The Chilterns, 1 April 2012

With some time to kill before heading to Heathrow and on to Kuwait it seemed the ideal opportunity to do some walking and birding in the Chilterns. Concentrating on the area north of Beaconsfield there were several beautiful Red Kites, a couple of Common Buzzards, drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers, laughing Green Woodpeckers and surprisingly good numbers of Nuthatches. Chiffchaffs are now everywhere and a couple of Blackcaps were singing from new territories. The unseasonally warm spring has encouraged loads of butterflies out and today an exceptionally early Orange Tip was joined by Holly Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Brimstone.
A long walk in Penn Woods proved a good call with some singing Firecrests which responded well to my mp3 to gve some great views.
Now off to the chaos of Heathrow...