Walthamstow Birding

“Some People are on the Patch....They Think it's All Over....It is Now!”

2011-12-31T21:16:00.002Z

If You Have Been....

2011-12-28T22:04:00.003Z

....Thanks for Reading.

Especial thanks to Mark Pearson who set the blog up andencouraged us/me to run it. Thanks to the other (somewhat occasional, it mustbe said, but nevertheless much appreciated) contributors and photographers, who made this a morerounded out experience. Thanks to the Followers and those who have posted linkselsewhere and to the celebrity endorsers (thanks for sharing your feelings too)

A special mention too for the hardworking patchers who havefound and shared their Birds. Last, but by no means least, thanks to thereaders, many of whom have offered help and encouragement over the months.

I have no doubt that the blog will one day rise again, Iwill do my best to get it adopted by the Country Park people when they move in,unless of course they have their own, or perhaps a new generation of Birderswill take it on when the place is gentrified.

Finally a message to our sponsors, where were you?

Listing to One Side

2011-12-27T18:28:00.000Z

Followers of the blog will havenoticed the cumulative patch year list which previously adorned the Right handside of the page; it grew steadily, if erratically through the year. The grandsum of 90 was reached before the Winter was out and a single Summer migrant wasrecorded. We got to 100 before the end of March but, once the passage migrantswere all in it took the last six months of the year to add just 16 species to bringthe total to 148.

Last year with slightly less eyes onthe patch and a good deal less hours spent we reached 149, it was a good year.So 150 will probably be reached one year but it will be down to someone else tokeep count.

Personally I managed 128, slightlyshort of my best effort, 130 in 2010, despite a great deal more effort beingexpended. My game plan will be vastly different next year and I expect myyearlist will be somewhat smaller, hopefully though, if anyone should be kind enoughto let me know about them, I will add a couple more patch ticks. This yearMarsh Harrier and White-fronted Goose were added, Kittiwake or Ring-necked Duckwould be nice for 2012 though in truth I will be pretty happy with whatevercomes my way.

So that is it, time to set the yearlist to one side (I’ll stick it at the end of the blog entry for posterity; forcomparison with last year see 31^st December 2010 page) if anythingdoes get added before the weekend I will update but I suspect, like me, mostlocals have run out of enthusiasm for this year and might well not visit theold place before January 1^st.

It is funny what’s in a date, todayno one would glance twice at a Cormorant (though I have noticed that many havebeen in breeding plumage for a couple of weeks now) but come January 1^stthey will be eagerly ticked off. It always used to be House Sparrows that wereused as the exemplar of this phenomenon but of course they are so rare now thatthey always get a second look.

A quiet day in for me today, the onlysightings worthy of note was a prolonged Dog-fight between a Crow and aSparrowhawk variously taking turns in being the aggressor and defender (stillnot a shadow of the scrap I watched yesterday between a Peregrine with prey anda Rough-legged Buzzard, I suspect the latter had been robbed by the former andwas not in a mood to surrender its lunch without a fight, needless to say thiswas not at Walthamstow but only an hours’ drive away and I did see a few HenHarriers, a Marsh Harrier, a couple of Common Buzzards and even found a secondRough-legged Buzzard not to mention all the other stuff....Twitching, you’ve got to love it!) and a Ring-necked Parakeetperched in a Willow outside my back window; it thereby gets itself off the house‘flyover’ list and onto the ‘seen on the deck’ list, to think up till a coupleof weeks ago it was merely on the ‘heard only’ list...Listing, you’ve got tolove it!

I also spotted this book at hometoday but found it strangely disappointing, if not downright misleading!

Walthamstow 2011 Year List

148.Black-necked Grebe, 147.Brambling,146.Merlin, 145.Golden Plover, 144.Knot, 143.Little Gull, 142.Snow Bunting, 141.LaplandBunting, 140.White-fronted Goose, 139.Water Pipit, 138.Black Redstart, 137.GreatNorthern Diver, 136.Crossbill, 135.Sandwich Tern, 134.Spotted Flycatcher, 133.Redstart,132.Turtle Dove, 131.Red-crested Pochard, 130.Gannet, 129.Cuckoo, 128.Oystercatcher,127.Ringed Plover, 126.Black Tern, 125.House Martin, 124a.White Wagtail, 124.Whinchat,123.Turnstone, 122.Arctic Tern, 121.Hobby, 120.Whimbrel, 119.GrasshopperWarbler, 118.Swift, 117.Garden Warbler, 116.Greenshank, 115.Goshawk, 114.Mandarin, 113.Red-legged Partridge, 112.Reed Warbler, 111.Yellow Wagtail, 110.LesserWhitethroat, 109.Whitethroat, 108.Little Ringed Plover, 107.Common Tern, 106.MarshHarrier, 105.Short-eared Owl, 104.Osprey, 103.Sedge Warbler, 102.WillowWarbler, 101.Swallow, 100.Red Kite, 99.Stonechat, 98.Bar-tailed Godwit, 97.RockPipit (Scandinavian), 96.Buzzard, 95.Common Scoter, 94.Lesser Redpoll, 93.SandMartin, 92.Blackcap, 91.Wheatear, 90.Cetti's Warbler, 89.Waxwing, 88.MediterraneanGull, 87.Dunlin, 86.Snipe, 85.Little Owl, 84.Woodcock, 83.Eider, 82.Yellow-leggedGull, 81.Barnacle Goose, 80.Red-breasted Merganser, 79.Scaup, 78.Peregrine, 77.Black-tailedGodwit, 76.Lapwing, 75.Sparrowhawk, 74.Ring-necked Parakeet, 73.Siskin, 72.Curlew,71.Redshank, 70.Skylark, 69.Reed Bunting, 68.Bullfinch, 67.Linnet, 66.Goldfinch,65.Greenfinch, 64.Chaffinch, 63.Meadow Pipit, 62.Pied Wagtail, 61.Grey Wagtail,60.House Sparrow, 59.Dunnock, 58.Robin, 57.Mistle Thrush, 56.Redwing, 55.SongThrush, 54.Fieldfare, 53.Blackbird, 52.Starling, 51.Wren, 50.Chiffchaff, 49.Long-tailedTit, 48.Great Tit, 47.Blue Tit, 46.Goldcrest, 45.Carrion Crow, 44.Jackdaw, 43.Jay,42.Magpie, 41.Great Spotted Woodpecker, 40.Green Woodpecker, 39.Kingfisher, 38.CollaredDove, 37.Woodpigeon, 36.Stock Dove, 35.Rock Dove, 34.Herring Gull, 33.LesserBlack-backed Gull, 32.Common Gull, 31.Black-headed Gull, 30.Green Sandpiper, 29.CommonSandpiper, 28.Coot, 27.Moorhen, 26.Water Rail, 25.Kestrel, 24.Great CrestedGrebe, 23.Little Grebe, 22.Grey Heron, 21.Little Egret, 20.Cormorant, 19.Pheasant,18.Ruddy Duck, 17.Goosander, 16.Smew, 15.Goldeneye, 14.Tufted Duck, 13.Pochard,12.Shoveler, 11.Pintail, 10.Mallard, 9.Teal, 8.Gadwall, 7.Wigeon, 6.Shelduck, 5.EgyptianGoose, 4.Canada Goose, 3.Greylag Goose, 2.Great Black-backed Gull, 1.Mute Swan.

Sanity Clause

2011-12-21T18:26:00.001Z

I have just finished reading this month’s Birdwatch magazine,soon to fall victim to budget cuts I fear, mine that is not theirs; which hadan interesting, and balanced, article by Andy Stoddart, extolling the virtue ofdoing a local patch. He mentions that there are many ways to enjoy Birding,something the mono-focussed twitcher bashing brigade on Bird Forum would dowell to recognize. I really don’t understand why they feel the need to post onthe Rare Bird thread; do they join Philately Forums and run down StampCollectors?

Any hoo, I appreciated only too well what Andy said aboutmost patches producing little in the way of glamorous rarities and how this canbe remedied with a quick fix of twitching. After this year’s abysmal personal yearlist, (only one year in the last 30 was lower) I will definitely be indulgingin some therapeutic twitching in 2012 Birds notwithstanding. The perfect balance ofcharacter building, grounded patch work combined with the occasional twitchshould keep (make?) me sane.

This afternoon I had to have a camera shoved up my nose (don’t bothergoogling You Tube it’s not on there) which meant I had a bit of time to do theSouthern end of the patch. The footpath to nowhere is taking shape in theSouth-east corner of Marsh Lane fields, there were quite a lot of Birds alongthe previously hard to access Dagenham Brook but I suspect they will be soon drivenaway if the footpath gets much traffic.

I was concentrating on the scrubby edges of the patch todaywith Bullfinch and Redpolls in mind; naturally that’s where they stayed, inmind. As I approached the top field I heard the yapping of a yappy Dog, it and itsowner and child had walked along the whole length of scrubby bushes, I didn’tbother! I headed round the field and decided to look at the roosting Gulls onthe Football pitches, the Dog family changed course and headed for me, Idoubled back and outflanked them at which point they outsmarted me and headedstraight for the Gulls....D’oh. I thought I could beat them to it but they cleverlysent the Dog on ahead and he flushed the lot, just to make sure they stayedaway they all walked over to where they had settled....

Time to give up and check the Lea by the Golf Course. Therewere quite a few Duck loafing including 20+ Teal and a few Gadwall. One of theTeal had neither a vertical nor horizontal White flank bar; I was just thinkingwhat it should be called....No-winged Teal? When it flew off...perhaps just WingedTeal. I don’t know what made me check the Owl Tree, habit? You’ll never guesswhat I saw...told you you’d never guess, the Little Owl was in there, well abit of its wing was. Given how it filled the hole the other day and how muchroom there clearly is in there, such that it can get really tucked away, I’mthinking there must have been two of them in there before. Still pretty hard tosee though. Follow directions as before but see photo for actual hole.

A Kingfisher called from the Lea but must have flown in theopposite direction. Near to the Red Bridge 2-3 Goldcrests were loosely associatingwith some Long-tailed Tits but unusually no Chiffchaffs in what is normally agood spot for them.

On the Waterworks a showy Water Rail in bed 17 toyed with me,giving me enough time to get glasses, bins and cameraphone lined up before disappearingand then doing the same all over again a couple of minutes later.

A few months ago I promised a picture of the finishedsculpture in the Olympic Park which is prominently visible from much of the patch,conveniently they seem to have finished it just before the blogs demise, I say ‘seem’as it’s hard to tell really, at least we won’t have to put up with it for toolong, it must be a honeypot for metal thieves. Not the best photo but I could have given you nostrils.

Nothing much else in the Waterworks, no Snipe or GreenSandpipers though both have been seen recently and no Bullfinches or Redpolls,again both have been seen nearby in the last couple of weeks. Winter officiallystarts tomorrow but somehow I don’t think we are going to notice, we havevirtually no Winter specialities around. Looks like the blog is not the onlything going out with a fizzle.

On this date: 2112 1989 At Walthamstow theRed-necked Grebe was on No.4 reservoir and a Common Sandpiper was on theLockwood. On the Marsh a Long-tailed Tit and a Stonechat, possibly a Chiffchaffheard in the distance.

BLOGOFF (nearly)

2011-12-17T16:39:00.001Z

An (the) adult Mediterranean Gullwas seen again this morning flying South-east over my house, which means it hasbeen seen more often here than anywhere else on the patch, unless of course wehave more than one Bird locally. I still think it is probably the Wanstead Birdbut what do I know.

The nights are drawing in; thankgoodness it’s only 4 days till the shortest day. But that also means it’s only14 days till the end of the blog, (unless someone else wants to carry it on?And if they do I would like to know where they were for the last two years?) orat least my blogging. It is nearly three years since Mark Pearson set the thingup, though it never got used until March 2010. It has been an interestingexperiment in compiling it and I hope it proves to be useful to new localBirders. The site guide is complete from top to bottom, well actually frombottom to top, and should give first time visitors an idea of what to expectand what the layout of the site looks like.

The weekly (or often morefrequent) journal entries should give an idea of the ebb and flow of Birds onthe patch, at least for the last 22 months. The highs and, mostly, lows ofpatch work are recorded for posterity. The year lists are remarkably similarfor the last two years, I guess it’s not too surprising how predictable most ofthe species are, though it also gives one a rough idea of some of the moreexciting visitors to occur and, of course, just how rare rarities are.

I will leave all the blog entriesand year lists intact for future generations of Walthamstow Birders, you neverknow, once the place is turned into a Country Park, the habitat is vastly improved;it starts to attract scores of regular Birders, loads of rarities start gettingfound and Petrol hits £2/litre someone may want to resurrect the thing.

Meanwhile, in case you get withdrawalsymptoms; a handy cut out and keep guide to blogging Walthamstow Birding style:

1) Aplay on words with the title never goes amiss.

2) Abit of dithering as to whether to bother visiting the patch.

3) Abit more dithering as to which bit of the patch to check, the North reservoirs,South reservoirs or marsh.

4) Amoan about picking the wrong one in retrospect.

5) Somespeculation/wishful thinking as to what might be found (this can be made tolook more scientific by checking other local sites and websites for current occurrenceson the migration front.)

6) Atthis point inject a bit of nostalgia of how it used to be in the good old days.

7) Probablybest to insert some blurry photo about now to break up the dry text.

8) Probablybest to insert an apology about now for the blurry photo.

9) Nowa description of the visit itself, this can be long and rambling or moreconcise according to taste, yours of course, not the poor readers.

