another customer also commented that it was the first that she had heard this year.

The kites seem to have taken to the woods alongside the M10. I saw one again when driving there this morning. Probably a few yards west of the last one that I saw so no new record! At home there hasn't been much change although I have been told that the Greater Spotted Woodpecker was on the fat feeder in the front garden while I was at work. I hear woodpeckers of both types in the mornings at the moment but it isn't that common to see them. At my mother's house I saw something strange in the garden and had to search my memory for a few seconds to remember what a house sparrow looked like. It really is frightening how rare they have become in such a short time.

While driving to Essex yesterday afternoon I was suprised to see a kite over the A414 on the outskirts of Hemel just before reaching the motorway. I remarked to my passenger that this was my most easterly sighting of a kite. A few minutes later, about a third of the way down the M10 I saw another large bird of prey. It had the feel of a kite although I have only seen buzzards around there in the past. However it came back across the road giving an excellend view of the forked tail and the plumage. For so long the kites only seemed to fly to the west of the escarpment but now its nice to see them coming so far east.