Pete’s Walks

(Entry copied from WAB blog)

This morning I walked for 2-3 hours around the woods of the National Trust’s Ashridge Estate. I saw my first few bluebells in flower. The highlight of the walk was a Treecreeper, which very obligingly posed for me while I took its photo.

Treecreeper

I saw a few Muntjac deer, but strangely no Fallow deer at all. When I did this walk a few weeks ago, I saw four different groups of Fallow deer, and it is most unusual for me to do a lengthy walk around Ashridge without seeing any at all.

Muntjac Deer

In the afternoon I did a bit more bird watching in the garden. The siskin I saw yesterday was back, and I got a nice photo of a starling.

Starling

Siskin

Still recovering from a virus. Did some more bird watching in the garden today, and was rewarded with only my second sighting this winter of a Siskin. Got some nice photos of Long-tailed Tits and Greenfinches, too.

Siskin

Long-tailed Tit

Greenfinch

(Entry copied from WAB blog)

Unfortunately I have been ill again, possibly a recurrence of the virus I had about a month ago. I’m more or less OK now (at least I can eat properly again!), but I’m still feeling weak and tired. So I’ve not been out anywhere for over a week.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Today I spent a couple of hours or so bird watching from my ‘hide’ in the summerhouse in the back garden. I got an all too fleeting glimpse of a Brambling, and got my best yet photo of a Great Spotted Woodpecker (it was on a tree rather than a feeder, making it a more natural scene). I also got my best yet photo of a Collared Dove, sitting on the garden fence. The other birds I saw today were Pheasant, Blackbird, Dunnock, Robin, Starling, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Wood Pigeon, Wren and Jackdaw.

Collared Dove

I have just made a very small update to my “Pete’s Walks” web site. Just a few more photos on the birds and wildflowers pages, plus I’ve corrected a load of typing mistakes throughout the journals.

Unfortunately I’ve had a nasty recurrence of the virus I had about a month ago. So I’ve not been out anywhere for a week now. It’s left me feeling very weak again, so I don’t know when I’ll next be able to go for a long walk – very frustrating!

Yesterday I did a fairly short walk for about 2.5 to 3 hours. Starting from Ivinghoe Beacon I followed the Ridgeway over Pitstone Hill, then made my way to the charming village of Aldbury, before returning through the woods of Ashridge back to my car. I felt quite tired afterwards, so I’m still not entirely over the virus I had. 

Pied Wagtail

I spent a large part of today bird watching. I got up early, and started off by photographing birds from the summerhouse. I just missed a Great Spotted Woodpecker, which I saw from the kitchen but which had gone by the time I got outside. I saw the usual early morning pheasants, plus starling, robin, dunnock and great tit. There wasn’t much about, and I only stayed about 30 minutes because the light was very poor for photography.

Tufted Duck

About mid-morning I went to Wilstone Reservoir, near Tring, and walked round to the hide there. I saw Pied Wagtail, Goldeneye, Shoveller, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, Mute Swan, Coot, Moorhen, Snipe, Grey Heron and a distant Red Kite. I also saw thirteen Ruddy Ducks – I have never seen more than three of these together before. Best of all were two Black-necked Grebes, a bird I’ve only seen a few times before. They were far too distant to photograph, unfortunately.

Mute Swan

Just before 1pm I drove the short distance to College Lake. Here I saw some Pochard and my first Chiffchaff of the year – it was singing and moving about in bushes very close to the path, but I was unable to get a photo. I also saw some Violets, Ground Ivy and Primroses. Just before I left I went in a hide near the visitor centre, where I saw some Yellowhammers. I also saw a Brown Rat here.

Great Crested Grebe

I have just updated my web site with a few more bird photos and one more flower photo.

I only really did the update as I noticed the ‘hit counter’ was no longer working – it turns out that my web host no longer supports Microsoft Frontpage Extensions, which it needed. I’m now using a hit counter supplied from the web host.

I’ve still been feeling weak after my recent virus, and haven’t been able to go for any long walks. Very frustrating! Managed 3 or 4 miles all around Kensworth Quarry on Thursday, when I saw a Green Woodpecker and some Ground Ivy and Coltsfoot.

Coltsfoot

Other than that, I’ve just done some more bird watching in the garden. Finally managed to get a closer shot of the Great Spotted Woodpecker that sometimes visits, and managed to get some very close-up shots of a Great Tit.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Great Tit

Great Tit

(Entry copied from my WAB blog)

It’s been a quiet week. I’m still fealing rather weak after the virus I had a couple of weeks ago, so I haven’t been able to go for my usual long walks.

I did go for a 2.5 hour walk round Ashridge on Monday morning, but felt really tired afterwards. It was a beautiful morning, and the woods at Ashridge were gorgeous. I walked very slowly, and stopped very often to take photographs. I saw three or four groups of Fallow Deer and a pair of Muntjac Deer, but all were too far away or too well hidden by the trees for me to get a decent photograph. I saw a Coal Tit and a Wren too.

On Wednesday I drove for about an hour to Turville in Buckinghamshire (it’s the village used as the setting for ‘The Vicar of Dibley’). I spent about four hours wandering the footpaths of Turville and the neighbouring hamlet of Fingest looking for Red Kites and Buzzards to photograph. I probably walked about 3-4 miles in all that time. I saw plenty of Red Kites and two or three Buzzards, but sadly never any came close enough for me to get a really decent photo. I did get a photo of an escaped Harris Hawk, though.