10) Some sort of conclusion, possibly tying all thedisparate elements of the blog entrytogether, is usually best left to the end.

11) Another dose of nostalgia, if available,preferably gripping readers off withsomething really good that was seen aeons ago.

And there youhave it. Simples.

Maybe a couple of blog entries left till the end of theyear, I might even follow the template.

On this date: 1712 1996 The Dartford Warblersoon seen on Walthamstow Marsh in loose association with 3 Stonechats, also 2Chiffchaffs nearby.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

2011-12-16T19:36:00.000Z

And we are still suffering the fallout....

Apparently in 894, a force of Danes sailed up the River Lea to Hertford,and the following year they built a fortified camp in the higher reaches of the Lea, about 32 km north of London.

(Dirty) Old Man River

For the second time this week the patch makes BBC local news, though not sure either story puts us in a good light. Looking on the bright side, maybe the pollution will kill off the Shark/Crocodile/Alien Creature that lies below.

PW

Site #9 Banbury reservoir & the Wild Marsh

2011-12-15T20:41:00.000Z

We have reached the top of the patch, North of the Lockwoodreservoir is the Wild Marsh East, sometimes viewed as part of Tottenham marshesit is actually firmly in Essex and therefore part of the Walthamstow patch.Formerly a grazing field it has hosted such delights as Yellowhammer and GreatGrey Shrike and when waterlogged Redshank, now it is a bit more manicured andhas much more extensively wooded edges. It still has its specialities thoughand is the best area on patch for Garden Warbler, Bullfinch and Firecrest, thelast two still quite rare. This year it held a summering Grasshopper Warblerand Pheasants are frequently heard, and occasionally seen on here. Access isfrom Sinnott Rd and Sandpiper Close E17 or from Tottenham marshes via afootbridge over the Lea.

To the East are some allotments and a new housing estate,previously the site of breeding Grey Partridges, sadly now very unlikely toreoccur on patch. Pheasants are often seen here and it was also the site of theDusky Warbler of 2010 which also got alongside the overflow channel which runs North.The channel is a reliable site for Green Sandpipers and occasionally otherWaders. Further North the channel becomes deeper and sometimes holds Goosanderin Winter, though these tend to be mobile getting anywhere between the Southernreservoirs and right up to Chingford.

The Banbury is the Northernmost of the Walthamstow complex,the William Girling and King George V being North of the North Circular andtherefore in Chingford. Access is nowadays restricted to keyholding WEBScounters but much of the reservoir can be seen from Banbury Rd. Anything largeshould be seen with patience. Previous scarcities include Common Scoter,Sabine’s Gull, Brent Goose, Little Tern etc. in fact this is the most favouredreservoir of the group for Sea Duck and other Sea Birds.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back Into The Waterworks

2011-12-14T21:37:00.003Z

Dundun dundun dundun dundun dundun.....

It's out there!

As you can possibly tell, no Birding for me today.

PW

Cinch You've Been Gone

2011-12-10T17:52:00.001Z

Today was meant to be the triumphant reveal, as I said lastblog: “Now we know where it sleeps it should be a cinch whenever we want to seea Little Owl”. Lol wanted to see a Little Owl.

We walked across the Golf course, I pointed out the Tree.

“See that dead stump,see those Woodpecker holes, just behind and down there’s a horizontal branch,there’s the hole it’s.......”

Lol was very understanding and even suggested that we checkall the other Trees along the River bank, we did with much the same result.

By the Friends Bridge a wintering Chiffchaff put in anappearance but stayed resolutely out of a nearby Tit flock. The marsh wasdecidedly Bird less; a few Meadow Pipits were all we could muster. On the backpaddock were three Mistle Thrushes a Song Thrush and some Blackbirds, proper WinterThrushes were conspicuous by their absence, though I did see a handful ofFieldfares this morning over Leytonstone.

Face was slightly saved by seeing the more regular LittleOwl at the Southern end of the paddock.

We met Jamie P on the Waterworks N.R. he told us that he toohad not seen the Golf course Owl a few days ago....did I hear someone saycinch?

There were precious few Birds in any of the beds, no Snipe,Green Sandpipers or Water Rail and the Pigs have gone too (fattened up for thefestivities maybe? Will they ever be seen again?). The only things of note werea couple more Chiffchaffs, some Teal, Shoveler and Tufted Ducks, one of thelatter was sitting still on the first bed and virtually glowing in the lowsunlight, I couldn’t resist a picture, The Duck though got fed up with my fiddlingabout and decided to go into a diving frenzy, hence the Shoveler photo, itstood still.

Lol, who had confused the terms naturalist and naturisttoday, needed to warm up so we burned precious light at the Cafe with a Coffee.Suitably thawed we hatched a plan to check the Gulls on the filter beds downCoppermill Lane.

There were plenty of Gulls and we gave those close enough areasonable grilling, Lol turned his attention to the No.5 reservoir behind,which I had given a cursory glance a few minutes earlier, and immediatelypronounced that he had a small black and white Grebe. This was good news aseither would be an addition to the cumulative patch year list. It proved to bea Black-necked Grebe.

As keen blogwatchers will appreciate this is species No.148for the patch this year, at the end of last year I set a few targets, one wasto get to 100 species before the end of March which we did, another was to geta total of 150 species for the year and another to get a new species for theWalthamstow list. We’ve got 21 days left....should be a cinch.

On this date: 10 12 90 The Mediterranean Gullstill present on the filter beds at Walthamstow also a 1st winter maleSmew on the High Maynard and a Common Sandpiper on the Lockwood.

Owls of Delight

2011-12-03T18:06:00.001Z

The decision before me today, having been on my feet allmorning was, sit at home and do Jack, which would probably have led to mesampling the bottle of Jack (Daniels) in the kitchen way too early in the day,or get on the patch. No contest. I still went on the patch though!

Marsh Lane fields were fairly Birdy, though nothing of anygreat consequence, I was hoping for scarce Passerines today given the ongoingmildness of the Winter, relatively speaking of course. (I still haven’t put theheating on at home, obviously we can no longer fill the car up, eat AND bewarm, something had to go, mind you the natives are not restless yet so it muststill be ok.) Perhaps the problem now is it is too warm and we need that coldsnap to push the Winter goodies our way. Talking of which I noticed someone islaying a footpath down the hitherto overgrown and pretty impassable East sideof the Dagnam Brook, it might be a nice little walk when it is finished but itwill pass right by where the Snipe used to hang out in the last cold snap, so Iguess that’s them finished.

Over the footbridge and on to the Pitch’n’Putt and down tothe River Lea which was fairly Birdless in contrast. I thought, as is my wont,that I would check the ‘Little Owl Tree’, in fact I checked all the big Treeson the Hackney side of the Lea on the South side of the Golf Course forpossible roosting Little Owls. I have done this every time I have walked thisway for most of the year, since I heard that one had been seen down here, naturallyI have never connected.

The ‘Little Owl Tree’ is in fact a half dead Black Poplarabout 100m SSW of Tee 8 on the South side of the Lea, I call it that becauseMike M told me he saw one sitting on the obvious curved thick branch on theright. I checked the Tree carefully noticing some obvious Woodpecker holes on athick trunk on the right hand side that ends abruptly where the top has snappedoff, I was just wondering whether a Little Owl could get into such a small hole, when Ispied a larger, natural hole behind, above and to the left which appeared to befilled with a shape that strongly resembled a sleeping Little Owl. My scopesoon proved that the sleeping Little Owl shape was in fact constructed of asleeping Little Owl. Result! Now we know where it sleeps it should be a cinchwhenever we want to see a Little Owl. How it has escaped detection for so longis a mystery, might it be connected with the presence of leaves? We will neverknow (until Spring).

I wanted to do the Waterworks but also wanted to do themarsh and thought I would have time to do both, which I didn't. A walk up the side of the Horsefields revealed a handful of Chaffinches, a few Mistle Thrushes and about 15Linnets. Upon reaching the Coppermill stream by the Horshoe Thicket and theMarina I thought I heard a brief ‘pik’ of a Water Rail, I gave it a quick burstof the iphone and lo and behold one called back, though not from where I hadheard it, it then proceeded to come out in the open, walk along the edge, swimacross the Stream and interact with the original Bird I had heard. I was so gobsmackedto see one out in the open I didn’t think to take a picture until it was toolate, nonetheless I will share the result. (If you squint you can see the buffybackside of the Bird walking away just to the right of the blue bottle)

The Horshoe Thicket was birdless but by now it was gettinglate, I hurried on back to the Horse fields, via the bomb crater field, which Ihad a quick walk around trying to spot a Stonechat or flush a Snipe (or betterstill Jack Snipe) but that particular cupboard was bare. At the Horse field aLittle Owl was in the usual Tree. So two pairs on the patch perhaps, but theydon’t give themselves up easily, unlike the Jack Daniels which is giving itselfup very easily as I type.

Fisherman Fiend

2011-11-30T18:43:00.001Z

It’s been a couple of weeks since I visited the patch properand I was looking forward to it, I’m glad to say, less is definitely more. Wasit to be the reservoirs or the marsh though? If I say it should have been themarsh you will know that I choose the reservoirs!

I noticed that Pete had written in the log that he had seena ‘small Falcon, not a Kestrel’ a couple of times on Sunday, I think hisnatural caution has been further tempered by the fact that Merlin would be apatch tick (if he keeps one) for him. I also heard from Kevin, who suddenlyappeared behind me on the Lockwood, that Pete had seen the Mediterranean Gullon factory roofs by the Banbury recently, so both those species are using thefull length of the patch it would seem, certainly they are hit and miss intheir appearances.

The Lockwood is still very low but pumping has begun to fillit so the edge won’t last long, not that it’s pulling in much.

Winter Duck are in short supply, in fact wintering Duck arein fairly short supply compared to a few weeks ago when we had vast flocks ofmoulting Aythyas, they must have all dispersed or headed back North in the mildweather. I did see a female Goldeneye on No.1 and couple of newly returnedShelduck on No.5, back from their moulting grounds off Germany. Possibly fromGermany, though we will never know, were another couple of red colour-ringedGulls, a Common Gull and a Lesser Black-backed Gull both on the bank of theLockwood but waaay to far away to read any numbers.

A Chiffchaff and perhaps two Kingfishers were calling fromthe Lea by the Ferry Boat Inn but none of them gave themselves up for scrutiny.

On the Southern section the only action of any consequenceinvolved screeching Ring-necked Parakeets, some seemingly paired up andprospecting nest holes, presumably for next year, it’s not that mild!

I checked the Coppermill stream edge for any Water Rail, afew of which are now on site, though not on this occasion in sight, winteringBitterns, too mild yet? And roosting Long-eared Owls, just a fantasy really. Alook on the East Warwick revealed a Fisherman walking through the small Reedbed in the South-west corner, if he flushed a Bittern I might have looked onthis act more kindly but he didn’t so I think it was very irresponsible. One ofhis brethren on No.4 decided that he would cast his Fly just as I got behindhim; I kindly requested that he look first before he had someone’s eye out, helaughed! At least we don’t have Dog walkers over here....yet.

Wizard!

2011-11-27T16:26:00.001Z

It was the normal tale of a Sunday afternoon, the spirit waswilling(ish) but the flesh was definitely weak. I really had intended to go outon the patch (after deciding not to go looking for a Rose-coloured Starling forthe Essex list I am not really keeping) but it has been a hectic week and afterbeing out all morning some food was the first priority, second priority was justa few minutes of folding the arms and shutting the eyes, third priority didn’treally stand a chance after that.

I couldn’t make my mind up anyway whether it should havebeen the reservoirs to have a chance on the Merlin or the marsh to find sometrickle down ‘sibes’. As ever my indecision led to no decision.

So there I was staring out of the back window, whilstfinishing off the last series of 24, as if it is not exciting enough! Checkingthe Gulls mostly moving North to the Chingford reservoir roost, trying to checkthe occasional non-Starling Passerine zipping by, which are usually Chaffinchesapart from the ones that look really interesting but are moving too fast or aretoo far away to identify, when out of the blue a small whippy-winged Falconappears from the North-west, the direction of the marsh/reservoirs and fliesstraight through, giving me enough time to get the bins on it and then run tothe front of the house to see it carry straight down the valley and on towardsthe Olympic Park.

Not my first Merlin on the patch, I had a female whizz pastme near No.1 reservoir on 2^nd Dec ember 1988 and a, probable male,blast North viewed from the house on 23^rd September 2005, butcertainly the most prolonged views. I guess it was the male that has been seena couple of times recently on the filter beds and the Lockwood.

It didn’t seem to be hunting but looked rather purposeful init’s flight and, being 15:30, I suspect it could have been on its way to roost somewhereto the South, worth keeping an eye out further down the valley East India DockBasin maybe? Assuming there is just one Bird locally (they are pretty scarce inthe Lea Valley) then it certainly has quite a range.

Certainly a magic sighting. (sorry, I could have said itcast a spell over me)

On this date:

27 11 1982 13:30-16:00 Bright, calm and cold; 150 Shoveler on the Lower Maynard.6-8 Short-eared Owls along natural bank of the Lockwood including 2 together, 1buzzing a Redshank on horse field. Seen hunting, roosting in bush and onground, yellow eyes noted. Also on the Lockwood a female Goldeneye. On No.5 a Black-necked Grebe, showing yellowyeyes, presumably a juvenile, also a party of 5 Little Grebes and a Ring-neckedParakeet over, high. 1 Kingfisher on the stream by the Coppermill. AnotherShort-eared Owl on the Marsh.

