Chiltern Birder

I decided to set out on my daily exercise walk earlier than usual so that there might be a greater chance of seeing some wild life. There were certainly fewer dog walkers about and no families walking at breakfast time. Wild flowers were showing well in the hedgerows and birdsong drowned out most residual traffic noise. I was heading for Codmore Wood which involved skirting the former Meadhams Farm brickworks site. A goldcrest teased me by calling from the trees above my head, skipping from branch to branch without coming into sight. A few minutes later I had a short glimpse of a small animal vanishing into the long grass at the side of the path. I think that it was most likely a bank vole but still with less than 50% certainty. There were also canada geese on nearby pasture, this is the second time in recent days that I have seen them on the dry upland fields around here. I had Codmore Wood to myself. Having seen deer before at times like this I was being as quiet as I could. Pas...

There seem to be a few pairs of finches nesting within range of my feeders. We seem to have at least one pair of chaffinches and two of goldfinches visiting regularly at the moment. No doubt the starlings will turn up later in the season. At the moment I only have a couple of fat bars in the house and am not sure if I should be ordering more under the present circumstances. In the woods the bluebells have come out in the last day or two. Great spotted woodpeckers are drumming and I have heard the occasional "yaffle" of a green woodpecker as well. With so little traffic noise birdsong is far clearer and the fact that we are lucky enough to have a good population of skylarks is obvious.

Well one yellowhammer! Driving between Ley Hill and Latimer yesterday I spotted a single yellowhammer perched on the roadside hedge. As my passenger had never seen one we kept a special lookout on the way back and, of course there wasn't one to be seen. I used to reckon on seeing several when driving this way in the spring. We did see a muntjac that ambled our of the hedgerow in front of the car without any concern for its own safety. The day was good for bluebells. They were probably at their best a few days ago but the display in the woods was still magnificent. When we managed to get downwind of a drift the smell was wonderful.   In the garden we are starting to see juveniles being fed. Today a blue tit was taking fat from a peanut butter feeder for a young one perched conveniently, for me, on the fence just by the window. We seem to have a pair of goldfinches around but we aren't seeing anything remotely unusual. I a...

The starlings are starting to appear now and I saw a party come down to the ground feeder and clear out the dried mealworms in seconds. They don't seem much interested in the suet pellets despite loving the fat bars. They are taking beakfuls of fat back to the nest, several times I have seen one come to the feeder, take a mouthful for itself then load up its beak for the return trip. In Cowcroft Wood the bluebells are coming out and there should be a magnificent display in a few days. The celandines are fully out with some dazzling displays.

Looking back over previous posts this seems to be the normal time to hear a cuckoo in the hills around here. Walking across the field between Broomstick Lane and Cowcroft Wood I could hear one in the direction of Tylers Hill Road. In the woods the bluebells were making a magnificent show but birds could only be heard rather than seen. In the garden we seem to be getting starlings, blue, great and coal tits, blackbirds, robins and dunnocks. Magpies have started coming into the garden and a pair of wood pigeons seem to be resident rather than just visiting.

Between Sunday and Thursday the bluebells have come out. Walking in Cowcroft Wood at the weekend the bluebells were all still green but driving back from Cheinies yesterday there were lovely displays in the woods and verges. I saw several herons along the Chess but no egrets. At home the balance of species at the feeders has changed. A magpie now comes and uses the fat feeder every day while starling numbers are increasing. The blackcap hasn't returned from some time and the long tailed tits seem to have moved on as well. We are still seeing blue and great tits and a coal tit made several visits today. A wood pigeon using the starling feeder was quite amusing while various small brown birds flitting rapidly in and out of shrubs may have been house sparrows.

With the fine weather and a holiday it seemed a good idea to take advantage of the fact that I live in some very beautiful countryside. A walk in the Ley Hill area took me up Broomstick Lane, where escaped cultivated bluebells were mixing with the wild. Then into Cowcroft Wood where a substantial badger set seems to have had somebody digging. (I won't add my thoughts on that as Blogspot has rules about bad language). Although birds were audible there was nothing to be seen and the walk continued out onto Ley Hill Common and along the side of the golf course towards the community wood, now named Crabtree Plantation. One tree had several hollow sections where branches had fallen and a nuthatch was taking advantage of the previous night's rain to plaster mud around one of these. Its mate was on the next branch. A little nearer the road was a recently discarded pair of bright red knickers, I did wonder if the cloudburst had cooled somebody's ardour rather precipitately. In the ...