Christine's walking & birds blog

In Burnham Beeches, several Mandarin ducks and drakes paddled quietly about in the muddy water of the moat.


We had walked through Dorney Wood without seeing much at all, and now we slipped under the newly repaired fence to make a loop in Egypt Wood. The best bird was a woodcock, flushed near the stream.

In the afternoon we visited Dorney Wetlands on the Jubilee River.  Three female pochards were drifting about near the car park. Two Cetti's warblers sang and a water rail squealed from the reeds. The Eton Wick flood was much depleted.


A goldcrest and a chiffchaff were moving about restlessly in the tree by the gate, which was covered with white blossom. Gadwall were feeding with Canada geese on the common - where the flood was now just a puddle.

A little egret came high from the south and turned to follow the river downstream.


We called in at Sainsbury's to buy a white chrysanthemum in a pot, and took it to the grave. St. Mary's churchyard at Hitcham is potentially a good spot for firecrests - but by this time, I was too tired to bird any more.

The following day we did an 11.7 km (7.3 mile) walk in Swinley Forest. We saw a pair of stonechats and a pair of "specials", but no woodlarks. A pipit in a dead tree on Bagshot Heath was probably a meadow - bit early for a tree pipit.  By the stream on Wishmoor Bottom, Greger pointed out a crossbill low in the bushes; there were at least two, flying down to drink from a swampy ditch.


It was a lovely sunny day, although there was still a chill in the air. The following day was greyer, and we took a short walk in the Beeches, this time from the main car park on East Burnham Common. The old paddock (apparently the grazing animals have now all gone, which is a shame) was alive with birds, all feeding on the mossy ground. There were: a wren, three song thrushes, blackbirds, robins, a nuthatch, two coal tits, and a pair of bullfinches. As we scanned the tangle of oak branches for our target bird, three great spotted woodpeckers flew calling into a nearby tree; and an Egyptian goose flew over to the west.

It was pleasant, wandering through the woods; but we had to tear ourselves away. Six hundred miles lay ahead of us - which took about eleven hours to drive. Once again, the lesser spotted woodpecker had proved elusive. I'd wanted to see it both for myself, and for Greger (who still hasn't seen one); and I'd looked forward to getting a photo with my new camera. I was a bit subdued as we drove north up the M40 - but now we're back home, I'm looking forward to what the spring brings us here in Scotland.


Wednesday, March 16, 2016

A glaucous gull was on the Ullapool River spit this afternoon.