27 11 1989 1 Common Sandpiper still on the East Warwick.

Site #8 Northern Section Walthamstow Reservoirs

2011-11-23T22:20:00.001Z

Access to the Northern Section of the reservoirs is via thegate opposite the car park by the Fishermans Lodge in Ferry Lane. The code tothe gate is by the permit desk, don’t worry you won’t get locked in!

The Ferry Boat pub is next to the gate and has a reasonableselection of Beers, the food is middling which is more than one could say aboutthe service, though it seems to be under new management and the staff certainlyseemed much more with it on my last visit than previously, maybe the food has improved too, ithas a nice Beer garden overlooking the reservoirs and is quite a pleasantextension to a Summer visit if you have the time. (just checked some recent reviews...oh dear!)

As you enter the Northern complex the River Lea or one ofits components flows South along your Left hand side. The Scrub and Bushesalong its edges can often hold Warblers and even occasionally a Flycatcher orChat. Small Red-eyed Damselflies have recently been found on the floating Weed.Immediately to the North is a Weir which is the haunt of many Moorhens andsometimes a pair of Egyptian Geese, Little Egrets roost in the dead Treeopposite on occasion.

The reservoir on your Right is the Low Maynard and behindthat is the High Maynard, which is higher and has a couple of islands. There isa Tern raft on the former. The Low Maynard has natural banks and overhangingTrees under which such things as Smew and Kingfishers have been known to skulk.The High Maynard is concrete sided and is more likely to hold the odd Wader.

The factories to the East used to hold breeding BlackRedstarts, many years ago, they occasionally still turn up but seldom lingerlong. The overflow channel which forms the Eastern boundary to the site is bestwhen nearly empty and can hold feeding Little Egrets and Waders, the latterespecially in cold weather.

The Lockwood is reached by walking North and climbing thestairs. It is the biggest and possibly the best reservoir on site. Its Banksare concrete, apart from the West bank, which is natural. If you are going tofind Waders this is the most likely reservoir, the Northern end is mostfavoured as it is seldom disturbed, Fisherman prefer the other reservoirs itseems. You really need to walk the whole thing as scoping will not revealanything small at the furthest reaches. There is a Tern raft on here too, in2011 Black-headed Gulls bred for the first time. Winter Duck and Grebes often favourthis reservoir.

Not to be forgotten is the prospect for skywatching inseason, the best vantage point is halfway up the East bank by the squareconcrete blockhouse, it gives an elevated 360° view. Don’t forget to lookstraight up too, it is amazing how constant scanning, even by more than one setof eyes fail to pick up overhead migrants until they are....overhead! MarshHarrier, Red Kite, Buzzard, Osprey are all annual but you have to put the timein. Spring and Autumn are obviously best but really anything can fly over atanytime.

Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Peregrine all breed nearby and areoften seen, Hobby is becoming scarcer in recent years but it only takes onepair to breed nearby and they can then be seen daily during the Summer.

The Grassy banks are good for pulling in migratingPasserines, from Lapland Bunting and Snow Bunting in the Winter (both rare) toflocks of Yellow Wagtails, Meadow Pipits, Wheatears etc on passage. Short-earedOwls have wintered in the past and roosted on the grassy slopes along withLong-eared Owls in the Lea side bushes, the first named is a scarce passagebird and the last named a mere memory though it would be worth checking in Owlyears.

Gulls, Gulls, Gulls

2011-11-16T11:52:00.001Z

The Little Gull seems to have gone, after at least 8 days.

The Mediterranean Gull seems to be being seen a bit more often, best bet is the filter beds off Coppermill Lane but in truth it can get anywhere.

And Sundays ringed Herring Gull.....

I Got this reply from Richard Thompson:

"Many Thanks for the sighting of one of my birds. If you don't already know I manage the RSPCA wildlife centre in Fairlight and we release back to the wild previously sick, injured and orphan wildlife, many of which are gulls

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Rspca-Mallydams-Wood-50th-Anniversary/118870988183041

http://www.rspca.org.uk/allaboutanimals/wildlife/centres/mallydams/wildlife

I have released over 3,000 gulls in the last 12 years, most are Herring gulls (Larus argentatus,) but I also ring Lesser Black-backed (Larus fuscus) and Great Black-backed Gulls (Larus marinus). All birds are released from Pett Level, East Sussex 50:55N. 00:42E. I also ring wild birds and many are gull chicks.

White darvic ring A7JR, (metal ring no. GR14048) was ringed as a juvenile on 21^st October 2010.

This bird has been seen twice before, once at Pitsea on 29^thOctober 2011 and once at Rainham on 12^th November 2011.

Many thanks again for reporting this bird to me."

As for the Common Gull, Paul Hawkins kindly did some digging for me and came up with this:

"This is one of Sönke Martens birds. Red ring with white code (Axxx) with Helgoland-metal ring on other leg.

note 1 : used letter is "A" at beginning.
note 2 : examples for used codes are A102, A467, AC99, AE54, A99X, A55N, AN67, A5A4 etc"

Interesting that we are getting Gulls from Pitsea and Rainham, not to mention Helgoland, it really does raise the possibility of almost any Gull species being seen at Walthamstow!

Bird on a Wire

2011-11-13T17:30:00.001Z

I was a little late meeting up with Lol on the Lockwood,mostly due to the traffic; they’re digging up Ferry Lane, again. Don’t get mestarted on Clancy Docwra, I thought they had finished digging up the borough afew years ago now they are at it again and it is doing my pressure no good atall, the cold tap is just a trickle of its old self.

I digress, the Lockwood level was as low as last week, (maybethat’s where the pressure drop is coming from) the only bird of note was myfirst Goldeneye of the Autumn, a female. The 1^st winter Little Gull wasstill on the Low Maynard, as last week, still feeding just as frenetically and still eluding photography.

As we entered the Southern section one of the Water Bailiffsstopped to tell us of an Osprey about two weeks ago, we were just by the bridgethat goes across to the track between No.1 & No.2, which is just as wellbecause at that point a Woodcock came out from the bushes there and flew over us toward theLea, another few moments and we would have missed it. Next up was a malePeregrine flying North and eventually landing on the crane by Tottenham Hale.

Icajoled Lol into walking round the whole of the West Warwick, tempting him withpromises of Redpolls in the Alders, as ever I lied. We did get a Water Railcalling from the Coppermill stream at the South-east end of the West Warwickfor our troubles and a couple of ringed Gulls, a Herring Gull with a whiteDarvic reading (as best as we could see) A7JR and a Common Gull reading A45A ona Red Darvic. I will report back if I find out where they have come from but Isuspect a nearby tip rather than Vladivostok.

A Green Woodpecker was balancing very well on overhead railway cables, not something I have seen one do before. There was a Wigeon on the East Warwick and a high count of11 Ring-necked Parakeets over No.5. A very pleasant, if tiring, walk in thefine November weather with a strange absence of any great Passerine activity.Maybe it’s just too mild to move anything down our way yet. Hopefully the currentspell will continue and allow some tasty wintering Sibe to come our way.

From Siberia to the Mediterranean

2011-11-11T16:10:00.001Z

I thought about the patch today, while twitching the Bow SiberianChiffchaff in fact. I probably may have strolled over there if the little devilhadn’t have given me the run-around for over two hours! It showed well, callingconstantly for nigh on half an hour when it deigned to put in an appearance. Thatleft little time for Walthamstow, after the Tesco run.

I was sitting at the back window in the late afternoongloom, which looked remarkably similar to the midday and morning gloom when Isuddenly realised that I had left my Bins in the car, I’ll pop out and get themin a minute, I thought, I won’t be needing them in these conditions, at whichpoint I looked up to see an adult winter-plumaged Mediterranean Gull flyingaround the factory roof opposite with a few other Gulls, in fact it landed on theroof a couple of times, thus coming off the ‘seen in flight from the house’list and getting itself straight onto the ‘seen on the deck from the house’list. It’s the first adult that I have seen from the house the last two beingfirst winters, with another first winter just a couple of hundred meters awayin the local park.

This was a Bird I had not quite given up on for the patchthis year, as an adult, probably the same one, has been seen by the filter bedsand by Ferry lane in the last couple of weeks, in fact it could be the WansteadFlats Bird too. I have been on the lookout for it and decided I must check thefilter beds in the mid-late afternoon in case it is dropping in there for thepre-roost gathering, no need now, I shall have to think of other targets forthe year.

After considering this year to be a bit mediocre patch-wisethe last few weeks have seen both the patch and me adding a number of species (totals145/126 respectively) and now we are both only 5 species off last year’s record.Can it be done?

Not the Knot!

2011-11-06T20:20:00.003Z

Photos of this mornings Walthamstow bird.

Pete L

There’s No Bunting Like Snow Bunting

2011-11-05T19:36:00.000Z

I knew before I arrived that this morning’s Snow Bunting haddone a bunk but decided to have a stroll around the Lockwood anyway, you neverknow it might return to the scene of the crime. It didn’t, but the good newswas that I got a patch year tick nonetheless. Atop the Lockwood I was struck bythe light flight of a small Gull-like Bird, that little Gull looks like a Tern,thought I, its November this could be good, it was, but not that good, thelittle Gull-like Bird was in fact a Little Gull. A first winter Bird, and the firstfor the patch this year surprisingly, it hawked up and down the Low Maynard forat least a couple of hours.

After upgrading the software on my phone I find that the zoom feature on the, fairly poor, camera is suddenly not available anymore, could be that the quality of my photos will deteriorate from now on (I can hear Lol asking if that’s possible) but here is the best.

The level on the Lockwood was the lowest I can remember, naturallynothing had been attracted to it (since this morning’s brief Snow Bunting) butit may yet come good. There was just 1 Common Sandpiper, soon to be a winteringCommon Sandpiper I hope. 2 Green Sandpipers were in the North Channel. Also inthe North Channel were 3 Little Egrets a couple of Herons and a bunch of Gullsall standing motionless around an abandoned football, it felt like I had just interruptedsome sort of Avian tournament.

There were a couple of dozen Teal at the North end of theLockwood and as I scoped them they took off, at which point it appeared thatone of them, may have had a vertical white flank bar, I watched them fly aroundfor a bit expecting them to land in the middle, which a handful did, the othersflew dementedly like each one was being personally pursued by a flock ofPeregrines. I gave up watching in the end and decided to catch up with them onthe South bound leg of the circuit, needless to say they were nowhere to befound.

The South side of the complex held no surprises though theDuck are looking a bit smarter now, coming out of eclipse. A reasonable numberof Shoveler and Gadwall were on the East Warwick. On No.5 there was aninteresting hybrid ‘athya’ probably a Ferruginous x Pochard, I tried for a photobut the light was non-existent.

As I passed the island on No.2 somebody let off a largefirework in Walthamstow and, despite the distance, everything on the islandwent up. It was interesting to see how much stuff was roosting on such a smallisland, hundreds of Woodpigeons, Crows, Gulls, Herons and Egrets, the latercalling ‘aarrk’ in annoyance, not a sound I have heard from them before.Eventually most things settled down again but I suspect a disturbed nightssleep will be had on the patch tonight.

On this date:

05 11 1983 Walthamstow 13:30-16:30 Wind NW2, misty; 2 male & 1 female Teal onNo.3. 1 Gadwall on High Maynard, 1 male Goldeneye on Lockwood. Adultwinter-plumage Dunlin and 1 ‘scandinavian’ Rock Pipit also on Lockwood. 3 Grey Wagtail.

05 11 1987 Walthamstow; 1 Black-necked Grebe on No.3 reservoir.

Be Careful What You Wish For

2011-10-28T12:34:00.001+01:00

My face feels like someone has been playing Football withit, how do people get addicted to plastic surgery? I think they need theirbumps felt, though perhaps that’s what they get out of it. Despite hardlysleeping for the last three nights a bit of viz-migging seemed apt on such abright clear morning.

It is over 6 years since I added Ring-necked Parakeet to thehouse list, a heard only Bird. During that time they have gone from strength tostrength on the patch but I have never had so much as a glimpse from the house,I knew it would only be a matter of time and today that time came, 4Ring-necked Parakeets flew low North around 10:00. It will no doubt become aregular sight before long and the novelty will probably wear thin quite quicklybut for now...woohoo!

Other highlights were a continuing trickle of Woodpigeons,though not in such numbers as a few days ago, 3 separate Skylarks, a MeadowPipit, a couple of Mistle Thrushes and a handful of Chaffinches.

It was most pleasant in the sunshine, for the end of October,and I was enjoying the lack of wind and especially the lack of screaming kidsfrom the school over the back until the man with the leaf blower arrived, thatwas my cue to retreat indoors and play with my new RBA app.

Being an old codger I remember Nancy’s cafe and the constantdialling to get through to someone and then the delicate dance required to getthe most up to date news, you couldn’t appear too keen, that wouldn’t be cooland it often took a bit of coaxing to get the ‘gen’ from whoever happened toanswer as they too didn’t want to come across as excited by anything and thestock response was ‘nothing about’.

The first automated phone line was a slight improvement asit was available at any time, though it too was often engaged, the maindrawback was that it was run by a guy who gave preference to his buddies whenit came to the news and you would have to listen to ‘Grey Wagtail, Dipper andCommon Sandpiper’ that someone had phoned in from their Welsh holiday beforeyou got to the real rarities.

