26th January..... River Misbourne.

After checkin' out the upper reaches of the river last weekend, we explored further down past Amersham. Not much bird wise, which is a sorrow state of affairs, just 50 Redwings, 2 Greenfinches, kestrel, Buzzard, Meadow Pipit & a Song Thrush with a death wish constantly dipping into a cattle trough, should always be a floating object in troughs to give birds some thing to cling to if they should get into difficulty. South Bucks District Council in conjunction with Affinity Water are working in partnership here on an environmental restoration project, which basically means pollarding/coppicing the trees.
The river is flowing nicely until it reaches the Household Waste Recycling Centre, but as it emerges beyond the centre, all we have is the sad sight of a dry river bed so where did it go??
Don.

24th January..... HS2 Fly Tippin' Patrol.

As I leaned on a gate photographing these three Roe Deer.

I became aware of a vehicle slowly approaching. The guy leaned out, said "can you move away from the gate, I need to photograph it," well I know it's a nice looking gate & all, so I said "why what's so special about it, why do you need to take a picture," "sorry I can't say came back the reply,"  "well if you can't tell me why, I'm not moving, in fact I'll take a picture of you," which resulted in  a hand being placed over the face (standard HS2 procedure)  & the window going up, followed a short stand off, out comes his Tablet & we end up taking pictures of each other.

As they depart the driver says "they need the picture as poof they were there, thing is it's not even an HS2 site. I wonder how many times a week they do that?? Sounds like more money being wasted to me.
Is there a number plate showing here?? Who made a mess of that grass verge then?? Of course I knew they were the HS2 Fly tippin' Patrol, having met another couple last year at another site, who were far more sociable, even disclosed their route & the salary for the job.




A little update on the Road Sweeper, seems it became stuck in the grass verge the other week & had to be towed out by a farmer friend of mine, surprised he did it, as HS2 are grabbing part of his farm & cutting it in half along the middle. 
Don.

21st January..... Barn Owls.

Toured the Barnie Boxes today giving them their annual clean out, all were vacant except for one which hosted this young male from last summers brood as shown by the characteristic evenly worn, coloured & patterned primaries & secondaries on the wing feathers, also the tips of the flight feathers would have darker & more extensive markings on an adult bird.
His vital statistic were noted : weight 295 grams, wing length 297mm. Ringed under license & placed back in the box.
Thanks to Mike for the technical data.
Don.

Images Copyright : Don Stone/Stewart Dennis.

21st January..... Clipping Feet.

Met Adam & Peter who were busy gathering together their flock of Texel cross Sheep for a quick health check, the main concern being the feet, which are clipped if needed. With all the recent wet weather some have been experiencing feet issues caused by standing in wet ground & then dry, can rub & cause infection or over growth if not worn away properly. A few of the bigger ones were then sold at Thame Market the following day.

Don.

20th January..... Road Sweeper.

Encountered this road sweeper today out on my travels, not what you expect to see creeping along a country lane, but then this is HS2 at work, so expect the unexpected. The road's nice & clean, who's gonna clean up the grass verge after it kept having to pull over to let traffic pass. On the following day a vehicle became stuck in the roadside mud as it tried to pass.

On a distant horizon they are busy knocking in fence posts.

Sheep not Spoil Heap.

Here's a nice tranquill rural scene,
sheep grazing under a clear blue winter sky;
But not for much longer,
why I hear you cry;
'Cos HS2 don't like Sheep,
they'd rather replace 'em with a massive great spoil heap.

Don.

19th January..... Chesh, Finches & HS2.

Yesterday was an excellent day for supporters of Chesham United like myself, following their 1-0 win down in Cornwall at league leaders Truro City, a result that means we now top the league for the second time this season.

Today began well with a count of 12 Greenfinches sat in the tree watching the feeders in the early morning sun, a few years back we would regularly have numbers into the high 30s, 'til an uncaring neighbour hacked all the trees down in their garden hoping for a quick profit, in the process destroying the roost site. Also 14 Goldfinches.

With the River Chess flowing well once more we decided to spend the morning in the upper Misbourne Valley to see  what the situation was here. On entering Little Missenden this prime example of Fly Tipping greeted us, being the 2nd road I've come across being partially block in the last five days, this contained a little bit of everything, even a dustpan & a pair of garden shears, once you'd find this sort of thing in gate ways & laybys, not any more the selfish ********  just tip on the move, bit like a 'drive thru'.

Bird wise a Grey Wagtail on the church roof, Kingfisher flashed down the river, which is now in full flow once more after all the recent rains.

Moved up to Deep Mill Pond, full to the brim, with only 5 Tufted Duck, male Gadwall whose grey tones were looking splendid in the sun, plus another Grey Wag.

