Christine's walking & birds blog

The swallow tree

At least the swallows thought it was theirs to rest in; the chiffchaff had other ideas and chased them both away. Another fine shot for my collection of multiple-species photos.


My first local meadow pipit of the autumn was also on the common. Two yellow wagtails were in the flooded field of Eton Wick, hanging out with the famous three-legged cow.


I had my scope and was able to see five or six snipe, a green sandpiper, and a dunlin on the flood. In fact I re-found the dunlin later for a birder who only had bins with him, and it was quite difficult to spot against the mud. A scruffy kingfisher was active along the Roundmoor Ditch and an unseen Cetti's warbler uttered some explosive calls.

At home: The bloke who lives opposite has a dead exotic conifer of some sort in his grounds, a huge thing. They've been taking it down bit by bit for over a week, and this afternoon a large part of the trunk was felled. I not only heard it, I felt it; a no-nonsense thud with an accompanying shake of the ground beneath our house.  The trunk section could be seen where it landed just beyond his garden wall, about 70 metres away or less - it also fell slightly downhill which probably made it worse. He should have had it fall towards his own house but then he's a bit of a pig, that bloke. And that's my whinge for today.