When the Birdline crew took over it became much moreprofessional but soon became a premium number and hence much more expensive.This was of course before most people had mobile phones and the problem then,if you were on the road as I often was, was trying to find somewhere to parkand a working phonebox.

I discussed with Richard Millington the then new technologyof pagers, the advantage being that you would get the news as it broke, ratherthan having to make multiple calls every day, he said it would never catch onas only a few Birders would be paranoid enough to be interested.

About a year later RBA launched their pager service and itslowly became an instant success. I was one of the first twenty or so Birdersto get one, in late Autumn 1991. At first if you got 10 messages a day that wasgood! A few years ago a SMS service was added but it never floated my boat. Abouta year ago I discussed the possibility of some sort of app, now that pagers arebecoming a bit passé, and smart phones a bit smarter. This week the time cameand RBA launched ‘Bird Alert Pro’

Last night it took me 5 hours to download the upgrade for thesoftware on my phone to enable me to get the app but now it’s working, (seemsfine on 3G too, so hopefully will work in the field OK) and for the first timein 20 years I have switched off the pager (scary!) I wonder what will be thenext development.

On this date: 28 10 1989 1 or 2 Wheatears on the Lockwood also 1 Ruff and 4 Lapwings over.

...Ate a Hearty Breakfast

2011-10-27T11:15:00.001+01:00

....and then went outside for some fresh air, but sadly thenew nose is not working (yet). If you’ve wondered what happened to MichaelJackson’s old nose, and surely we all have, I think it has just been graftedonto my face, it’s certainly darker and broader than it used to be, added tothat it’s filled with lots of stuff you really don’t want to know about!

The fresh air was not the only thing lacking, no migrationwas taking place this morning, the sky was as grey and miserable as my face soI packed it in and went upstairs to do some paperwork and window gazing, immediately4 Mistle Thrushes and a couple of Finches flew past.

If you were worried that the lack of a blog entry yesterdaymeant I had slipped away under the surgeon’s knife on Tuesday, fear not (andthanks for all the cards, calls and chocolates that I assume are still stuck inthe post) it was more to do with adding Shore Lark to my London list which tookconsiderably longer than it ought due to not being able to drive and thereforehaving to get two lifts, two buses, 2 DLR’s and 2 Tube trains and having to return to site after dipping in the morning. Amazingly I feltfine until I got home to Nurse W’s stern ticking off, something about irresponsibilityetc. etc. and the three things I now have to stick up my nose (and finger isnot one of them).

I was planning an assault on the patch this afternoon butthe assault on my face has put paid to that one today, I think I’ll just go andhave some Chicken Soup and carry on looking out of the window.

The Condemned Man...

2011-10-25T12:07:00.000+01:00

A bit of vis-migging this morning, hoping for Crossbill, as usual, getting none, as usual. Woodpigeons were moving East in flocks of about 50, strangely, I counted about 400. Redwings were going West in smaller flocks, probably c200 in total. A single Mistle Thrush went South and to complete all the points of the compass a Lapwing went North, quite scarce from the house.

I packed it in around 09:45 and went inside to watch the last episode of Spooks on the iplayer, part of it was filmed where the Tilbury Semi-P was, if you're interested. Shortly after it finished I was gazing out of the window and spied a lone Goose heading North. It was not one of the usual suspects (Canada and Greylag, neither of which are that common any more, I think the Canada's have changed their flight path as they used to be quite predictable in the evenings) nor was it one of the local plastic Geese (Barnacle and Red-breasted).

It was clearly smaller than Canada, had a black tail, white rump and vent and as it turned slightly I got a small area of grey on the leading edge of the wing and a bit of orangey pink around the bill area, the general feel was of a dark Goose. A quick check of the Collin's confirmed my suspicion. White-fronted Goose. New for the house and patch.

I'm off to have surgery now so if their are no more posts you can assume I passed away under the anaesthetic. If not see you tomorrow.

PW

Coming up Rosy

2011-10-23T17:10:00.003+01:00

My track record on Birds of a reddish hue has not been agood one of late (Rufous, Ruby and Scarlet are all ‘color non gratia’ currently)however today all that changed with a Lesser Redpoll perched up in theWaterworks N.R. it’s a small start but perhaps it bodes well for next week’sAmerican Redstart.

A couple of Snipe were snoozing in one of the beds, a coupleof Wigeon and Teal swam in another, some Magpies were trying to murder one oftheir own on the cobble track and a Vole/Shrew ran across my path, one day oneof them will be slow enough to identify. The Rat I saw later posed no suchproblems.

I later walked around the Pitch’n’Putt and eventually strayedacross the Friends Bridge and through the Middlesex Filter Beds. I know it’snot on the patch but hey! That’s the reckless sort of Birder that all my recenttwitching has made me. Naturally that’s where my best Birds were, or would havebeen if I could have clinched them, a silhouetted dark Thrush that could havebeen a Ring Ouzel and a ‘something’ unseen calling ‘choowee’ in with a Titflock. That’ll learn me to go off patch.

There was nothing much on the half of the marsh that I did,but on the back paddock there were a couple of White Wagtails, 20+ Linnet andc.10 Mistle Thrushes.

Patchwork Quit

2011-10-15T20:33:00.001+01:00

Not quite. Not yet. In fact not really.

I thought I would work out how many times I have visited thepatch over the years, it has of course waxed and waned along with my enthusiasmfor local Birding, also my earlier records do not necessarily have a note ofall visits, unlike my more recent notes, which almost always do.

The results...TaDa!

You’re impressed, I can tell. It has made me reappraise myquitting patch work, I most definitely won’t but I will be more the Dog and notso much the Tail in future, though the blogging is definitely going. I reckon, making allowances for gaps in thedata, that I had it about right in the 90’s. So about one visit a fortnight isa good balance, probably more so in the Winter and Spring, certainly less so inthe Summer and let’s just watch the weather and play it by ear in the Autumn.

Whenever people ask; “Wouldn’t you like a job involving Birding?” I always answer certainly not! Birdingis my escape from day to day living, even the nice bits, it is my way ofswitching off and relaxing. Lately patch work has become less of the escape andmore of the ‘day to day’.....solution? Switch it round. Do less enjoy more. (Maybethat’s where ‘less is more’ comes from)

The only problem of course is that it makes it a bit lesslikely that I will get so many patch ticks (err, how many did I get this year,with all my hard work, oh yes! 1.) I will have to rely on the generosity ofothers to a) find them and b) let me know.

Today after being stood down from DEFCON 1 (Rufous-tailedRobin in Norfolk...gone) I decided on a second attempt at Red-flanked Bluetailin Kent, having dipped one yesterday, this too was gone, so plan C it was, Ishould go and have another look for the Wilsonish Snipe on the Waterworks N.R. naturally this typical indecisiveness,led to sitting at the computer and staring out of the window which, as often asnot it seems nowadays, led to me seeing a Buzzard slowly wandering South aftera couple of encounters with the local Crows and a Sparrowhawk. Yesterday I had6-7 Swallows go West and a week ago 17 Redpolls likewise.

Patch work is dead, long live the patch.

On this date: 15 10 20000 25+ ‘alba’ Wagtails in SeymourPark, quite a few of which were White Wagtails, 20+ Meadow Pipits onWalthamstow Marsh and 3+ Stonechats.

An Exaltation of Skylarks

2011-10-13T17:47:00.004+01:00

The collective noun, apparently. It’s probably about rightas far as Walthamstow goes. Today I had more Skylarks on the patch than in thelast 5 years put together, parties of 2,5,1,1, all moving North.

An Exasperation of Larks doesn’t quite have the same ring.

I have been off the patch quite a bit lately; you can takethat whatever way you want. To say my enthusiasm has waned is not far from thetruth. I have put in a stack of effort this year and the results have been,well, unstartling. I know the whole of the South-east has not had an especiallygood year with the weather often being too fine or too poor for deliveringmigrants but Walthamstow seems to have underperformed by anyone’s standards,let alone mine.

I have just finished tallying up my spreadsheet to send offto the county recorder and realised how bad it has been, my best finds includeDunlin, Whimbrel, Red-crested Pochard and Black Tern, I say include but reallythat’s it. I’ve also seen Osprey, Marsh Harrier and Short-eared Owl found byothers but it’s just not enough, I need more.

I have never done patch yearlisting before and think I nowknow the reason! It has been educational however, over the last 2-3 years I nowknow that the patch gets about 130-150 species a year and if I work it hard Iwill get to see about 120-130 of them. More than 100 of them will be the sameold same old that turn up every year, a handful will be species that you willonly see on the patch every 5-10 years and a much smaller handful will bescarcities, note not rarities, they really are rare here.

Last week I decided I couldn’t do Cold Turkey any longer andwent to Cornwall via Essex and also visited Suffolk. It was fantastic. I sawBirds, lots of Birds, very many of them were scarce, and quite a few were evenRARE. In three days I saw more than the whole of the year at Walthamstow. I seawatched,twitched and found my own Birds too, it was pure joy.

Therefore my new year’s resolution (what do you mean it’sonly October? I could be Jewish) is ditch the patch and go and see some properBirds. It will of course mean ditching the blog too, which was only everintended to be a bit of an experiment and was meant to enthuse the vast cadreof Walthamstow Birders(!) into a mass of blogging and birding team work but hasended up with mostly me whining on about the place. It has become the crueltask master I never wanted it to be, having to come in from a hard slog on thepatch and then enthuse about Skylarks for 1000 words....

Anyhoo, what of today? It was actually not bad, after a fewdays away and not having Birded the patch for a couple of weeks I was sort oflooking forward to it (hypocritical? Moi?). A spin around the Waterworks N.R.was productive with a clear arrival of Blackbirds, a few Song Thrushes and acouple of parties of Redwings. Just a single Chiffchaff on the small Passerinefront. 3 Wigeon in the first bed were nice. I had only just been thinking how ‘Scilly-like’the place looked with the small clumps of Sallows, little pools, Reeds etc whenI saw a Snipe in one of the other beds, at least you don’t have to worry aboutWilson’s Snipe here I thought, at which point the Bird came out from the Reedsand made me stop what I had been thinking, it did look just like a Wilson’s, justthen it started preening and I was hoping it would spread its tail, flash it’sunderwing, show it’s trailing edge and make me famous, I reached for mycameraphone and it walked into the Reeds. Just imagine if it turns out to be aWilson’s....I might have to carry on watching the patch, hmm! (It’s anobviously Grey Bird and it’s in the third bed on the left as you enter the hideif you’re interested, I will certainly keep an eye open for it)

Later on the reservoirs I met up with Lol and we walked theLockwood, 9 Skylark, maybe 20+ Meadow Pipits and 5 Lapwings went North. Therewere about 30 Teal on the banks and 9 Little Egrets feeding around the edge ofthe High Maynard along with a group of fishing Cormorants, both a littleunusual and possibly due to the murky conditions earlier not being conducive tofeeding further afield.

On the Southern section a Common Sandpiper on the EastWarwick was the highlight.

On this date: 13 10 01 A 1^st winter Grey Phalarope showedwell on the Banbury this afternoon, occasionally down to 10m, also CommonSandpiper.

Site #7 Southern Section Walthamstow Reservoirs

2011-10-01T22:00:00.001+01:00

To access the reservoirs you need to enter the gates by theFishermans Lodge, opposite the Ferry Boat Inn, at 2 Forest Road, Tottenham,London N17 9NH and turn immediately left for the spacious car park and smallpermit office.

Permit information is available here:

http://www.thameswater.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/corp/hs.xsl/8986.htm

Go round the red barrier and walk South onto the reservoirs.The two reservoirs on the Western edge of the site are the West Warwick and theEast Warwick. The West Warwick is accessed by going under a very low railwaybridge; it has a natural bank and extensive Reeds around the edge, in SummerReed Warblers breed. A Purple Heron was seen in the Reeds a few years ago. Thisreservoir does not seem to attract many Fishermen and is quite undisturbed; theWestern bank borders the River Lea and is fringed with Alders, it should proveattractive to Winter Finches.

Back under the railway is the East Warwick; this is aconcrete edged reservoir and often holds Common Sandpipers, though these areeasily flushed. Other Waders are also possible and sometimes these get on theisland. Previously Wooded it was occasionally the haunt of a WinteringFerruginous Duck, another is well overdue. The island now is the site ofbreeding Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls and always has loafingCormorants, Herons, Gulls, Geese and Swans. It is overlooked by a hide, whichis not at all necessary for viewing. It might be useful if it rains. It wasusually locked but may now be open.

The Coppermill stream runs through the middle of the siteand divides the Warwicks from the numbered reservoirs. Kingfishers are oftenheard and frequently seen along here. Water Rails winter along the edges butare far more often heard than seen, once a Bittern roosted in the Reedy edge.

No.1 reservoir house the Heronry on its wooded island andKingfisher sometimes breed on the Southern tip. No.2 houses the majority of thesites breeding Little Egrets on its island, a few pairs are on No.1. It isworth coming along in June to hear the weird bubbling calls coming from thecolony. No.3 is connected by a narrow channel and also has an island on whichShelduck breed, like Little Egret this is a fairly new colonizer and isgradually increasing.

The footpath between Nos.2 & 3 is well vegetated withTrees including Sycamore and Poplars and supports Tits and Warblers in season.Reed Warblers and the ever decreasing Reed Bunting breed around this area.Ring-necked Parakeets have moved in recently and may breed. Both Green andGreat Spotted Woodpecker are common. There is another hide at the South-westerncorner of No.3, it is famous for it’s Spiders. You may see a Kingfisher herethough being out in the open is a better bet.

