Christine's walking & birds blog

Littleworth Common, Bucks

On a day of blue skies and sunshine, a blackcap was singing fluently near the top of a wind-swayed birch on the edge of the common. A chiffchaff engaged in some agile aerial fly-catching, and perched for a couple of seconds on a low garden fence.

As I clicked off a picture of the garden fence (minus the chiffchaff), I could have sworn I heard a raven. I walked out into the open and was just in time to see this bird flying north-west.

The lovely cadence of a willow warbler's song drew me back to the trees, where I saw my first one for the year.

A Mandarin drake was on the smaller of the ponds. As I walked back to Park Lane across the paddocks, two buzzards and a kite were circling.

The walk made a nice change from the rather bleak Egypt Woods where today, a pair of siskins provided the only interest.