Harris Hawk

Every other day of the week I’ve spent an hour or more photographing birds from my makeshift ‘hide’ in the garden (well, it’s the summer-house really). Nothing unusual turned up, the only irregular visitors that came were a pair of Goldfinches which turned up very briefly a couple of times, both quite early in the morning. A Great Tit had a narrow escape when a Sparrowhawk swooped on it – the Tit escaped through a bush, the much bigger Sparrowhawk struggled to get through the bush after it, and so the Tit managed to survive the encounter. The Sparrowhawk perched briefly on the fence, but it was hidden by the bush so I couldn’t get a photo.

I did snap this little critter, though, which ambled out of the flower beds to help itself to some spilled bird food. I posted its photo on the WAB mammal forum, where it was identified as a Bank Vole.

Bank Vole

This morning I spent about three hours bird watching in the garden. Strangely neither the Greenfinches nor the Long-tailed Tits turned up at all, but I did see Blue Tit, Great Tit, Dunnock, Starling, Robin, Magpie, Chaffinch and Jackdaw. The highlight was seeing a Blackbird take a bath, using the netting over the goldfish pond.

Blackbird

Blackbird

I have just updated my web site, “Pete’s Walks”.

I have added a small collection of bird photographs, which I hope to expand in the future. The quality of the photos is somewhat variable – I will replace photos as I get better shots of the birds.

I have re-organised the site slightly, with a new ‘photographs’ page. The existing wildflower and butterfly photos can now be accessed from this page, as well as the new bird photos. I may add further sections to the ‘photographs’ page in the future.

I have also added numerous hyperlinks to the text of the journals, so that you can click on the name of a bird I see on a walk to see a photo (or photos) of the bird. You could already do this for wildflowers and butterflies.

(Entry copied from my WAB blog)

Unfortunately I’ve been suffering with the ‘dreaded lurgy’ for the last few days (well, some tummmy bug really), so I’ve not been out and about. At least today I managed some bird watching from the comfort of home.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

The first of the irregular visitor’s that arrived in my parent’s garden was this Great Spotted Woodpecker. The photo’s not too bad, considering it was taken from about 60ft away and from behind double-glazing.

Brambling

The next unusual sighting was this Brambling – a pair of them appeared in the garden for the first time ever only 3-4 weeks ago.

Pheasant (f)

Later on I got this shot of a pheasant – there up to nine that visit every day about breakfast, then one or two will occasionally re-visit later on. Again the photo is through the double-glazing of the patio window, but much closer than the previous two photos, this time from only 10-12 feet away as the bird was on the rockery beyhind the patio. I tend to think of female pheasants as dull brown birds, but really they are quite beautiful in their subtle markings.

Later on I saw some Long-tailed Tits. But the bird of the day for me was the Coal Tit that I saw in the front garden, flitting about between the Sycamore tree and some bushes. We usually see these fairly regularly in the winter, but haven’t seen one for some time. It’s nice to know they are still about.

I looked at my maps last night, and made a change to the route I’d planned for today. Today’s walk was going to be about 15 miles, which is a bit long for my proposed Chiltern Chain Walk where I’m aiming to average 12 miles per walk. The reason it was so long was because the next walk was so good when I did it as an ‘exploratory’ walk a few weeks ago that I didn’t want to change it at all – this meant that I needed to add in a big section to this walk, which was based on a good walk I did at the beginning of last year. However, last night I realised that I’d probably ruined a very high standard walk by adding in those extra miles. Fortunately, looking at the maps again I saw a way to reduce today’s walk by a couple of miles, which involved only a very slight change to the next walk and shouldn’t detract from it at all.

The walk started at Hambleden (a very interesting and picturesque village close to the Thames) and first followed a very good bridleway for many miles, along a valley and then steadily uphill through woods before emerging at a farm on a lane. I then followed a short section of the Shakespear Way, before another good bridleway through another wood took me most of the way to Turville (the ‘Vicar of Dibley’ village).

The next section was new to me. A very good path led uphill from Turville, across a field and then through more woods to reach Ibstone. From there, a bridleway on a cement farm drive led downhill to a valley bottom, where I turned right and followed the bridleway for some distance to reach a lane that took me into Fingest (which I went through on my last walk).

I ate my lunch on a bench on a hillside above Fingest. The rest of the walk followed the route of the Chiltern Way. I went downhill through a wood and across pastures to the hamlet of Skirmett, then continued south down the Hambleden valley through the hamlets of Colstrope and Pheasant’s Hill to return to my starting point at Hambleden. The walk took me about 4.5 hours – it was an excellent route (if I do say so myself!) and I’m looking forward to doing it in the opposite direction when I walk the Chiltern Chain Walk.

I’d hoped to get some photos of Red Kites and Buzzards, but the weather put paid to that idea. It was foggy and misty all morning, and remained grey and gloomy all afternoon, the light being too poor to take bird photos. I did see a lot of Kites though (13-14 in the sky near Turville at one point), and several Buzzzards too, with one particularly good buzzard siting near Turville. I also startled a hare when I stopped for some water, towards the end of the wooded section before Turville. I also saw a very large number of Fallow deer in a field between Turville and Ibstone – I calculated there were over 100, and if that sounds a bit fanciful, I did count 180 deer a couple of miles from here about a year ago.