No.4 reservoir is another concrete edged basin and isheavily fished; it sometimes has Waders around the edge and always holds largenumbers of diving Duck. No.5 is similar but has two islands with nestingCormorants. Being the largest reservoir on this Southern side it more oftenattracts the shyer species such as Smew and Goosander.

In reality anything can turn up on any of these reservoirsand their shrubby banks from Great Northern Diver to Woodlark and Firecrest to GreatWhite Egret.

Walking and Talking

2011-09-29T22:38:00.001+01:00

It’s the name of a new Channel 4 comedy apparently and itwas being filmed on the patch today. It’s not the first time the patch has seencelebrity action. A couple of years ago we had Chris Packham and Simon King atan event at the Waterworks.

I even encountered Bill Oddie filming Cormorants on No.5once, I got chatting to the production team and they asked if I would do a bitto camera, I was a bit reluctant ( still get recognized 25 years after doing abit about a successful Little Bustard twitch on the BBC Nine O’clock News, thepaps are hell!) but said I would do it, funnily enough Bill was even morereluctant, I suppose it was his program after all.

As you might have guessed no Birding for me today and, apartfrom a nearby Goshawk over Clapton, the patch is pretty quite. It will surelychange when the weather breaks down....and I will be ready.

On this date: 29 09 07 A Whinchat in the Cowfield on Walthamstow Marsh along with 5 Stonechats, another Stonechat on theNorth Marsh. 7 Chiffchaffs, 1 Blackcap. A ‘commic’ Tern on No. 5 Reservoir. Onthe Filter Beds an adult presumed hybrid Herring x Lesser Black-backedGull. Dull pink legs and a stocky buildtogether with a mantle between Yellow-legged and Lesser Black-backed in colour.

29 09 09 At 13:15 a Buzzard flew in low from the South at Middlesex Filter Bedsand was mobbed mercilessly by Crows, it gained height moving off South but,presumably the same individual, went North at 13:30. A 2^nd Buzzardseen going North-west over Walthamstow Marsh at 14:35 also came in from theSouth. At least 15 Chiffchaffs and a Meadow Pipit across the marsh today.

Blue Skies Smilin' At Me

2011-09-28T17:40:00.000+01:00

Nothin' but blue skies do I see.

Well almost nothing. A Buzzard came in from the North-westand headed towards the Lockwood, in doing so it put up scores of roosting Gullsand c.300 Corvids (I didn’t know we had that many in the vicinity!) A few ofthe latter chased it round and round before it retreated back North.

A large female Peregrine flew in without attracting anyattention, perhaps they were all worn out harassing the Buzzard or more likelyfeared the wrath of a quick Falcon in contrast to the soft target of a slow Buteo.The Peregrine flew up onto one of the Pylons North of the Lockwood for a bitbut later went off hunting to the East.

A few sightings of Kestrel and Sparrowhawk didn’t make upfor the lack of any large soaring Birds. Later another Buzzard appeared overthe ‘ArcelorMittal Orbit’ that’s the hideous sculpture by the Olympic stadiumif you don’t know. It thermalled about before going off West.

The only things on the deck were a tired Lapwing sitting onthe East bank of the Lockwood a Meadow Pipit that dropped in by my feet and aWheatear.

There were plenty of Insects moving though, Migrant Hawkers,hawking as they migrated, Red Admirals sailing through and Silver Y’sshimmering on by. I suspect the Indian Summer conditions may bring some decentBirds in but we are probably going to have to wait for it to break down beforewe can start finding any of them. About 4 days time would be good as I amunavailable till then!

Duck, Super!

2011-09-24T18:06:00.000+01:00

Early morning dawned bright but cool, the sun was promising but as it rose in the sky it disappeared behind the clouds, in fact I’m sure we never quite got the promised mini-heatwave today.

The Birds lived up, probably should say down, to the weather. Seven Common Sandpipers on the Lockwood were mostly new in, as numbers have diminished lately. 2 Green Sandpipers in the North channel were not new in but were new for me this Autumn, I just haven’t been able to connect with any since the late Spring passage. A nice surprise was a close encounter with one of the local Pheasants, normally seen, or, more usually heard at long range on the allotments at the North end of the Lockwood or on Tottenham and Walthamstow marsh, this fine male was pretty fearless and came within 20m.

Best of the rest was a Wheatear, plenty of Grey Wagtails, some Teal and a couple of Sparrowhawks. Strangely no Hirundines at all! The Water Bailiffs were stocking up the Low Maynard and I took the opportunity of a photo with this normally hidden creature of the depths.

Later after lunch I tried my luck on the Southern section of the reservoirs, (no marsh for me today....see previous post!) hoping for a sight of yesterdays reported Spotted Flycatcher and Goldcrest, I may well have heard the ‘crest in the large Conifers by the Southern (locked) gate but it defiantly refused to show itself. Sadly no sign of the Spotted Flycatcher either, just a handful of Chiffchaffs and a Blackcap representing any semblance of migration, still not a Hirundine to be found I was reduced to looking at Squirrels.

The best surprise was refinding, in the exact same place so not a great piece of Birding skill, the Mandarin. I think it was last seen, by me, three and a half weeks ago on the island on No.2. I suspected then that it might be a male, over that period it has been hiding up and moulting, I don’t think there is too much doubt now.

On this date: 24 09 2003 A rare garden sighting of a Dunnock this morning was probably more of a surprise than the Osprey in the afternoon, attention to the latter was drawn by the 30 Crows harassing it.

Bird Finding Made Easy?

2011-09-23T18:29:00.000+01:00

I was at the paddocks by Walthamstow marsh today (saw Meadow Pipits!) when a tannoy announcement floated over on the breeze and I picked out the words "Peregrine Falcon". Whaaat? I legged it to the sports field behind the ice rink where there is a large 'Countryside Live' event including falconry and bird ringing. The buggers at the door reckoned I was beyond schoolchild age and therefore not allowed in until Saturday/Sunday.

Paul B

http://www.leevalleypark.org.uk/en/content/cms/events/countryside_live_wk/countryside_live_wk.aspx

Countryside Live Weekend

24 - 25 September 2011

10.00 to 16.30

Leyton Marsh, Behind Lee Valley Ice Centre,

Lea Bridge Road, Leyton, London E10 7QL

The Countryside comes to town! Don't miss a weekend packed with wildlife and countryside activities.

The event has something for all ages and all interests - so whether you're an avid birdwatcher, a budding wildlife enthusiast or you just want to learn more about the Countryside on your doorstep, there will be something for you, your friends and family!

Activity packed arena programme including - the Sheep Show, birds of prey and sheepdog displays!
Mini beast hunting
Traditional crafts
Wildlife information, organisations and exhibitors
Natural crafts and children's activities
and much, much more!

Adults £3.00, Children FREE!

Watch this space for a list of the organisations you can visit at this event.

You can find more information about this event on the following pages:

Arena Programme

Activities

Wildlife Information, Organisations and Exhibitors

How to Get There

Get closer to nature in the heart of London

Exhibitors welcome - To register your interest in exhibiting at the event, or to receive updates please e-mail events@leevalleypark.org.uk or call 08456 770 600.

Countryside Live

Flash Mob

2011-09-17T14:58:00.001+01:00

It was Open House day in London today; Walthamstow Wetlands, as Walthamstow reservoirs is now apparently being called, was to feature. I assumed that Open House referred to buildings but not so it applies to places too. Jamie P had asked if I would co-lead with him as part of the London Wildlife Trust party. As well as the Open House people also coming along were Thames Water officials, Waltham Forest officers and, as it turned out, a fair few visitors.

I was introduced as the ‘local Bird expert’ and as ‘being here every day’ not quite right on both counts but close enough in comparison to everyone else. I never quite know what to do when guiding non-birders; I mean what are they expecting? Have they been spoiled by David Attenborough and wonder where the swirling flocks of Flamingo’s are? Do they want tame Ducks to swim up to them to be fed? Do they want to see something rare and unusual or just sheer number of species? My fears were allayed when the ‘leader’ explained that the ‘Tree Expert, Buildings Expert and Bird Expert’ would be available for questions. At least now I would know what people wanted.

Most of the crowd were obviously there to get a glimpse of the normally closed off reservoirs, the odd historic building and just to generally take in the scenery but as the morning wore on a number of guests asked Birdy questions which I did my best to answer.

It was decided that we guides should wear hi-vis jackets; maybe this was to scare off any Birds that were still in the vicinity of the 90 strong crowd, if so it certainly had the desired effect. There were a few Birds around but of course they were either miles away, heard only or whizzed out of sight before anyone could get on them.

I had been on the marsh earlier this morning with only 1 Whinchat, 2 Meadow Pipits, 2 Siskin, 25 Teal and a Kingfisher to show for my time. Pete L and Kevin McM had done the Lockwood with only a half dozen flyover Wigeon to report, so it was obviously going to be hard work.

There was a constant flock of House Martins over the site, a couple of Common Terns and a few Meadow Pipits over but nothing much else though the Grey Herons, Cormorants and Mute Swan on the island of the East Warwick proved attractive to many. I think non-birders like big Birds, Birds they can see, rather than someone pointing at a fast disappearing dot and telling them ‘that was a Kingfisher’ which ironically was the first Bird I had after I removed the hi-vis and left the crowd.

No sooner had I got home than Kevin phoned with news that a mob of Greenshank and a Great Northern Diver had just flashed through the Lockwood.

Late edit: Steady stream of Swallows past the house this afternoon, then a surprise addition to the house list when a Bullfinch flew over, calling twice.

When the East Wind Blows

2011-09-16T16:25:00.000+01:00

An early morning Stint (Mmm....Stint, that would be nice) of vis. Migging from the garden produced the usual cacophony of noise and two Meadow Pipits, 1 North and another South over the course of 40 minutes. On the reservoirs it was little better with another 5-10 Meadow Pipits over during the morning.

The only Southern vagrant on the East Warwick was Lol back from his Mediterranean jaunt. On the West Warwick, after braving the Wasps under the bridge sign, we saw a Whinchat, at first feeding on the ground but it then bush hopped along the bank before flying off strongly towards Hackney. A couple of Jackdaws went North and, on the East Warwick, 2 Snipe did a circuit of the reservoir before flying off. The only other Birds of note were a few wheeling Ring-necked Parakeets and, also wheeling but higher, a sizeable flock of House Martins. The Leaside Alders held none of the hoped for Siskins, which have been recorded from a number of London sites of late.

We looked in vain for the Mandarin around No.2. It could still be around, just snoozing on one of the islands but it may well have departed. A Hobby over the Lockwood was the best on offer there despite the promise of Raptory goodness with the Easterly wind. Kevin had seen a Redshank, and nothing else all morning, up on the Lockwood, it seemed to be a good cue to move on, in fact off. On the way out we had another Whinchat by the Ferry Boat Inn.

Time for a Chat

2011-09-14T15:43:00.000+01:00

Met up with Mike M on the Waterworks this morning for a chat, he likes a chat you know, but, apart from a Mute Swan in distress, later rescued by the rangers, there was little on there of interest. The marsh however was much better, though strangely nothing on the Horse paddocks, (everyone else is always getting Wheatear and Yellow Wagtail, well perhaps not everyone and not always but certainly more than I do!) but elsewhere two Jackdaws flew East and there were multiple Chiffchaffs and a few Whitethroats and Blackcaps smattered around. A sizeable flock, of c.200 Hirundines over the Filter beds consisted mostly of House Martins with some Sand Martins mixed in.

The Bomb Crater field a.k.a. the Cow field held an impressive group of Whinchat and, even more impressive, a patch year tick, 2 male Stonechats. It was remarkably difficult to count them all as they were spending a lot of time feeding on the ground. One sweep through the field would reveal 5 Birds the next 2 and then 7 etc. After quite a while we counted a clear 9 Whinchat, though it might have been more if there were still some out of sight. A dozen or so Meadow Pipits flitted about and one or two more passed over this morning.

We bumped into Jamie P in the Middlesex F.B. looking for Spotted Flycatcher, my excuse was I was trying to poach it, he didn’t need an excuse, it’s his patch. My plan would have worked too because, if it had been in the right Tree, I could have scoped it from the right side of the Lea, the fly in the ointment was the lack of Fly’ in the Tree. A short chat ensued where I explained my ‘on, over or from’ the patch rule. It was put to the test moments after I left the two of them and wandered back across Hackney marsh, a flock of Siskin bounded low West, fortunately I remembered that I didn’t need them for the year as both I and they were off patch. Must remember to stay on the right side of the Lea, one of these days I will get caught out.

On this date: 14 09 08 A fairly slow visible migration session this morning in the garden; resulted in 4 Meadow Pipits and little else. At 08:10 however an Osprey was seen circling low to the North-west, it didn’t attract much attention from any potential mobbers and went of to the South-west. At 15:50 two birds seen, thermalling, far to the South-west, were possibly Honey Buzzards. At 16:14 a definite mid-phase Honey Buzzard flew straight towards the house from the North, circled and went off South-west.

Walk the Walk

2011-09-10T21:06:00.001+01:00

After many requests:

We are having an organized walk, to coincide with a London Wildlife Trust one, next Saturday 17th September @ 09:45. Meeting at the Fishermans Lodge car park opposite the Ferry Boat Inn in Ferry Lane N17.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=ferry+lane+n17&hl=en&ll=51.58667,-0.052528&spn=0.006973,0.017123&t=h&z=16&vpsrc=6

This will cover the reservoirs, with the possibility of going onto Walthamstow Marsh in the afternoon. Bring your own binoculars, weatherproof gear as required, expect to walk a couple of miles.

