Christine's walking & birds blog

A flying visit to the boardwalk this morning produced no adders. P'raps there were too many people wandering along it saying loudly to each other "Well, I can't see any adders!" This obliging dragonfly is probably a Keeled Skimmer.

An evening walk found the wetlands very still and warm, with a sinking water level.

I thought I heard a green sandpiper calling as I passed the boardwalk. A little ringed plover and a drake teal were on East Marsh.

Down towards the weir, the lovely call of a green sandpiper rang out again and two birds flew past me and landed on the next island.

It seemed strange to hear this call at the same time as the "cuckoo" fluting out from the sewage farm.

A hobby was hunting.

This is a round walk of roughly seven miles we used to do years ago from home; and as I wanted to be "green" today I set off on foot along the road to Cliveden woodlands.

I opened my account with a blackcap singing on a bare twig, but failed to see goldcrest or firecrest despite hearing both.

I left Cliveden by the "side" gate which put me on the road above Hedsor Hill. Passing through what used to be Tiny Rowland's place, I paused on the wooden bridge. A family of long-tailed tits made a lot of noise above me, and a treecreeper came quite close. I walked out into a lovely meadow of poppies and had lunch on the bank of the stream.

Cookham Bridge gave me swallows, sand martins and house martins. It was then along Mill Lane to the tow path opposite Cliveden. A family of mistle thrushes was a nice sight far out on the horse pastures. (Used to be cows here - yet another farm has gone, it would seem, and the lovely landscape that grazing cattle maintain has gone with it. Horses are messy - and anyway, they're posh.)

All along the towpath I watched out for kingfishers. There have been kingfishers along this stretch of the Thames for as long as I can remember - but it seemed I would not be lucky today.

A couple seeing me bird-watching stopped to tell me that they lived nearby and had recently picked up a dead kingfisher which flew into their window. That was a blow. However, just after they'd gone, I was scanning the far bank when I saw one - perhaps the mate of the dead one. It didn't seem in any hurry but sat preening for some time.

Several female Mandarins were seen: one with a single duckling, one with two ducklings, one with six and then this one along the lock cut which had, I think, seven.

I made a diversion to take in Ray Mill Island. We used to cycle down there as kids, when the entrance was much more thrilling than it is now. You went along a narrow footpath behind the hotel; high wooden fences meant you couldn't see anything, but you could hear the rush of the water where it was channelled through culverts (the mill race?) beneath you. Then you came out onto a lovely little roofed bridge (now gone, alas), turned left - and you were on the island.

Today I saw three grey wagtails at the weir - and the kingfisher I'd picked up from the towpath. It still showed no signs of having young to look after.

From Maidenhead Bridge I took a photo of this nice old boat-shed before that disappears too.

40 species were seen on the walk, with a further three heard only. The last "ticks" were two lapwings flying over Skindles and a whitethroat near the Jubilee River.

Burnham Beeches

A late-afternoon visit to the Beeches brought a male Emperor Dragonfly hunting round the moat. 

A commotion in the oak trees drew my attention to a jay which had grabbed a blue tit.

Within ten minutes, the jay (or a second individual) had seized what looked like a great tit fledgling.

From the boardwalk across the Mire, I watched a blackcap family moving through the birch scrub. Turning away I was thrilled to see a dark, thick snake on a crumbling log, and just managed a shot before it slid out of sight.

I wasn't sure at the time but when he saw the photo Greger recognised it at once as they were fairly common on the farm where he grew up. It's an Adder - probably a female.

Two chiffchaffs, three wrens and a blackbird were singing; and on the dragonfly front, a female Broad-bodied Chaser was seen a little way off.

We parked at Walbury Hill in West Berkshire and did our usual round past the gibbet and down to Combe. Lunching on the grassy slope between Combe Wood and Buttermere Wood, I saw a small butterfly on the ground. In flight, it showed light brown wings above, and when settled, a lovely green underneath. I have learned from other websites that this green is not a true pigment, and can vary according to the light.

It's a Green Hairstreak Butterfly, and a first for me.

While I was doing this, Greger had a snooze; and I was amused to see a red kite drift into view and circle over him a couple of times. Eyeing him up as a possible snack, maybe.

As we walked down the road into Combe, I stopped suddenly and stepped to the side. I looked back to see an empty, silent road, and remarked to Greger that I was going mad - I'd been so sure I'd heard the swish of bicycles whizzing down the hill. We walked on, and hadn't gone far when there came a swishing noise - and two cyclists came whizzing down the road. I can only assume that I'd heard them when they were higher up - and that they'd stopped, before continuing down. Very odd.

Otherwise the walk was chiefly remarkable for our missing, yet again, any sign of willow tits!

Our blue tit babies must have left the nest-box early yesterday morning, before we had opened the curtains. I went for a walk round the village late afternoon and saw three different families, so no doubt one was "ours". I also saw long-tailed tit fledglings.

This morning, two nuthatches were feeding on the peanuts, and some "si-si-si" noises from the depths of the holly tree suggested that young were also present. This Early Bumblebee was on the scabious.

I walked through coniferous woodland and across heathland on this cool, glum day. Blackcaps were seen early on - two males, two females. A singing firecrest was observed from the path.

The next excitement was a large flock of crossbills in pine trees near a junction of tracks. After feeding for a while, the birds descended in a flutter of wings to drink from one of the two nearby pools.