Chiltern Birder

Despite the frequent bright sunshine the weather has turned very crisp and autumnal in the last few days. When taking some exercise this morning it was quite a suprise to see a swallow zooming across a freshly ploughed field. As the trees are pretty well in full leaf that was the only thing of any interest that I noted. In the garden recently I have had a flock of long tailed tits pay a brief visit and a very quick glimpse of what looked like a linnet. In the village a jay looking for acorns on the verge made a colourful change from the magpies

For a variety of reasons I have neglected the birds since the spring but travelling to East Anglia by train last weekend I did pay attention to what I could see out of the window. Between Stowmarket and Ipswich I was suprised to see an avocet flying alongside the train over some rather marshy looking fields. At Manningtree there is a lovely view of the estury, the train was a little fast for identifying most of the waders but there were several egrets there. These are the first that I have seen on the east coast but as I haven't been birding in the area for many years that doesn't say much. At home the garden has attracted the basic collection of blue and great tits, robins and wood pigeons. At night the tawny owls have been very audible.

An interesting few days. On Thursday I paid a visit to a small music club on board a barge on the Grand Union near Uxbridge. It was rather nice to have a swan drift past the window, not something you that happens in the typical pub back room. There was also a heron on top on a nearby boat and my first tern of the season was circling the area for a while. Today I had to make a visit to Essex. There was a pair of red kites over Ley Hill Common which was unusual, I see singletons around there regularly but not normally more than one. Driving along the former M10 I saw a buzzard and going through Epping Forest a brief glimpse of something large. I would love to definitely have it down as another buzzard but I can't be 100% sure. A pity as I have never seen one in Essex before. At the RHS garden at Hyde Hall I heard a cuckoo while loading the car up. Another customer also commented that it was the first that she had heard this year.

I saw my first swallows of the summer yesterday, a pair perched on a phone line near Chipping Onger in Essex. Considering how cold it is at the moment the old saying came straight to mind. Last weekend there was a huge number of swifts over the Walthamstow reservoirs but driving through the area again today there were none. I did glimpse tufties and pochard on the water. I haven't heard a cuckoo yet which is suprising, at home green woodpeckers have been very audible but unseen.

It was nice to see a pair of red legged partridges in the road on Sunday. Naturally they ran away rather than take to the air. At home I have been trying to see if a robin is nesting in the front hedge. On Sunday one kept moving around different parts of the garden with a beak full of worms. I stepped indoors for a minute and when I returned he was back in the quince tree with an empty beak. There was no sign of great tit activity over the weekend so I am not sure of the status of the next in the bat box.

Driving home through Latimer yesterday evening I was surprised by an animal crossing the road with a strange lumbering gallop. My first assumption was that it was a cat or fox but it didn't seem quite right. As it crossed in front of me I realised that it was a badger. I have never seen one run like that before, every other one that I have seen has been bumbling along close to the ground. This morning it was nice to see yellowhammers on the phone wires between Ley Hill and Latimer . They will probably be a regular site throughout the summer now. Sheep are being kept in the area and at the moment the gambolling of lambs is a regular sight.

Actually a scattered selection of observations over the past week or so. The front garden has been attracting a variety of birds and last weekend I realised that something was nesting in the bat box fixed to the front porch. I was soundly scolded by both coal and great tits while I was gardening and wasn't sure which was using the box. This weekend I was able to observe a great tit flying to it, perching first on the edge of the porch then dropping down, out of my line of sight but with the box the only place it could go. I also noticed great tits appearing to have an arguement with a chaffinch last week. I hadn't thought of chaffinches as a threat to nestlings but the tits may have thought otherwise. On the subject of mobbing, this weekend I saw a crow going for a heron above Ferry Lane in Walthamstow. It reminded me of an incident many years ago on Hampstead Heath. I flock of crows was mobbing a heron which finally landed in a tree. The first crow to go for it suddenly found ...