With all the water at these sites, thought we'd check out the Abbey Park whose lakes & river have been dry for years. Unfortunately that's the way they still are with only a small amount of  water in Bank's Pond, where a 'charm' of 9 Goldfinches fed on the Thistle heads.

Stopped in at the Link Road Camp for a chat with Alan, all looking neat & tidy.

 

Finished off the morning up at the HS2 site, where Stewart was keen to check the age of the largest Oak tree, which we estimated to be in the region of 175 years old, will it be in the right spot to avoid the great HS2 Chain Saw Massacre?? Only time will tell. Been a bit of activity since our last visit, containers have been moved & seem to have dug a hole with a platform above it. The Finch/Bunting flock (how's that Cathy??) here is building nicely since our last visit, numbering 100+ made up of Yellowhammers, Linnets & Chaffinches. With the weather getting colder numbers may even equal last winter when they peaked at around 250.

Back to the mighty Chesh I notice on my Twitter feed as I write this that they took a pasting this evening, 4-1 away at the rapidly improving Yate Town.
Don.
Images Copyright : Don Stone/Stewart Dennis.

17th January..... Sparrowhawk.

A male sparrowhawk turned up in the garden this morning and made himself at home for 30 minutes. It must have known I was watching, but allowed me to open a window enabling me to take a few photos. It stayed perched on some rails for ten minutes then moved into the border where it stayed for around 20 minutes. Possibly the same bird that often turned up last winter as a juvenile which also allowed me to open windows allowing close views.
Stewart.

Images Copyright : Stewart Dennis.

 

15th January..... Ring Ouzel, Pitstone Hill.

Well here we are again back checkin' out the Ring Ouzel, hopefully with better luck this time. As we get out of the car, Lynne pulls up along side, have a brief chat & we go our separate ways. Seems the chat wasn't brief enough, as on reaching it's favoured spot, two birders already in situ enlighten us with the news that the dog walker we had just passed had flushed it back towards the car park & asked had we seen it.... no. Hung around here for half an hour with no sign, so headed off around the other side of the hill, couple of Blackbirds & Fieldfare. Returned via the Gulley, where a few of the Hawthorns have been massacred to let more light in to encourage the wild flowers. Back at it's favoured spot, caught sight of a likely looking Blackbird type flying down off the hill into the car park hedge, a guy with a camera makes his way over & confirms it is the Ring Ouzel, he'd just photographed it feeding on the hill. Sit watching the hedge for half an hour, decide enough is enough & we're gonna head off to Whipsnade for the Black Throated Thrush. As we walk towards the car behind the hedge Stewart hears it call, I head back to the gate, leaning on the fence post, within minutes it flies straight towards me veering off into the top of an Ivy covered bush on seeing me.                                                                                                                                      Bird in the Bush is worth......

We retreat to a safe distance & wait & wait & wait, at one point I glimpse it's beak through the leaves, 4 Meadow Pipits settle for a while on the overhead cables, as the sun comes out at midday it's rays encourage the Sky Larks to burst out in song as they get air bourne all around us. Other birders come & go, questioning our belief that it's in the bush, at 12-21 it pops at the point at which it entered.

Sits there for 2 minutes before flying back to it's favoured spot. Remaining hidden in the brambles for 14 minutes, before resuming feeding out on the hillside for a further 8 minutes.

It was then back down to the hedge line again. Thing is why is it wintering here & not in north Africa??
Don.
Images Copyright : Stewart Dennis.

12th January..... Stonechats.

Went to check out the over wintering Ring Ouzel at Pitstone Hill this morning. Strong wind a blowin', plenty of  dog walkers, mountain bikers & ramblers to be seen, but no Ring Ouzel, hardly surprising really with all that disturbance going on, no doubt just sitting out of sight in secluded cover.

Three confiding Stonechats were a nice consolation, plus about twenty Skylarks. Another unexpected bonus was meeting Adrian Roach a local birder & more importantly one of the founding fathers of FRIARS Aylesbury, which was the source of many happy musical related  adventures from the days of my youth... thanks for the memories.

Same bird, two photographers, mine above, Stewart's below.

Wandered over to Incombe Hole, nice dog Fox, crept up on this rather mystical looking Kestrel, 'til some bloke I know spooked it. When there's two of you, seems it pays to both be on the same path.

  In the afternoon a female sparrowhawk had two attempts at snatching prey in Stewart's garden, but unsuccessfully. Where this male great spotted woodpecker posed nicely for a while.  Don.                   

Images Copyright : Don Stone/Stewart Dennis.                                                                                 

  

                   

Tell the Prime Minister.

The Wildlife Trusts.
Stop & Rethink HS2 before it's too late.
Add your name to the letter here : https://action.wildlifetrusts.org/page/53796/data/1

 

10th January..... Full Moon.

The rising Full Moon this evening provide a few photo opportunities.

Don.