All welcome.

Walthamstow Birders

Two Sandwiches Short....

2011-09-09T16:42:00.001+01:00

A steady stream of Plain Martins and Cabot’s Terns moved South today through the patch. Of course to the untrained eye they looked just like Sand Martins and Sandwich Terns. Let me elucidate.

I arrived up at the Lockwood around 09:15 to find a slightly less morose than usual Kevin; he had just had a patch tick you see, Meadow Pipit. It had been a whole six days since his last and he had rather set his heart on one a day! You didn’t hear me complaining when I hadn’t had a patch tick for over a year!.....erm, well, moving on.

Meadow Pipits trickled through all morning in small groups, I saw nearly 30, the first of the Autumn. They seem to have been seen in a number of London sites this morning. Also passing through were Sand Martins, though now they are split (see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1474-919X.2011.01155.x/pdf) I couldn’t hand on heart say they weren’t Plain Martins, I’ll just leave them as Sand Martins though.

There were 5 Swifts still kicking around all morning which is getting quite late now. Sparrowhawks were much in evidence and it was difficult to be sure how many we were seeing, certainly 5+, maybe more. A local Peregrine was sat on the pylon by the Banbury eating it’s brunch (it’s not quite Breakfast, it’s not quite Lunch but you get a good meal and a slice of Canteloupe on the side). As Lol is away for a bit there is no one stopping me posting a fuzzy blob. (You think that’s bad wait till you (try and) see the Hobby).

A Jackdaw moved South and a male Reed Bunting went West, a few Chaffinches and strangely Collared Doves also seemed to be on the move, though with both of them, as with Sparrowhawk, it’s difficult to separate migrants from residents. A few little Egrets were commuting up and down the valley.

Suddenly a Tern called, Kevin called Tern, they, for there were two of them, flew from behind some Willows and into view, I called Sandwich Tern. Both adults they just moved straight through over the Low Maynard. Similarly to the Martins, now that Sandwich Tern has been split could I honestly say they weren’t Cabot’s Terns? The good news is they were new for the patch for the year. I wasn't sure if I had seen Sandwich Tern on the patch before in September, it turns out I had.

The final fling was a Hobby low over the Ferry Boat Inn as I left, I chanced a picture but it got higher before I could get the phone on it, no sooner had I taken the shot (I told you the Peregrine wouldn’t seem so bad) there were two of them, they headed for right where I had been standing on the South end of the Lockwood, I headed for Tescos.

On this date:

09 09 03 A Redstart and a Wheatear by the riding stables on Walthamstow Marsh a Lesser Whitethroat by the Marina.

Essex Girl

2011-09-07T19:47:00.000+01:00

Pete L kindly sent me this response from the BTO regarding a ringed Cormorant he saw on the West Warwick on Sunday:

	Query	Response
1	Transaction	CRING1315253375839-Cormorant
2	Full name	Pete L
3a	Address 1
3b	Address 2
3c	Address 3	London
3d	Address 4
4	Postcode/Zip code
5	E-mail
6	Country	GB
7	Type of bird (if known)	Cormorant
8	Sex of bird (if known)	U
9	Age of bird (if known)	Appeared adult
10a	Was the bird -	alive
10b	How long has the bird been dead?	-
11a	What happened to the bird? (e.g. caught by cat, hit by car, oiled on beach etc.)	-
11b	What happened to the bird? (e.g. entered house, tangled in garden netting, stunned hitting window - later released etc.)	It was perched on a jetty and flew off.
11c	Please give further details of the circumstances if you can (e.g. ring only found in drawer, found by metal detector)	-
12	Country	GB
13	County/province	Essex
14a	Location	Walthamstow Reservoirs
14b	Location extra	West Warwick
15	Coordinates/gridreference	TQ 348 880
16a	Date (dd/mm/yyyy)	04/09/2011
16b	Date (approx)
17	Please enter any further remarks that you may like to add that will assist in the processing of the ring recovery.
18	Nasal saddle (colour and code)
19	Neck collar (colour and code)
20	Left wing tag (colour and code)
21	Right wing tag (colour and code)
22	Leg ring (colour and code)	Orange ring, CH4 code
23	Left above knee
24	Left below knee
25	Right above knee
26	Right below knee
27	Lan	EN

This colour-ringed cormorant orange CH4 (metal ring G1774) was ringed as a chick in the nest at Abberton Reservoir, Essex on the 26th April 2009, as part of a project coordinated by Jez Blackburn at the BTO. Since this time, there has been just one previous re-sighting; Brent Reservoir on the 13th February 2011.

Come On! Irene!

2011-09-04T20:41:00.000+01:00

I mean, give us something!

The remnants of Hurricane Irene passed through the patch this morning and early afternoon. I passed through the patch mid afternoon with about as much impact. The only thing of note was 1 Whinchat still in the bomb crater field, though even that went to ground as soon as one of the local Kestrels appeared. There were precious few Passerines on the Waterworks N.R. or the marsh and it appears from reports that the reservoir watchers fared much the same.

Perhaps this week’s generally unsettled weather will deliver us something though it is hard to see what on predominantly Westerly winds. Walthamstow is not renowned for its Yank Wader record, 1 Pectoral Sandpiper ever. At the moment its not renown for any Wader records to speak of.

It is looking like a bit more stormy weather may be on the way next week too.

Come on Katia!

On this date:

04 09 89 Lockwood; 7 Common and 1 Green Sandpipers, 1-3 Whinchat, 2 Wheatear and many Yellow Wagtail.

04 09 90 1 Swift, 1 Swallow and many other Hirundines over. 20+ Yellow Wagtails, a Wheatear and 1 Common Tern.

Site #6 Coppermill Lane

2011-09-03T14:41:00.000+01:00

Three quarters of the way down Coppermill Lane, from the bottom of Walthamstow High Street lies the new filter beds, (new as in the 1960’s, compared to the now defunct Victorian filter beds further down at the Southern end of Walthamstow Marsh) the main attraction of these is the late afternoon pre-roost Gull build up. This is mostly a Winter thing and has held such goodies as Glaucous, Mediterranean, Yellow-legged and Caspian Gulls. In the Spring and Autumn there are sometimes Wheatears, Pipits and Wagtails on the Grassy banks and the ‘football pitches’ at the back. Geese often feed on here and it is conceivable that Wild Geese could get mixed in with the ferals in harsh weather. House Martins breed and there are often Hirundines and Swifts swirling overhead, especially at passage times.

On the other side of the road lies No.5 reservoir, the largest island holds the Lion’s share of the breeding Cormorants, this was previously the Heronry but whilst they often loaf here they have moved onto No.1 island to breed. Check the island for Duck, Teal, Gadwall and Shoveler all hang out here and Shelduck are usually to be found on the island. Ruddy Duck used to Winter in a medium sized flock, though no more, once a White-headed Duck stayed a while. Other good Wildfowl to watch out for are Goosander, Eider and Smew though none of these are too common. This tends to be one of the favourite reservoirs for Tufted Duck and often holds a Wintering Common Sandpiper.

The smaller island also has breeding Cormorants and sometimes Kingfishers; there is an obvious hole on the South side, though patience is required for a view. If you don’t have time to go around the reservoirs peeking through the fence here is often a good bet for increasing your day list either before or after a visit to the marsh as many of the typical reservoir species can be scoped.

Further down the Lane, after the last few houses is a large stand of Leylandii, some smaller Trees and then a group of tall Trees near to the old Copper Mill, all of this is worth checking as Parakeets have recently moved in, both Woodpeckers can be found and often Winter Thrushes are present in season.

Around the bend the Lane runs along the Coppermill stream, Long-eared Owls have roosted in adjacent Hawthorns on the reservoir side of the fence, but not for many years.
The Alders sometimes have Siskins and Redpolls if it is a good year locally for them and in Autumn there are always Tits and Warblers. The Lane ends for through traffic at a small car park but the marsh can be accessed either from the gate by the car park or by going under the Cattle creep (5’ headroom rail bridge).

PW

When Pigs Fly

2011-09-02T19:54:00.000+01:00

When they do I will no doubt get a patch tick. These little fellows have just moved into the Waterworks N.R. thus moving further from N.R. to Z.O.O. Maybe it’s a good thing, what with Horses and Cows on the marsh we could be about to attract things that like Pigs...Pig Egret? Could be a potential split.

The Waterworks held no surprises; it also held no sign of Mike M’s Wednesday Redstart, mores the pity, though it did hold Mike M. We had a few Teal dropping into the beds, my first of the Autumn. On the marsh proper we had two, probably adult, Whinchats in the bomb crater field, the Kestrels seem to have moved on, thank goodness. A Mistle Thrush was the best of the rest.

Later we moved on to the Lockwood for the late morning Raptor Fest, despite conditions looking promising and despite hearing that 3 Marsh Harriers were heading our way from Hatfield (our Birds from Wednesday?) it proved disappointing on the large raptor front. It made up for it on the small Raptor front with 2 Hobbys soaring to the South and another over the Lockwood, plenty of Sparrowhawk and Kestrel activity and a grey fuzzy blob sitting on the incinerator chimney which later became a Peregrine over our heads, it’s the first time I have seen Peregrine up there since the maintenance work of the late Spring, worth keeping your eyes open as they used to like sitting up there.

A walk around the Lockwood only produced 7 Swifts, about 4 Common Sandpipers, a Wheatear and a couple of Teal, sadly no sign of Kevin’s Spotted Flycatcher from yesterday. Kevin did pull a couple of Whimbrel out of the bag though, they flew steadily, and silently South-west early afternoon.

PW

Three Ring Circus

2011-08-31T18:29:00.001+01:00

You have to have a plan. Mine was the marsh for Passerines this morning and then the reservoirs. Somehow I found myself at the reservoirs first. You have to be flexible.

The good news was that the Mandarin found by Pete L on Monday had been written in the Bird log for yesterday and in the same place, so I walked between No. 1 and No. 2, which I seldom do, to get a look at the West side of the island on No.2 where the Mandarin was supposed to be, it was not there. I walked around to view the South side of the island, it was not there either. Just as I was considering my next move it flew in (117 for the year) from behind me and scooted under the branches of the island, judging by the bright bill and greeny-blue trailing edge of the wing I think it is most likely an eclipse male and therefore possibly the same as the Bird that has been giving me the run around on the Lea for nearly a year. (This was only my second ever, the first a male on 15th November 1989) The trouble with having a Chinese Duck for a patch year tick is you want another one half an hour later.

Further down the track between No. 1 and No. 2 I came across a large Warbler and Tit flock which included singing Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. At the bottom of No.3 I came across Kevin M who had just seen the Whinchat which Pete L had found on Monday. He walked back round with me to the West side of the East Warwick where the Whinchat was feeding from low vegetation and on the deck at close range. 118 (who you gonna call?) for the year. A Yellow Wagtail was calling from the West Warwick but didn’t fly. A Greenshank was calling from the North somewhere but also could not be seen.

My plan of the doing the marsh was scrapped as the weather was now warming up, slightly, and with very light winds the prospect of a Raptor or two made the bottom of the Lockwood seem a good bet. A couple of Jackdaws feeding on the East bank was unusual for this time of the year, 6-7 Common Sandpipers was most definitely not unusual, I think they are just going to stay until Winter now, albeit in diminishing numbers.

My reckoning was that the Raptors, if they were to appear, would come from the South-east so I walked half way up the East bank so as to have a good view to the South, Kevin stayed put at the South end reckoning they would come from the North. After nearly an hour I was about ready to give up and go so walked back down to the South, we chatted for a bit when suddenly Kevin shouted “what’s that? It’s a Raptor; it’s a Harrier, Marsh Harrier!” It had come from behind us, the South-east and was going away, I got onto it shortly after and could see a large Raptor flapping with heavy strokes on wings held flat, I could see it was not a Buzzard of any flavour and wasn’t a Kite, but as we were only getting one angle on it I was reluctant to call it a Marsh Harrier especially as I need it for my patch list and also as the wings were quite broad and I had ruled out everything else I felt it was going to be an Osprey. It carried on without turning and I was now beginning to fear that it would remain, for me, unidentified, I was willing it to do something, anything, and then it did, it turned sideways, started to circle and showed itself to be a female Marsh Harrier (slight inner primary moult on the Left wing suggested an adult rather than juvenile). Good old Kevin, he was right all along and he had found me a patch tick, 119 for the year but better still, 188 for the patch. Just then another Birder, Terry from Tottenham, who we had spotted coming along the bank earlier, had got within calling range and got to see it too.

I had swapped from scope to bins at this point and in trying to relocate the Bird clapped eyes on what to me looked like a Sparrowhawk, mainly because it was, and was confused when Kevin said he had got two Harriers, ‘no’ I said, the other one is a Sparrowhawk, he said they are both together, I looked again and there were three Birds in a spiral, my Sparrowhawk but above them the first Marsh Harrier with, yes, another Harrier! They all circled round lazily over Tottenham marsh for a while before heading off North-west. Terry cursing he was not on his patch, Tottenham marsh, me, slightly cursing that I was not at home, they would have come right over my house and Kevin muttering something about how glad he was to have found Marsh Harrier on his new patch which was probably the best attitude. As if this was not excitement enough less than five minutes later Kevin picked up another adult female Marsh Harrier coming in from the same direction, this one was lower and closer than the first two, it was also in wing moult on the Left wing but more so. It too got over Tottenham marsh gained height and went off North-west. A Hobby going South hardly got a look in.

