Chiltern Birder

Laying in my bath this morning I was rather disturbed by what seemed to be a very tall caller tapping at the first floor bathroom window. Looking up I them saw a succession of tits landing on the vent in the window pecking at insects between the vanes of the fan. Because of the frosted glass I wasn't sure if these were blues or greats. I thought that the garden was quiet a few weeks ago but it is even more so now. The occasional visits to the feeder seem to have ceased and the only interest was a green woodpecker flying over the house last week. In the fields however the skylarks are still vocal and the autumn colours are a magnificent mix of greens and golds.

Driving home from Chenies today I had a strange encouter with a buzzard. On the lane between Flaunden Bottom and Ley Hill a buzzard was flying, in the same direction as me between the hedgerows persued by a crow. Unfortunately I couldn't take in the full effect of this as I had to negotiate oncoming traffic in the single track road. Yesterday a buzzard was circling above Cowcroft Wood and making a lot of noise. Apart from crows and kites there was not much else in the way of birds but there was a rather handsome puffball in the pasture between Broomstick Lane and the wood. I had left my phone on charge so I didn't manage a picture. Last week I visited Fishers Green and again not much to report. It was a little early for winter migrants and there was the usual selection of water fowl but far fewer gadwall than last year. In the garden I have had a few sunflower seeds in the feeder and these have been gradually taken, mostly by robins. I have added a small fat bar today, I ...

The first hints of the autumn colours are now appearing, particularly last week on Boxmoor Common. The other, less welcome, autumn colour was the purple droppings on the car bonnet after parking under a tree. The garden is quiet as usual but one unusual sight was a buzzard over the M11 / M25 junction in Essex. That's the first time that I have seen one in the Roding Valley. Mentioning bird droppings I was in St Albans a couple of weeks ago and walked around the lake in the Verulam Park. I was struck by how clean the path was compared with that around Skottows Pond in Chesham. I assume that the local authority has been pricking goose eggs as there were only about a dozen canadas visible in the whole park.

I haven't been paying much attention to the birds recently but driving back from Yorkshire I saw a pair of red kites just east of Otley. The releases have been on the Harewood estate which was only a few miles down the road so this is a very likely location for kites in the area. Coming back on the A1 we saw a kestrel and there was a surprisingly large flock of starlings on a grassy bank at Birchanger Green

Yesterday I saw a kite swooping across a field in their usual manner. A crow came across the field in flying in a straigt line and I could see that they were on a collision course. When the crow came close the kite suddenly swerved away while the crow continued on its way without any change of course. The skylarks were giving their usual chorus. Both yesterday and today I found myself walking through clouds of meadow brown butterflies along the woodland edges.

The feeder seemed to go mad yesterday with a dozen starling chicks trying to get at the fat. At one point they were even standing on top of each other. Apart from that the coal tits obviously have a brood as I keep seeing the adults taking beakfuls of food away. Also in the garden I saw a small copper butterfly. Driving home in the late evening on Tuesday I saw something large for a stoat but small for a ferret running away from me on the road from Latimer to Ley Hill. I didn't get a frontal view but judging by the colour I would guess a juvenile polecat. Across the fields it would have been less than half a mile from the other individual that I have seen here. Walking across the fields today there were three or four skylarks visible but only one singing.

One of the stranger sights on the fat feeder is the pigeons who have really taken to the fat bars. At one point there was a wood pigeon on the feeder being pecked at by a starling and totally ignoring him despite some breast feathers being pulled out. That indivudual was identfiable for several days by the feathers. The juvenile starlings are appearing on the feeders now making a lot of noise and sometimes sitting on the fat bar itself and demanding to be fed.