Chiltern Birder

The birds seem to be discovering the feeders in my back garden. We had several visits from a coal tit this morning which is the first that I have seen for a while. Another garden first for this autumn was a blackbird which foraged in the flower beds before sampling the dried mealworms in one of th ground feeders. It has taken experimentation over a couple of years to find the optimum placing for ground feeders where they can be seen from the windows while being attractive to the birds. The magpies and the wood pigeons are far more likely to feed away from cover so I put a second feeder in the centre of the lawn to reduce competition with the smaller birds.

Walking in the Crabtree Wood communuty woodland in Ley Hill today it was a pleasure to come across a spindle tree. I did come across a specimen in a hedgerow locally a few years ago but when I looked for it recently there was no trace so it is nice to have a replacement. The are also seems to be attracting long tailed tits which have yet to come to my garden this autumn. Staying in the area the golf course is a good place to see thrushes, I have seen them on the fairways whenever I have crossed that part of the common. At home the mild, damp weather meant the the sunflower seed feeder was starting to clog. I emptied it into the ground feeder tray, and cleaned and disinfected it. I should have set a camera trap as the pile of seeds was cleared overnight. At the moment we are getting regular visits from blue and great tits taking seeds but they don't seem very interested in the fat feeder. A couple of individuals went to it when I was cleaning the seed feeder but they return...

The fat pellets put out for the robins in the ground feeder trays seem to be attracting magpies. The pellets can vanish within 15 or 20 minutes of being put out and, as often as not, I don't even seev the culprits. Luckily the robins seem quite content with the dried mealworms which the magpies definitely regard as second best. The magapies are suprisingly nervy birds for their and will fly off at the slightest movement within the house, even just a twitch of an upstairs curtain. This time of year is usually very quiet when it comes to garden birds but we do have regular visits from blue and great tits that require keeping the sunflower seed feeder about half full althouhg they have mostly ignored the fat ball that I hung on the other feeder. Chaffinches and goldfinches also turn up occasionally but only singletons. A wren has put in an occasional appearance but had no interest in the ground feeders. Uneaten food usually vanishes before the next morning ass we often get a badger...

I went into the garden this morning to work out what jobs need doing this week and heard something tht I didn't immediately recognise calling in the bushes. A few moments later it hopped out onto a branch and I could see that it must be a warbler. It then very conveniently posed on the fence and I had a good look at the markings. I don't have the minutiae of warbler identification consigned to memory so after a quick look in the field guide and listening to a couple of recordings on YouTube I was 100% sure that I had added a chiffchaff to my garden list. I have a small quantity of sunflower hearts in one of the feeders and I get one or two finches every day. This morning's was a singleton chaffinch but I have had pairs of goldfinches on previous days. They all seem very reluctant to use the lowest feeding ports and with the wet weather I suspect that I will have to empty out the feeder to remove any damp and clogged seed before the main winter activity despite giving it a...

 The badgers were active over the weekend with some significant damage to the lawn. As the bird feeders needed cleaning before the winter I emptied them into the ground feeder trays and set up a camera. The result was a badger spending at least half an hour in the garden taking both fat and sunflower hearts as well as rooting in the grass for bugs.   After rooting in the grass for a while he checks out the sunflower hearts then takes another fat ball. After rooting for bugs he finally decides to taste the sunflower hearts. He seems to be pushing the sunflower hearts into a heap.

 Autumn is clearly coming in with mushrooms and toadstools appearing in the fields and woods. This fine specimen was one of many on my walk today.       The walk took us along Green Lane to White End near Latimer. There was quite a sight with the sky around one of the houses in the hamlet full of house martins. They all suddenly settled on the roof, apparently basking in the sun for a second before all taking flight again. Suddenly they all flew off towards Latimer only to return a few seconds later and settled on the roof again. It was quite a spectacle and I wished I was able to linger all morning to watch it. The return along Bun's Lane was noteable for the birds invisible in the canopy as the trees met over the bridleway. I know that I disturbed at lease one jay and one green woodpecker judging buy the angry calls close above my head. In the garden I will have to dispose of the contents of the two fat feeders but the sunflower seeds are still being taken by occas...

 From past experience I don't expect to see a huge amount of activity in the garden until mid November at the earliest. The sunflower seeds in the back garden are still being taken and I see occasional blue or great tits and occasionally a goldfinch or bullfinch. There isn't much touching the fat and I expect that I will have to take those feeders down soon or the content s will go mouldy. Nothing seem to be taking the fat balls from the hanging feeder any more while the fat bar in the starling feeder just seems to get an occasional visit from a robin. In the front garden there is a massive crop of berries on the rowan tree. A pair of blackbirds seem to have settled in for the long haul and fly out of the tree with angry alarm calls when I go in or out of the house. Despite the rich harvest I suspect that they will still have the tree stripped before the winter migrants put in a show.