Chiltern Birder

The water table has finally risen enough to feed a small spring by the Water Meadow car park in Chesham which means that there is now a small stream flowing in the river bed under the town bridge. Not enough to bring fish back to that part of the river. The garden is more active with birds, starlings are now visiting regularly and sparrows come into the bushes. A cock blackbird has taken up residence and the wood pidgeons are coming to the ground feeder as well. There don't seem to be as many greenfinches as normal yet but siskins are nowhere near as uncommon as in previous years. Unfortunately pair of wrens that were visting regularly either didn't survive the hard frosts just before Christmas or have moved elsewhere.

I now have all the feeders filled. One nyjer seed, one no mess mixture, one sunflower seed, two fat bars, ground hopper with sunflower hearts and ground tray with mixed feed and fat. Now getting blue and great tits, goldfinches and chaffinches, robins, dunnocks and blackbird on the ground. At least one coal tit is visiting regularly. Sparrows, greenfinches, siskins and wood pidgeons are visiting but rarely. I have yet to see any starlings in the garden, which means that there has been little consumption of the fat bars so far. I am rather dissapointed with the "high energy - no mess" mix in the feeder, it is going down slowly and the tits seem to prefer the whole sunflowers in the small hanging feeder or the hearts in the ground hopper. I may need to reconsider what to feed here. Around the area the red kites are in evidence again, during the last few days I saw one between Chesham and Great Missenden and another, perched on a solitary tree, between Ley Hill and Latimer. Afte...

I am now using three seed feeders, the two large ones have nyjer seed and a high energy - no mess mix. The small feeder takes my remaining stock of while sunflower seeds which will not be replaced when finished. The ground feeder tray has a fat bar and a specialist ground blend while the feeder hopper has sunflower hearts with a little oatmeal mixed in. The hanging fat feeder has a peanut cake mix with insects and the other fat feeder is still empty. Apart from starlings and sparrows the birds are now back in force. Blue and great tits are in evidence in large numbersand I am also getting the occasional coal tit. On the ground, as well as the usual dunnocks and robins I am seeing wrens and a pair of blackbirds. Chaffinches and goldfinches are also frequent with greenfinches a little less common. So far I have yet to see wrens or blackbirds anywhere near the ground feeders but that will come. The hanging fat bar has not been touched yet although it usually takes a few days for the bird...

Despite the recent heavy rain the state of our chalk streams does not seem to be improving. Yesterday there was still no water flowing under Chesham Town Bridge. Walking into the town from the Water Meadow (rather a joke considering my previous comment) car park I was delighted to see a kite flying over the woods opposite. It flew up the valley and then swung across Newtown and out of site behind the buildings. That is the first red kite that I have seen since spring or early summer.

Finally I am seeing some activity in the garden. At the weekend birds appeared in the morning but mostly vanished after lunch. Blue tits are active taking sunflower hearts and the goldfinches are back on the nyjer seed. I think I had a siskin on the nyjer seed as well but she (I think) was partially hidden by the feeder and I couldn't get a clear view. Greenfinches and chaffinces are around and one or two sparrows but no starlings yet. A blackbird has come back to the garden to join the robin and dunnock in the undergrowth. I am feeding sunflower heards and nyjer in the feeders and have just started putting out whole sundflower seeds. The ground feeder has a fat block, oatmeal and a specialist blackbird mix. I will have to order some fat bars for the feeders soon which should bring the starlings back in force if last year was anything to go by.

On Thursday and Friday mornings this week the bridge over the Chess at Latimer has been partially obstructed in the morning rush hour by parked cars and people with binoculars studying the river. Clearly twichers but watching what? Unfortunately the only time that I was free to stop and look would have been after dark but reference to Derwent May's column in yesterday's Times revealed that it was a purple heron. A little frustrating that I missed it as I was already committed for both days at the weekend but at least I discovered the reason for the fuss. I did manage a little birding last week. As I had to attend a conference in South Wales I took a days leave and drove up early the day before, arriving in Coleford in the Forrest of Dean at about 9:15. In the morning I revistied the Nags Head reserve hear Parkend. Apart from disturbing a buzzard that was resting quite low in the undergrowth there was little of excitement despite notices warning dog walkers of the risks from fer...

I am now regularly seeing a couple of blue tits in the garden as well as the dunnock and robin. Small amounts of food have been taken including a reasonable amount of nyjer seed. It seems that the goldfinches must check that my car isn't outside before coming to the feeder! There are decent numbers of crows and rooks in the fields but hardly any starlings around at the moment and certainly no starlings or sparrows coming into the garden yet. Although the weather is more autumnal now we have only had a couple of mild frosts and I saw a flowers on a bramble today. I'll probably start buying feed again this week. A "no mess" feeder mix for a change and some fat bars and a softbill mix for the ground tray. I am thinking of adding a feeder to one of the quince trees in the front of the house so I can see it from the kitchen but I will think about that in detail with the second seed order of the season.