Chiltern Birder

When in Chesham today I took a stroll across the Town Bridge to see how the river had stood up to the summer. The flow was slow under the bridge and while the flow from the springs by the car part was strong there was very little water flowing from higher up. In terms of bird life there was a solitary moorhen. Not much in the way of bird life although last week I was lucky enough to see a little owl perched on a telegraph pole between Ley Hill and Latimer.

I had a pair of partridges waddling down the road in front of me as I drove to work this morning, walking quite calmly away from me until they finally decided to take flight, which wasn't much of an improvement as they carried on down the road at windscreen height until we reached a bend. It isn't that common to see them, I think every occurrence is logged here. Seeing a pair is certainly unusual. It was a bright morning which really showed up the plumage on a yellowhammer on the phone lines. Curiously for the last week I have been seeing a large party of crows perched on an electricity supply line (the sort with three parallel wires).

The only reason that I continue to feed is because I don't want the seed hanging around until the winter. This morning I had a juvenile chaffinch and a house sparrow in the garden. Still no sign of the M10 kites but near junction 25 of the M25 I did get a glimpse of a large bird of prey, I didn't get a clear look but I am 85% sure that it was a buzzard. I used to see them quite regularly a near J23 but that is the first that I have seen in Hertfordshire for a while.

A big suprise today was the return of greenfinches to the garden, well one anyway. After being absent all year it was nice to see one back on the feeder to provide some variety from the goldfinches and chaffinches. After commenting in my last post about the lack of red kites recently I saw two circling over the village today. Apart from that the sightings have been pretty routine. I am still getting the occasional house sparrow on the feeders and at least one juvenile robin is around. Yesterday I saw him flying at speed straight for the living room window, I was braced for a sickening thud when at the last munute he dropped onto the window sill, gave be a beady eyed look, then flew back the way he came.

I haven't been commenting so much on the state of the River Chess as the year when it dried up fades into memory. I was reminded this week, however, when I was stuck in a queue of traffic near the swimming pool while a heron stalked along the river beside me. I didn't see what it caught but it pounced three times and ate something each time. There was also an article in the local paper recently about trout being released into the river. At home everything is very quiet. The recent hot weather melted a lot of the fat bar in the back garden and it is taking about a week for one of the blocks on the quince tree to be eaten. A far cry from the three hours earlier in the season. The goldfinches stay regular visitors and blue and great tits are also coming to the feeders. Chaffinces are less common than earlier in the year and I am seeing occasional house sparrows. Starlings have become infrequent visitors now and I haven't seen a woodpecker for quite a while. Driving down the fo...

With the warm weather the last few days the starling bar has started to melt on the side that gets the sun. I have one more in stock and that will be it until the winter. There is still a decent stock of other foods and I will continue to feed these until they run out. Starlings have pretty well vanished now with only one or two juveniles from late broods coming to the feeder. I have been seeing the occasional house sparrow and now that the starlings have gone the blackbirds seem to be hanging around more, including at least one juvenile. I have also had occasional visits from a song thrush. I saw a collared dove in the street outside the house this morning which was a suprise as I haven't seen one in the garden all year, probably longer. I haven't seen the woodpeckers for a week or so as well now.

On Thursday night I refilled both fat feeders and then went away for until tonight (Saturday). Half the fat block at the front of the house is still in place and the fat bar at the back is about a third of the way down. Only a week or so ago the fat bars were going in a day and the fat blocks by lunchtime. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered with a bulk reorder of both earlier this week, I think that will be my last order for the season now.