Chiltern Birder

Well one yellowhammer! Driving between Ley Hill and Latimer yesterday I spotted a single yellowhammer perched on the roadside hedge. As my passenger had never seen one we kept a special lookout on the way back and, of course there wasn't one to be seen. I used to reckon on seeing several when driving this way in the spring. We did see a muntjac that ambled our of the hedgerow in front of the car without any concern for its own safety. The day was good for bluebells. They were probably at their best a few days ago but the display in the woods was still magnificent. When we managed to get downwind of a drift the smell was wonderful.   In the garden we are starting to see juveniles being fed. Today a blue tit was taking fat from a peanut butter feeder for a young one perched conveniently, for me, on the fence just by the window. We seem to have a pair of goldfinches around but we aren't seeing anything remotely unusual. I a...

Blue and great tits are demolishing the sunflower hearts and the fat balls with the blackbird also clinging precariously to the fat ball feeder rather than using the starling feeder. The latter is getting no attention at all as we haven't seen a single starling for ages. In the garden we are also seeing a pair of robins (well they aren't fighting so I assume it is a pair), dunnocks and wood pigeons. Very occasionally a solitary goldfinch is turning up but always looks very nervous away from a group, spending more time checking the sky than feeding on sunflower hearts.

I had a day in South Wales this week. Parking in the Blaenavon World Heritage Site at the Keepers Pond. I took the steep path down into the head of Cwm Llanwenarth to pick up the route of Hill's Tramroad. This is quite an impressive piece of engineering for 1820 cut into the side of the valley after tunnelling from Blaenavon. In the photo you can see the tramroad cut into the hillside. In places the stone sleepers are still clearly visible despite being disused since 1860. At the site of Garnddyrys Forge there were abundant meadow pipits and the occasional robin. I had heard other small birds in gorse bushes which were careful to stay invisible. Garnddyrys is noted for the formations of iron slag. The most spectacularly architectural were vandalised some years ago but some still remain. Following the tramroad one thing that startled me was a red kite, the first that I have seen in this part of Wales although I have since been informed that they have reached as far as Usk. ...

I took a trip down to Leigh on Sea yesterday. Timing was based on weather and personal committments and, as usual, I ended up being there at the wrong state of the tide. I parked at Two Tree Island and saw teal resting on the creek bank as well as the usual redshank and a few gulls. Walking down to the old town there were quite a few redshank around but I didn't see or hear any other waders, they were probably at the water's edge on the other side of the Leigh Sand. The first thing that struck me was the absence of turnstones around the cockle sheds. These have been a feature of this location for many years. Unlike my last couple of visits there were no egrets in Leigh Creek either. On the mud there were plenty of gulls, black headed, herring and both lesser and greater black backed. There were no brent geese visible on the mud and talking to locals I was told that they had all left. However, walking towards Chalkwell I saw two parties on the foreshore. Luch of course meant ...

It still feels like autumn rather than winter here but some of the garden plants seem to think that it is spring already. I am getting good custom for the sunflower seeds although the fat balls seem less popular than in previous years. I am putting off the day when I refill the starling feeder until I see more fat taken from the other feeder. In the garden we are seeing the usual blue and great tits as well as the occasional coal tit although we haven't had any parties of long tailed tits for a while. Among the finches the goldfinches and chaffinches are regulars but the bullfinches haven't been seen for a while. Of the other birds that come to the feeder the nuthatch seems to have gone away with the long tailed tits while we haven't had any woodpeckers for a while. One bright spot is a blackcap which seems to have decided to over winter in the mild weather. Down at ground level I have seen squirrels and mice on the feeding tray as well as birds. The wren hasn't bee...

It is interesting to note what gets taken first on the feeders. At the moment I have sunflower seeds and fat balls on hanging feeders in the back garded and raisins, suet pellets and dried mealworms on the ground feeder. The sunflower seeds seem to be the food of preference for everything that goes to the hanging feeders. The tits move on to the fat only when a large flock of finches take over all the feeding ports for sunflowers. As a result, while I regularly refill the seed feeder the oringinal fat balls are still in the other feeder. I will have to swap them for some fresh ones soon as they are developing a layer of mould. The main visitor to the ground feeder seems to be the squirrel, which at least keeps it off the seed feeder. Its preference is for the suet pellets but then takes the raisins once the pellets are finished. Most of the mealworms seem to be taken by wood pigeons. The robin seems to prefer to forage rather than have a single big pile of food. I have some plant...

The bullfinches haven't returned but we are regularly seeing goldfinches on all four ports of the seed feeder. I am having to top up the sunflower seeds every few days now. We are also seeing chaffinches and all the usual tits, blue, great, long tailed and coal. There was also a starling on the fat ball holder today but these aren't going down at anything like the speed of the seeds. I won't fill the other fat feeders for a little while yet. At ground level we have the usual selection, dunnock, robin, blackbird and wood pigeon but the pigeons don't seem to be frequent visitors as the ground feeder isn't being cleared yet. It took several days for a spillage of sunflower seeds to be cleared, I don't know if it was birds, field mice or badgers that were responsible. I was out and about in east London last weekend. Parakeets were very obvious in Hackney, I heard them from inside the car in Victoria Park Road (yes they are that loud) and saw them over Broadway M...