Chiltern Birder

 With adverts for the Great British Birdwatch on television I decided to do a timed count of species in my back garden today. Thirty minutes gave a total of 8 species. I was watching from an upstairs window so I didn't use binoculars as I would have a direct line of sight into other bedrooms and might give cause for complaint. This did mean that I didn't have a good view of the base of the bushes at the bottom of the garden. Species seen were blue tit, great tit, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, bullfinch, blackbird and robin. I was surprised at the lack of coal tits as they are quite regular visitors. Dunnocks seem a lot less common although I did see one yesterday while the wrens often stay under cover. The resident wood pigeons seem to have moved on. We did have a small flock of long tailed tits pay a visit over the weekend and starlings are regulars on the feeder in the front garden.

 I came in after a couple of days away to find the contents of the fat feeders being demolished by starlings. This was quite a surprise as the starlings usually vanish until they have broods to raise at which point the bill for fat bars goes through the roof. We are getting a good selection of the usual suspects, within minutes of coming home I saw blue tits, a coal tit, goldfinches, blackbird and robin. Curiously there don't seem to be as many great tits around as usual.

The most striking thing about this year so far is the crash in starling numbers in the garden. The regular May invasion happened but numbers were in single figures and, curiously, they seemed reluctant to use the starlign feeder, preferring fat pellets and dried mealworms from the ground feeder. I would normally shift several kilos of fat in this period, this time a single 500gm fat bar sufficed and tht saw more action from pigeons and blue tits than from starlings. After the worries about the dry weather earlier in the year our blue tits seem to be breeding well with plenty of juveniles in the garden and adults carrying food away. We have also had a pair of goldfinches in regular attendance throughout the spring. Today a cock bullfinch appeared in the back garden for the first time since the winter. At ground level the badgers no longer seem to be visiting on a nightly basis. In the front garden wrens have nested in the bat box. It seems almost impossible to open the front door with...

The annual invasion by juvenile starlings started about 4 days ago and well over a kilo of fat has been consumed already.They are fun to watch but they are expensive visitors and the 3p that my blogs and photo site have earned since lockdown started won't go far. Naturally when they swamp the feeders the other birds move away except for the great spotted woodpecker that was on the feeder this morning who could definitely hold his own agains a mob of starlings. I took advantage of a trip to Chesham to pick up a prescription  to walk along the river bank from Pednormead End to Lords Mill. Despite the current drown water levels still look excellent, due no doubt to ground water from last winter's heavy rain. What is striking though is a lack of any obvious fauna in the water. When I first moved here it was normal to be able to watch fish in the Chess at Water Lane. When that happens again I will know that the river is in proper health.

The starlings came back today after a few days absence. It was a flock of juveniles rather than the young plus adults that I was seeing previously. I had scattered dried mealworms in the lawn and these were taken readily before moving on to the fat feeders. The woodpecker is still visiting regularly. The way that she perches means that, on the starling feeder, she takes fat from the bottom of the block. I was going to take a photo of this pattern today but the starlings obliterated it along with about a quarter litre of the fat. The woodpecker also perches on the sunflower seed feeder. She doesn't appear to be taking the seeds but probing for possible insects. I haven't seen any sign of the cock woodpecker or of any juveniles so far.

The first of the year today as I walked out to the car this morning. It was a lovely clear call, fairly close I think which carried on for longer than usual. In the garden the last of the starlings seems to have moved on but the great spotted woodpecker is visiting regularly. With the door open this afternoon I heard her calling. Apart from that visits by birds of all sorts seem to be tailing off. While we have had all the regulars in the garden they are turning up less often. A week ago I would expect to see birds if I looked out of the window, now I am more likely to see none on the feeders. Unless a late brood turns up the starlings haven't shifted a lot of fat overall, I still have half a dozen fat bars left in the box.

Suddenly the large flocks of starlings have ceased to visit. The occasional singleton is turning up on the feeder but the same fat bar has been on the feeder for nearly three days and still isn't quite finished. The blackbirds are seem to be feeding chicks, the adults are paying regular visits to the starling feeder and leaving with well laden beaks. Today a female great spotted woodpecker has been turning up. I broke off typing this to watch her take a beakful away so there must be a chick nearby. She did seem very nervous, often landing on the fence near the feeder, looking around and flying off again. Earlier  this week I took a trip to Gloucestershire and visited the Highnam Woods RSPB reserve. This is noted for nightingales but as I was there at noon that was one species that I didn't hear. Close to the A40 the daytime traffic noise is very intrusive but once you are away from the road the amount of bird song was striking as were the magnificent displays of wild flower...

The starlings are back. There seem to be several families turning up with their chicks working their way through the fat bars. We are shifting about half a litre of fat per day at the moment. What puzzles me is the location of the nesting colony. Apart from a few weeks when the juveniles are recently fledged I am unlikely to see any in the garden at all. This year we had one or two individuals turning up and then a day or two later the numbers exploded. Out and about we had an interesting encounter driving home in the car. Near Ley Hill, just at the edge of the headlights a long grey shape crossed the road. From the outline it seemed to be a ferret or polecat. It seemed pale in the light but at the extreme point of the beam I couldn't make out any colouring. Coming back from Oxford yesterday in early afternoon the car in front of me suddenly started slowing and eventually came to a halt. I was just wondering what the problem was when a muntjac strolled nonchalantly past witho...

