Christine's walking & birds blog

Dorney Lake, Bucks

I walked round the rowing lake late afternoon in a strong wind. A common sandpiper was on the far side of the seasonal pool. Beyond the seasonal pool, a sanderling was on the south shore of the return lake.


I watched the wader for quite a while. A common sandpiper hurried past, too quick to digiscope. It's odd how sanderlings are "scurrying" birds when seen at the coast - but here on the lake shore, they are fairly pedestrian. Different kind of feeding, I suppose. No tides.


Yesterday, I walked "down the bottom" and in the gloom of what the children here grandly call "the woods", I saw a treecreeper. It's only my second record on the estate - the first being many years ago - and it made my day.

On the dragonfly front, a brown hawker and a southern hawker have been hunting through the garden for the last few days. The southern hawker in particular stays for some time if not disturbed, following a circular or figure-of-eight route and looking impressively large in our small garden.

A windy walk in Cliveden brought two kinds of woodpecker, a large mixed-tit flock, nuthatches, treecreepers, and a family of song thrushes. I saw one male blackcap, while two others were singing - briefly though, and with not much conviction.

The heron on the top of the oak and the small copper butterfly were the only things that gave me any chance of snapping them.

There was an alarming number of small boys about the place with sticks. Take any small boy out for a walk, and sooner or later he will acquire a stick. It is then best, I've always found, to keep your distance.

On the other hand, my mum was just the same. She would find a stick and poke it into any handy hole in the ground, saying "I wonder what's down there?" Which reminds me - I saw another stoat. It raced across the water-garden lawn and into the bushes.