When cycling in the Chilterns I am often accompanied by Birds of Prey soaring majestically overhead. It is fascinating to see them effortlessly gliding in circles, eyes glued to the ground below for prey. Sometimes they fly quite low, just above head height. Very occasionally you hear of Birds of Prey attacking cyclists, but only when a helmet is mistook for a predator.

The numbers of Red Kite have increased quite significantly since they were reintroduced back into the Chilterns, in the 1990s. Sometimes you are making great effort on the bike, and the Red Kite’s above is gliding twice as fast with seemingly no effort.

Red Kite.

I took this with a portable digital camera – with only 3* zoom. But, it did kindly fly relatively low and close to make my photograph a little easier.

Effortlessly soaring on wind currents.

The previous day, the sky was ablaze with Cumulus clouds. If I had stayed out on the bike longer, I could have caught some great sunsets, but it was already below freezing and the fingers seizing up.

For health and safety reasons, I should warn about shooting straight into the sun – be careful of eyes.

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It is a visual feast and also a haven for wildlife. It stands in the heart of Singapore – skyscrapers of vegetation, next to the more conventional skyscrapers.

Closer to home, I have a much less dramatic effort at cultivating vegetation for the birds.

In fact ‘effort at cultivating’ would be the wrong phrase. I never got round to properly cutting my hedge this year – with the consequence that it has grown very tall. But, what I’ve noticed is that in the morning I now get the welcome sight and sound of many small birds visiting these lofty perches – which conveniently for me are at the same level as my second floor bedroom. It gives a lot of joy to see birds flying in and out of the hedge and more than compensates for the slightly bedraggled hedge.

Now it’s the Christmas holiday, I do have time to ‘tidy up’ the hedge. But, I don’t want to take away this high rise habitat for the birds. Fortunately, my neighbours never seem to want to cut the hedge either. These hedges were planted in every garden, when the houses were built back in the 1930s. Now, nearly every one has been removed for the sake of convenience, with the added loss of front gardens converted into concrete car parks.

It would be convenient to have a car park at the front of the house, but instead, this year I planted several trees. Hopefully in a few years, it will become even more popular with the neighbourhood birds. It won’t be quite as spectacular as the Singapore Gardens of the Bay, but you can’t beat the joy of some wildlife in your own garden.

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