It’s not every day you get a new patch Bird, especially the one at the top of your wanted list, having looked for one so long it made me think, what now was at the top of the wanted list? Red-backed Shrike I decided. Friday on the marsh would be ideal! Now there's a plan.

PW

Bank Holiday Bonanza

2011-08-30T22:26:00.001+01:00

Mandarin on No. 2 reservoir and Whinchat on East Warwick.

Courtesy of Pete L.

A Grand(ish) Day Out

2011-08-27T21:17:00.004+01:00

The day dawned and the game was engaged. Earlier in the week Andrew S had emailed the Londonbirders site that the Brent Birders were doing a big day today, I volunteered the Walthamstow Birders to do likewise, then realised that half the possible ‘volunteers’ were out of town, never mind we managed to field a crew, much thanks to Ian W, Kevin McM and Mike M.

Kevin and Ian were up on the reservoirs first thing whilst I did the early morning shift on the marshes and Mike did the mid-morning. Mike and I later whizzed round the reservoirs in the afternoon.

Highs and lows: The Black Terns were still on the Lockwood, dropping from 5 to 3 during the day. A Dunlin dropped in after the rain and a Jackdaw flew over in the morning. On the marsh a couple of Egyptian Geese dropped into the back paddock and 4 Yellow Wagtails flew South early on but Little Owl, Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush couldn’t be raised.

The feral Barnacle Goose was on No.5 (with it’s escaped Red-breasted Goose mate). A Pheasant calling on the marsh was less usual, though there has been one intermittently down there this Summer, also a latish Sedge Warbler showed well. A Hobby was a nice final addition in the early evening.

Pending any late news from Kevin, we finished on 70 species for the team (when last heard Brent was on 69) including the Barnacle Goose, which may not be to everyone’s liking. Maybe it’s best to call it an honourable draw. It was more fun than exciting, to tell the truth but, as is usually the case with these things the Birds need to cooperate. Perhaps a mid-winter challenge could be in the offing.

The species:

Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Greater Canada Goose, Barnacle Goose, Egyptian Goose, Gadwall, Mallard, Northern Shoveler, Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, Ruddy Duck, Common Pheasant, Great Cormorant, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Common Kestrel, Hobby, Common Moorhen, Common Coot, Common Sandpiper, Dunlin, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Common Tern, Black Tern, Rock Dove, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Common Swift, Common Kingfisher, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Magpie, Eurasian Jay, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Sand Martin, Barn Swallow, House Martin, Long-tailed Tit, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat, Common Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Winter Wren, Common Starling, Blackbird, Robin, Northern Wheatear, Hedge Accentor, House Sparrow, Yellow Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Linnet.

On this date: 27 08 83 Wind NW1 calm and hot: 1 juvenile Little Grebe on High Maynard also a Kingfisher seen twice. A juvenile Cuckoo on the Lockwood, 1 Greenshank heard flying South there and a Snipe on No.3. Many Yellow Wagtails and a few Common Sandpipers.

PW

Gluten for Punishment

2011-08-24T13:40:00.002+01:00

Despite having a less than stable stomach (my wife reckons Wheat intolerance) I could not resist the pull of the patch in the grotty weather. Surely there would be grounded Waders.....yeah right!

The plan was a quick whizz around the Lockwood and then on to the marsh as the weather brightened for all the grounded Passerines.....yeah right!

The visibility was none so good, which was good. Kevin, who was staked out on the Southern end, as is his wont, had already had 5 Wheatears on the East bank of the Lockwood but nothing much else. I had barely gone a couple of hundred metres when I picked up a Black Tern, I checked it out and realised there were two, possibly three. It was very difficult in the whirling mass of Terns to keep an eye on individuals and I thought I was seeing the odd Arctic Tern amongst them too.

There were a lot, 30-40 or so, of Swifts, and hundreds of Sand Martins with a handful of Swallows. Probably half a dozen Common Sandpipers dotted around and increasing numbers of Pied Wagtails, with a few Grey Wagtails were the only other things of note. I saw three or four Wheatears and the Red-breasted Goose flew South, on its own.

When I got back to the Southern end I tried counting the Black Terns and made it three, then none, then four, then one. I was confused until I noticed that they were going up high with the Swifts. Eventually I managed a definite six Birds at any one time.

By now I had spent too long for a trip onto the marsh so went home. At about 13:00 I did spot a large Raptor heading West, probably over the marsh, I called Lol who was on the East Warwick but it was too high for him and I lost sight of it too, another one that got away. A probable Hobby went West just after. Maybe there will be more Raptors now the weather has broken, but not for me.

PW

Billy, Don't be a Hero!

2011-08-21T16:12:00.003+01:00

I was spurred on by the report of a Wryneck at Alexandra Palace yesterday and took the opportunity of an early start to go and find something on the marsh. First up was the Waterworks, I think I was the first person on there this morning so my optimism rose. There were a dozen or so Magpies going mental, that’s the technical Birding term, and I felt sure they had got some roosting Raptor pinned down but as they kept moving around and didn’t focus their attention anywhere in particular that hope faded. I saw a large adult Dog Fox sniffing around so maybe that’s what got them exercised.

A few Warblers were moving through, including a nice Lesser Whitethroat. At least 1 Yellow Wagtail was heard flying South but I couldn’t get a visual on it. A probable Teal flushed from one of the beds as I lifted the hide flap, if so it would have been my first of the Autumn. A Moorhen clambering around up some Reeds reminded me that I had two ticks yesterday, from the comfort of my armchair. I just read that the AOU have split Common Gallinule from Moorhen (the other was Snowy Plover split from Kentish Plover) I wonder who will make a name for themselves by finding one of these on this side of the pond? Probably someone bored witless on a rainy day in Scilly; I don’t think I will be checking all the Moorhens on the patch for one that laughs! (Diagnostic call apparently).

Next up was my assault on the marsh but just at that point the pager confirmed the continuing presence of Ally Pally’s Wryneck. What the heck? Why flog the marsh looking for Wryneck when you can drive 5.5 miles and actually see one for real? I got there in just over twenty minutes and had seen the Bird after probably another twenty minutes....twitching.....you’ve got to love it! I also heard Nuthatch whilst I was there. You can actually see the patch from the palace, and vice versa, yet Nuthatch is a patch mega, I’ve never even come close to one, and Wryneck has never occurred according to the patch definition on the blog though I know Lol found one on his ‘Tottenham extension’.

My heroic attempts at finding a patch year tick were not quite over as you can easily swing back round from the Palace and find yourself on the Lockwood, as indeed I did. At the Southern end Kevin was prone on his back closely checking the inside of his cap for migrants. I decided on the ‘upright looking through the telescope’ method; though for all the good it did me I could have snoozed too. After checking the whole edge (to be honest you really need to walk round as anything smaller than a Redshank would be difficult to pick up if it were on the North bank) I coughed, which brought Kevin back to consciousness and to his feet. He had seen yesterdays Greenshank, which was a patch tick for him, but there was no sign of it today. The two Wheatears had been reported by Scottish George again and Kevin had had a flyover Green Sandpiper and a couple of Hobbys but that was about it, certainly no repeat of the Buzzard extravaganza of the other day.

Sometime later Kevin decided he was going to lie down again (he does get on the patch shortly after 06:00) I decided this was a good move as every time he sat down on Friday Buzzards appeared. Suddenly he said ‘Did you hear that? It sounded like Greenshank.’ I didn’t, but we both scanned around for a few moments. Then I saw a Bird lift off from the edge of the reservoir only about 200m from where we were standing, before I could get the words out the one became a small flock, 7 Greenshanks, and all now in flight and heading South. I lost them to sight over No.4 but they evidently turned West at that point and Pete L picked them up, calling over his head, on the East Warwick. I think they must have landed when Kevin heard the call, not realising that we were standing nearby.

I would categorise Greenshank as the most common, of the less common Waders we get on Walthamstow, if you get my meaning. My previous highest count was a flock of 5 on the 13th August 1984, usually just singles are the norm. About time we had one of the less common of the most common Waders or better still just an out and out rarity.

PW

First XV

2011-08-19T22:50:00.004+01:00

As I arrived at the Lockwood this morning, I bumped into our newest recruit to the Walthamstow patch, the silver-tongued Kevin M. He has recently moved to the right side of the River and is now busy attempting to find some London ticks by getting up at the crack of dawn and ‘grinding and slogging’ away at the patch. I hope for his sake that he finds some, and for my sake that they stick.

He informed me that the Lockwood held 2 Wheatears and a Teal; I decided to walk around the whole thing just in case....for some reason I walked clockwise which is not usually my wont. To be honest I hardly looked at the reservoir all the way up as my attention was drawn to the Lea-side bushes which were heaving with Warblers and Tits, mostly Chiffchaffs but also including Lesser Whitethroat and Blackcap. Kingfishers were again prominent. I later bumped into George who confirmed what I had been pondering; Kingfishers can be triple-brooded.

I never did see the lone Teal but there were a couple of Shoveler at the North end. A water bailiff was walking along the bank towards me and I was just rehearsing the response to his inevitable question, ‘have you seen anything?’ with ‘no it’s total rubbish, I don’t know why I bother’ when I suddenly heard a Yellow Wagtail call, spinning round I caught sight of it flying South over my head, then I caught sight of its 6 mates, nice. I also caught up with the 2 Wheatears on the East bank and around 30 Pied Wagtails; I really expected them to be harbouring some Yellow Wags too but no joy. Waders were represented by 7 Common Sandpipers. To quote Kevin ‘I’m $*#*& fed up with @+*^$ Common Sands, can’t we @?^%~ have some %$*~? different &@?#* Waders?’ I agreed with his sentiment if nothing else!

As I got to the bottom of the Lockwood Kevin was returning from a fairly fruitless jog around the Southern complex. We both agreed that conditions looked good for big Birds in general and Raptors specifically. Between 10:00-14:00 is usually (but not exclusively) the best time for Raptors on the patch and I said 11:40 was a good time, thinking back to last week’s Buzzard.

11:40 came and went; we scanned the skies, 12:40 passed just as quickly, we scanned on. Kevin sat down, I thought about leaving. For some strange reason I looked directly up and lo! A Buzzard....in fact two...three, I was just about to lift my bins when I realised that there were more Birds in the kettle, I counted them quickly before checking what they all were....Ten!

They were all Common Buzzards, but I mean...Ten!

How they got directly over us without us picking them up coming in I don’t know. One or two split off and went South-west, into the light breeze but probably came back as shortly after all 10 were thermalling around over our heads. I quickly phoned slugabed Lol who amazingly was not only awake but in his back garden, he looked up and got on at least 6 without his bins. Probably about 25 minutes later I spotted another Buzzard, one in extreme tail and wing moult and not one of the original 10, it was soon joined by another 3 which we assumed were also new Birds, 15 minutes later Kevin picked up a singleton. The previous largest flock over the patch was 5 over my house in March this year, as with those some of these were seen talon grappling, leading me to think they are relatively local, and somewhat territorial, Birds having a wander. Not bad fifteen Common Buzzards in under an hour.

Shortly after this news arrived of a Marsh Harrier going North-west from Beddington (ironically just what Kevin has done this year) but unfortunately it didn’t quite get in range of my bins. The best of the rest was a reasonable trickle of Swifts, probably close to twenty Birds over a few hours.

For those of a numeric bent Pete has been continuing to count Tufted Ducks and is currently up to 2,589 for the whole patch, if he sees 107,411 more, then that is the entire UK wintering population, here’s hoping.

PW

South of the Border

2011-08-17T21:00:00.003+01:00

Not quite Mexico way but Hackney. I walked up the River Lea on the Hackney side to see if I could find the Mandarin, normally I prefer my Ducks Kosher but I was prepared to have this one Poached but as is becoming clear with this Bird, whenever I enter the restaurant it is off the menu. Enough metaphors already.

The Eastern side of the River, once you reach Spitalfields market, is on the patch so I had to hope that whatever I saw had the decency to be on the correct side, unlike me. When I got to the overflow channel South of the golf course I noticed someone had painted a large Kingfisher on the wall, optimistic I thought, until seconds later a Kingfisher called and flew onto the bank with a Fish. I tried for a photo but the Bird moved on. Last week I got some (distant) pictures of one on the High Maynard but Lol banned me from posting them! Something about the Bird needing to be made up of more than 10 pixels, the cheek! It is really nice to see Kingfishers again after last Winter and early Spring when they were almost non-existent. This bit of River used to be good for them and looks like it is again. Later I had one, or the same, on the Waterworks N.R. They are being seen all over the reservoir complex too, it must have been a very good breeding season.

Other Birds of note here were an adult Little Egret, feeding in the River, and what sounded like a Little Owl calling twice. This is the area they have been seen in before so it is quite possible, but unfortunately there were no more calls.

Coincidentally I heard one from the house, calling in the early hours this morning, certainly not from here though it could well be the same Bird having a wander. Having strayed off the patch, and knowing that Jamie P was abroad, I decided to trespass some more and do the Middlesex N.R. but he had obviously taken all the Birds with him. These Jays were sitting close together, presumably recently fledged, on the Leyton side of the River.

Next up was the marsh, still no sign of any Whinchats but there were at least 5 Kestrels in the field most favoured by them, you would have to be one brave Chat to sit there for long.