Suddenly this afternoon three starlings paid a visit to the feeder. The birds were all in adult plumage and only stayed on the feeder for a few minutes. I don't think that they took any more than the blackbird who made a couple of visits obviously filling his beak to take back to a chick. On the seed feeder a pair of chaffinches has been turning up as well as the regular couple of goldfinches.The highlight recently as been a blue tit feeding a solitary youngster who has been coveniently posing on the fence right by the living room window.

Blue and great tits are demolishing the sunflower hearts and the fat balls with the blackbird also clinging precariously to the fat ball feeder rather than using the starling feeder. The latter is getting no attention at all as we haven't seen a single starling for ages. In the garden we are also seeing a pair of robins (well they aren't fighting so I assume it is a pair), dunnocks and wood pigeons. Very occasionally a solitary goldfinch is turning up but always looks very nervous away from a group, spending more time checking the sky than feeding on sunflower hearts.

It looks as if the starlings don't like my brand of fat bar. After having at least 17 going through half a bar in one session it has only gone down by about another quarter. If the starlings had stayed in those numbers I would have expected to have replaced it inside 48 hours. Judging by the number of juveniles in the garden both blue and great tits have produced good broods. Now that the sunflower seeds have run out I am seeing no more finches but still have robins, blackbirds and wood pigeons.

We seem to have at least one brood of blue tits with a group of juveniles regularly on the feeders. The lack of young starlings is quite startling, I still have several fat bars in the box while normally I would have expected to have had to restock. On the other hand the finches have cleaned me out of sunflower seeds. We haven't been totally deserted, a couple of times today a solitary starling has come to the peanut butter feeder . This is curious as he finds it difficult to perch on it and it is mounted on the same pole as a purpose made starling feeder containing a fat bar. Do any of these birds ever read the catalogues? Since posting the above our visitor to the peanut butter feeder must have told the family as around 17 juveniles suddenly descended on the garden.I had forgotten just how much noise they made. It isn't quite as bad now as we are down to 8 or 9 in the garden at any one time.

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.

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. ...

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...

With the mild weather we are not seeing a lot of birds in the garden yet. The fat feeder in the front garden is seeing very little activity. In the back the starlings are busy with the fat feeder and goldfinches are regulars on the sunflower seeds. There are random visits by blue tits and this morning I was lucky enough to see a coal tit pay a very brief visit. At ground level a pair of wood pigeons stamp over the plants and a dunnock and a wren occasionally come out of hiding. Not far away in the fields there is a lot of activity. A flock of skylarks was busy among recently sprouted brassicas while yellowhammers were flitting through a hawthorn hedge. It was pure chance that one was still for long enough to be identified with the naked eye. Normally I only see them from the car when they find singing posts on roadside hedges in the spring. Away from home the River Chess is in a fairly poor way, at the moment rising from the spring by the Water Meadow car park in the town. It is sh...

The fat block on the feeder in the front garden has been taken very slowly and it was only this week that I actually saw a blue tit feeding although that probably has more to do with the fact that I normally do the washing up in the evening. I did decide that it was time to order my winter feeding supplies (fat bars, sunflower hearts, dried mealworms and raisins) and start feeding in the back garden. The first fat bar went out yesterday and I was rewarded this morning by the sound of squabbling starlings (are there any other sort?). There were four or five, this years brood judging by the state of the plumage, on the fat feeder. I returned to checking my emails, sitting with my back to the window when a large shadow swept across the screen. At the same time the noise was cut off. Looking out of the window I could see one hiding under an overhanging branch in the hedge and one on the fence looking up at the sky. It had since gone quiet but I returned to the window before hitting the...

  I visited College Lake again on Tuesday. There was little difference in the birds from my previous visit although the wild flowers made some nice displays. My new phone proved its worth for taking photos. I still haven't heard a cuckoo this year but, annoyingly, one had been both heard and seen at the lake just before I arrived.  I did see a party of swifts which were my first of the year. At home the juvenile starlings made their first appearance. I large party were working over the front lawns and I was able to see them finding insects. Another party made a serious dent in the fat bar in the back garden. The wrens are still in residence in the bat box and I hope that they will manage to raise a brood.

I have started putting fat bars out again. The starlings are making free with the one in the back garden. All I have seen in the front has been a few blue tits but something has eaten that one very quickly. I must spend more time looking out of the window. On Monday I took a short stop at Fishers Green as I was passing. There was one suprise as I saw a pair of Egyptian geese on one of the islands. There was a pair resident at Amwell over 20 years ago but these are the first that I have seen in the wild since then.

Perhaps I should spend more time just looking out of the window. This morning I had two goldfinces taking sunflower seeds. When I fetched the camera one flew off and the other resolutely stayed on the other side of the feeder. These are the first that I have seen for a month. This afternoon I walked past the window just in time to see a nuthatch fly off. This was the first that I have seen in the garden since last May. Apart from that it has all been pretty routine. The long tailed tits are still around, the pigeons are still fattening themselves from the ground feeder and the starlings are regular visitors.