Chiltern Birder

There must be a pair of chaffinches nesting nearby as a cock bird has become a regular visitor to the feeders taking both fat and sunflower seeds. The goldfinches are still showing up occasionaly for the sunflower seeds as well. I think a pair of blackbirds are nesting in my neighbour's leylandii hedge, judging by their behaviour probably in the bit overhanging my garden that I was hoping to trim now that the weather has improved! Just for once the robins aren't fighting. There were two in the garden a day or two ago, one on the feeder and one on the rockery. The one on the feeder flew down to the rockery and presented his (?) mate with a tit-bit from the fat bars. I saw him do this again a little later. In the garden the celandine is now out and the daffodils are just starting to bloom, always a little late in the rather exposed position on the 500 foot contour.

The feeders seem busier now that the weather has cleared. Chaffinches are more common and seem to take small quantities of fat. The goldfinches are still coming but restrict themselves to the sunflower hearts. Taking a walk in the Lea Valley Park yesterday I went south from Fishers Green rather than north. At Hooks Marsh there was a large white bird, at first I thought it was a swan but it didn't seem quite right. Moving slightly to a better angle and using the bins it was revealed as a very large egret. From the size alone I assume a great white.

Making a trip from Ley Hill to Rickmansworth this morning I was passing Codmore Wood when a buzzard suddenly flew out of the hedgerow right in front of the car and flapped at headlight level into the wood opposite. If I had been driving fractionally faster I would have hit it. While at Rickmansworth I had a short stroll around Bury Lake which produced nothing of special interest although I did see a hen reed bunting. I did see a red kite which is the first time that I have seen one over Rickmansworth. In the garden we had a visit from a pair of goldfinches who spent a lot of time eating sunflower seeds from the feeder. Apart from that pair and a solitary hen chaffinch we have only had the usual visitors.

An evening trip down to Hillingdon yesterday was rewarding in wildlife sightings. On the way out a muntjac was poking its head out from the hedgerow by Latimer crossroads as if waiting for a gap in the traffic. Maybe natural selection is favouring the ones who don't run straight out. Comin back at around midnight Blackwell Hall Lane was very rewarding. First a barn owl was perched on a branch above the road. Its always striking how they show up in the headlights. Second there was a badger snuffling along on the verge. I had the camera in my bag on the passenger seat but he headed for the hedge as soon as I slowed down. Finally the strangest sight on a country lane, a police car! I have seen patrols in that area several times recently, normally seeing one is as surprising as seeing a badger. I assume that there have been some problems with machinery or stock thefts recently.

Taking a walk yesterday it was striking how we seem to have gone from an extended autumn to spring without any proper winter in between. Living on a hill top the ground around here mostly dries out very quickly so a lot of my walk through Cowcroft yesterday was on hard ground. Even where the thick mud remains it has turned from liquid to the consistency of modelling clay. As I wrote those two sentences the room darkened and it started raining again! The jackdaws were making a lot of noise in the woods and I saw one trying to fish something out of a hollow tree. Clinging to the side of the trunk with the sun behind it my first reaction was that it was a woodpecker but changing the angle slightly revealed the truth. I did wonder if there were eggs in the hole. I didn't see any woodpeckers but, as so often happens, I could hear the rather mocking call of a green. While walking along the bridleway at the edge of the wood I saw a pair of muntjac among the trees. One looked at me a...

Living on a hill top I haven't been affected too much by the flooding but the rain seems to be washing away our local byways. I was walking this morning and noticed that water flowing down Broomstick Lane and Bottom Lane was cutting quite deep channels. In Bottom Lane much of the surfacing put down to make it safe for horses has washed away. With the accumulated dirt and leaves washed out in Green Lane I was walking on the bedrock in several places. Sink holes have been a serious problem in Hemel Hempstead. I wasn't expecting any around here but in a field near Ladies Wood a minature one has appeared. Its about three or four feet across and 18 inches deep at the edge of the headland. In birding terms things have been very quiet. While I was out I did see a goldcrest but nothing else of any note. Driving on the M25 yesterday I did get the hat trick of birds of prey with a buzzard between junctions 25 and 24, a kestrel near Potters Bar and a kite near St Albans.

I paid a return visit to Stockers Lake near Rickmansworth today with the benefit of a pair of wellingtons. It was an interesting visit, the lake had all the usual waterfowl with coot, tufted duck, mallard, gadwall, mute swans and herons. I didn't see any shoveller this time but the wigeon were a treat as I hadn't expected them on a lake without adjacent grazing and a real surprise were the red crested pochard which I had not seen in the wild before. At one point a row of stakes in the water, each one topped by a gull gave me the opportunity to include leg colour in identification but they were all black headed. From talking to other birders I seem to have missed some goldeneye and an escaped black swan. In the adjacent scrub there were the usual woodland birds with a small flock of redwing and a probably female reed bunting.