Chiltern Birder

Making a trip from Ley Hill to Rickmansworth this morning I was passing Codmore Wood when a buzzard suddenly flew out of the hedgerow right in front of the car and flapped at headlight level into the wood opposite. If I had been driving fractionally faster I would have hit it. While at Rickmansworth I had a short stroll around Bury Lake which produced nothing of special interest although I did see a hen reed bunting. I did see a red kite which is the first time that I have seen one over Rickmansworth. In the garden we had a visit from a pair of goldfinches who spent a lot of time eating sunflower seeds from the feeder. Apart from that pair and a solitary hen chaffinch we have only had the usual visitors.

I paid a return visit to Stockers Lake near Rickmansworth today with the benefit of a pair of wellingtons. It was an interesting visit, the lake had all the usual waterfowl with coot, tufted duck, mallard, gadwall, mute swans and herons. I didn't see any shoveller this time but the wigeon were a treat as I hadn't expected them on a lake without adjacent grazing and a real surprise were the red crested pochard which I had not seen in the wild before. At one point a row of stakes in the water, each one topped by a gull gave me the opportunity to include leg colour in identification but they were all black headed. From talking to other birders I seem to have missed some goldeneye and an escaped black swan. In the adjacent scrub there were the usual woodland birds with a small flock of redwing and a probably female reed bunting.

As I had to go over to East London yesterday I took the opportunity to go up to Amwell which I hadn't visited for some time. Since my last visit the lakes have been taken over by the Herts and Middlesex Trust who have put access with hides and a nature trail. It makes seeing the birds a lot easier but has also made the whole area seem tamed and less exciting. Despite the improvements the first spottings of interest were while crossing the canal with a cock reed bunting perching in the bushes and a pair of common terns flying along the cut. On the margins of the lake were lapwings, one bird with a magnificent crest as well as a variety of roosting water fowl and cormorants. According to the notice board redshank were nesting and I managed to see one at the waters edge as well as an oystercatcher fly across the lake. Other birds of note were heron, shoveller and gadwall. When I first visited this site around 20 years ago there was a pair of egyptian geese in residence, either they...