A trip out of county to the Chilterns.

 Earlier this month we travelled up to Buckinghamshire and stayed in the Chilterns, a beautiful chalk downland area with splendid trees and red kites galore.

This red kite was sitting beside a chapel at NT Greys Court and spent the day just circling and landing and watching all the visitors in the hope of picking up a snack to eat. They have a very distinctive call, and when you first here them they are like someone whistling their dog!

I was lucky enough to be pointed in the direction of a very rare flowering plant, the Chiltern gentian which is mostly only found in Buckinghamshire ( where it is the County flower), Hertfordshire and interestingly, recently discovered in Wiltshire. A plant of chalk downland it is very pretty but quite small and very easy to overlook.

Being early autumn now there were quite a few fungi to be seen and this Shaggy Parasol was one prominent one. Whilst they generally like woodland, this one was in the middle of a field!

Whilst not exactly wildlife, we had an interesting visit to the Chiltern Open Air Museum where a number of buildings have been saved from destruction. They have been painstakingly taken down and bought to this site and rebuilt and it is a fascinating place to view old dwellings, functional buildings like toll houses etc.

Long distance shots

The local bird life has been quiet recently, partly because after the breeding season many birds will be moulting into their new feathers and this can take up to five weeks to gradually moult and then regrow a new set of feathers. They are very vulnerable to being caught by predators at this stage of their lives so they tend to keep out of sight as much as they can.

In the garden there have also been fewer birds at the feeders as natural food is still plentiful, so it is always good to see something a bit more unusual from the kitchen window, such as this grey heron, which appeared yesterday flying in over the gardens in Pole Rue and then landing unexpectedly in a big conifer tree behind the houses.It remained there for well over an hour and then flew off, but I saw it again this morning flying towards the churchyard. Perhaps it has its eye on someone's garden pond?!

Last week we took a short trip down to Devon and had the chance to have a short walk on the cliff top at the RSPB Labrador Bay Reserve near Shaldon. This site has been specifically managed to encourage the rare Cirl bunting and it has been very successful, with over 25 breeding pairs now frequenting the local stubble fields and hedgerows. I was delighted to see quite a few feeding on the grain amongst the stubble and managed to get these pictures when they flew up into the hedgerows. They are similar in appearance, and indeed related to yellowhammers, and these photos of young, or female birds are not a great example, but having heard their call as well I can confirm they are Cirl buntings!

 

A distant kestrel was patrolling the cliff top too and it landed on a tree several hundred yards away, very well camouflaged in the reddish brown leaves.

Whilst none of these pictures are great shots, it was lovely to be able to do some bird watching again  after a long break from my favourite hobby due to the recent restrictions on travel.