A couple of Reed Buntings were on the first bit of Walthamstow marsh. Better looks at the ‘freshwater Limpets’ showed that I was looking at them upside down (them, that is, not me) and what I was taking as a flat shell is in fact the foot. New best guess identification is some sort of Radix.

Thence over to the Waterworks, best Bird was a lone Swift, not many days left for these fellows, especially as news this week is that the first wintering Birds have arrived in Tanzania. The activity in the new ‘Human Habitation Zone’ seems to indicate a successful breeding season.

The last bit of the patch to be checked was the filter beds, for the mid-afternoon Gull build up, I think it was cancelled and no one told me.

PW

Mr. Plover Lover

2011-08-14T21:51:00.003+01:00

The Banbury yielded a strange fellow walking around the shoreline, someone else camping on the bank and 5 Common Sandpipers, disappointing on all three counts, especially given that the next reservoir North of here, the William Girling, held 19 Common Sandpipers, 15 Green Sandpipers a Turnstone and a Greenshank as well as a possible Temminck’s Stint and 38 Black-necked Grebes yesterday!

The High Maynard was our next stop and that had 4 Common Sandpipers. The Lockwood another seven or eight. It was probably around this point that I whined to Lol something like ‘can we not have something different for a change?’ Suddenly a Wader called, I said what’s that and Lol (My official ears for the day) replied, 'Ringed Plover', it called again, sounding like it had moved a bit further South but try as we might neither of us could pick it up in flight. We weren’t going to do the whole circuit but now felt obliged to do so if only to connect with the Plover.

Despite the water level being low and the West side having a lot of edge we couldn’t turn it, or anything else up. Lol had seen one earlier in the Spring but it was a welcome patch year tick for me, and not one I see annually. I have now reached the dizzy heights of 116 for the year, (2010; 130, 2009; 115) it is interesting to compare even just this small series of data, it makes me appreciate how good 2010 must have been as I can’t see me adding another 14 species during the rest of this year.

About 40 Common Terns on the Low Maynard and another 10 or so on the Lockwood are getting late and will be off pretty soon, the semi-dependent young are still begging Fish but at least the adults have given up trying to kill me. A handful of Swifts were evidence of another soon to be gone Summer visitor. A few Chiffchaffs were calling, one even singing and we managed to get a calling Willow Warbler in scrub near the Banbury.

When over on the marsh a couple of days ago I was struck by the complete absence of Blackberries, in recent years they have been ‘harvested’ on an almost industrial scale, I don’t object to people picking them, even Lol had a few today despite my warning him that Starlings have probably wee’d on them, but it would be nice if folk could leave a few for the wildlife. The other Berry bearing bushes were holding up much better, Sloe, Rosehip and Haw being especially abundant.

On this date: 14 08 1989 3 Whimbrel flew South over the Lockwood and 10 Yellow Wagtails on the filter beds.

PW

Right Time, Right Place

2011-08-13T16:26:00.001+01:00

Even the stork in the sky
Knows her seasons;
And the turtledove and the swift and the thrush
Observe the time of their migration;
But My people do not know
The ordinance of the LORD. Jer 8:7 North American Standard Bible

I dithered about going up to the Lockwood, I do that you know. The dithering led to indecision, indecision led to lethargy and finally inaction. Fortunately the inaction took place whilst staring out of my back window, even more fortunately that coincided with a Turtle Dove flying West. It’s the second year running that I have seen one on the patch, what’s worse is I think I am the only one who ever sees them on the patch. Years ago you wouldn’t bat an eyelid at seeing them, they used to breed even. Nowadays they are next to invisible, I really hope the decline can be halted as they are a cracking little bird. I hope I am actually with someone when I see one next year or I can see a certain dodgy reputation developing!

I also saw 4 Swifts going West shortly after. This morning a Mistle Thrush flew over so that just leaves the Stork....I’m watching and waiting.

As for the ordinance of the Lord, people just don’t get it, they will.

PW

It's too Quiet...Thwump!

2011-08-12T21:03:00.006+01:00

This morning I was wondering what was wrong; do we have too much habitat? Is it the wrong habitat? Is it in the wrong place? Am I just unable to find any Birds? The phone rang at that moment, it was Andy T calling from Rainham with the answer, there are just no Birds! The Londonbirders email site is quiet, the Wiki doesn’t have a lot of migrants on it despite plenty of saddo patchers flogging away (I count myself amongst them lest anyone should take that pejoratively).

Now if I remember the Cowboy films of my youth whenever someone said ‘It’s quiet, too quiet’ that was usually followed swiftly by the thwump of an arrow in his back. Therefore I PREDICT A RIOT of Birds. It can only be a matter of days now before the torrent, nay avalanche, of scarce and rare hit the capital.*

Back to this morning, I worked the Waterworks N.R. very thoroughly, trading off the possibility of Waders on the Lockwood for the prospect of Passerine action on the marsh. There was a itinerant Warbler flock working its way through the bushes, mostly Whitethroats with the odd Lesser Whitethroat and Chiffchaff. A lone Swift worked the skies. Two or three newly fledged Sparrowhawks called incessantly from one of the wooded beds and I flushed an adult male along the boardwalk. Jays and Acorns were much in evidence too, the former flying to and fro with the latter.

The flooded beds by the hide are pretty overgrown and it would have been difficult to have seen anything in them, had there been anything in them. A Gadwall was the best, it had obviously upset one of the Coots because it followed it all the time, persistently harrying it, they are not known for their appetite for Coot chicks so I can’t think what it could have done.

I stocked up with a Mars bar and bottle of water before doing the golf course and marsh and was just thinking it must be time for the Friday Raptor when a host of Crows made a Beeline for, what turned out to be, a Common Buzzard, impeccable timing.

On the River Lea, at the bottom of the golf course, a couple of Common Sandpipers flew onto the stony island, a first for me here, I think, so not quite a complete Wader trade off after all, just as well, as there were no Passerine migrants of any consequence, perhaps the banks of the Lockwood were crawling with Whinchats and Wheatears?

On the marsh the most conspicuous Birds were Kestrels, surely more than one family I would have thought, they were especially prominent over the bomb crater field which not surprisingly held no Whinchats. There were more Warblers and plenty of wheeling House Martins and Sand Martins. Another lone Swift flew North.

In the ditch at the Southern end of Walthamstow marsh there were a large number of weird black Molluscy things, my best guess is some sort of freshwater Limpet but I stand to be corrected.

The only other thing of note was a couple of military Helicopters circling the reservoirs, mopping up the last of the Tottenham rioters or looking for insurgents perhaps?

PW

*Not a guarantee

Oystercatcher Catchup

2011-08-11T21:29:00.001+01:00

Discussion over a drink last night led to the topic of why some stuff is strangely scarce on one patch, say Walthamstow, whilst just a few kilometres away in, Wanstead to use a random comparison, they are common as muck. Of course the opposite is true. My companion bemoaned the lack of Oystercatcher as a typical example, I sympathised as it is my current ‘oiseau insaisissable’ though at least they do turn up on the patch.

We discussed how they must get from A to B somehow and the inevitable wistful hope that one would one day fly over the house in the middle of the night, piping its little head off.

Scroll forward 11 hours, I had decided not to set the alarm this morning and let nature (or my bladder) decide when to wake me, nature won I’m glad to say, no problem in that department (yet). It was a bit later than normal when I walked across the Lammas fields on my way to the bus stop, I usually don’t crank up the Ipod until I am past the park, you never know what you might hear. Usually nothing.

KLEEP!

What the....I froze waiting and listening, pretty much like I did three weeks ago on the reservoirs when nothing else happened, only this time it did.

KaLEEP...KLEEP!

An Oystercatcher was suddenly overhead, about twice Tree height. I wondered what to do next, run back the 300m to the house and try for a house tick, text my drinking companion? The bird made my mind up for me as it flew low South-east destined not to make it onto the house list nor for any early birders at Wanstead to collect. Still a patch year tick is a patch year tick and it made the prospect of work seem not quite so dismal.

I always look down the overflow channel of the River Lea as I go over it on the bus, people say you get Little Egret in there, I usually don’t see any! Today there was a Little Egret in the channel.....maybe I should start a bus list!

On this date: 11 08 84 Wind NW1 sunny; 12 Lapwings, 1 juvenile Common Sandpiper and 1 Snipe. 4 flighty Greenshanks and 1 juvenile Spotted Redshank. 1 Reed Warbler in orchard and 1 Swift seen! 4+ Common Tern.

PW

Binless Wonder

2011-08-06T19:00:00.002+01:00

Not a good day today, it so could have been much better.

I was out locally this morning when I saw a large Raptor circling over my house, it thermalled higher and with each circle I thought it was going to get a bit closer to me, this was going to be essential as I had no optics with me, sadly it never really got close enough, though with bins it would have been a cinch. After it had gained height it glided off North, I made a couple of quick calls but nobody picked it up. The only things I could get was a squared off tail, i.e. not a Kite, broad wings and a couple of deep wing beats, that, and its overall dark appearance leant me toward Honey Buzzard, a couple of which I had seen two weeks ago in the South-east. I don’t think I can really put it on the patch year list at the range I had it without optics, I wonder if it was a Honey?.....the one that got away!

Later I went over to the reservoirs, arriving in the car park I realised I had left my binoculars at home, I was due to meet up with Lol and didn’t have the time or inclination to drive back and get them so decided to make do with my ‘scope. Now I know what it’s like to give up smoking, I didn’t know what to do with my hands and kept reaching down for the non-existent bins.

My plan was to have a look at the West Warwick before Lol arrived but I got sidetracked by an interesting Wader on the East Warwick, it turned out to be one of 3 Common Sandpipers on there, so not so very interesting but at least it was a Wader. It was then that I somehow caught my hand in my tripod, much gushing of blood ensued, could the day get any worse? Lol arrived.

We checked No. 5, dodging a light shower and finding another 3-4 Common Sandpipers. There was a bit of Kingfisher activity around No.3 and a handful of young Shelducks, the rest have now cleared off for their summer holidays in Germany, there’s no accounting for taste.

There was a surprise find amongst the moulting Pochard, but I can’t tell you what or where it was. I can show you a picture though....

On the Lockwood at least a dozen Common Sandpipers were (still) present, it got me wondering if we have had the same Birds now for a few weeks or if they are all new, probably a bit of both. This must be one of the better sites for Common Sand in London I would have thought.

On this date: 06 08 1983 Walthamstow 15:00-18:00 Overcast; 6+ Common Terns and 2 Common Sandpipers. Small party of juvenile Finches and Tree Sparrows. 1 summer-plumaged Black-necked Grebe on Lockwood. 1 white Parakeet or Cockatiel flew South, screeching like a Tern. (Presumably Sulphur-crested Cockatoo)

PW

Pixellated for Posterity

2011-08-04T21:11:00.001+01:00

What better to do on a rainy day than post up some photo’s kindly sent to us by Walthamstow ‘old boy’ David Darrell-Lambert.

Blue-winged Teal (record shot), Green-winged Teal, Firecrest, Little Gull, ‘hepatic’ female Cuckoo, Red-necked Grebe, Black-necked Grebe, somewhat tame Lesser White-fronted Goose but still a looker and, not even a Bird, though it looks like a bird has had a bite at its lower wing – Clouded Yellow.

Something to keep you going through the slog of patchwork!

See more of David’s work here:

Bird Brain UK

2011-08-04T21:05:00.002+01:00

A few more of David's photo's from the archives:

Smew, White-headed Duck, (probably Walthamstow's rarest vistor so far, assuming WHD's get accepted one day)Turnstone.

Moo! Humbug!

2011-08-03T17:16:00.003+01:00

Had an earlyish start on the marsh this morning, hoping for some migrants, Redstart or Whinchat would be nice Red-backed Shrike would be even nicer; the title says it all really! The only migrants were Warblers, quite a few of them really, Whitethroats, Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, I wondered if the Cows were going to make a return visit to the marsh, (very useful if we are ever going to get a Cattle Egret) my wondering was halted on arrival at the bomb crater field, there they were, some of them were different to the ones from last year, and there were more of them. So the bait is laid it’s just a matter of time....

The Red-breasted Goose and Barnacle Goose were begging together at the bottom of Coppermill Lane; though we all that know tameness is not a bar to genuine vagrancy...err?

The Tufted Duck numbers seem to have peaked and are starting to drop a bit, or at least that’s my impression, the only other Duck of note was a single Shoveler in flight. Herons were conspicuous on the West bank of the Lockwood, at least 14 with 3 Little Egrets, loafing and fishing. I fushed them as I walked down the bank and one had the misfortune to fly across to the East bank where it was set upon by 50 Common Terns, I have learnt that particular lesson and gave them a wide berth.

I flushed a Common Sandpiper at the Southern end and thought that was it for Waders until I was halfway back down the West side when a flock of ten came off one of the little shingle ‘beaches’.

Best of all was discovering some Small Red-eyed Damselflies on floating sphagnum in the Lea about 200m North of the Ferry Boat Inn, certainly my first on patch, though I have heard that some were seen on the Waterworks, I have never been able to find them, perhaps they are on a private bit. If looking for these beware of Red-eyed Damselfly as they are on the same stretch, the slighter and paler look of the SRED is obvious when seen together but the best feature is the Tomato coloured eye of the SRED compared to the Blood red of the RED. I tried for a picture, I really did, but these things rested just long enough to get the scope on them, in the heat of midday they were definitely not going to wait for me to finish my juggling act with hat, glasses, cameraphone, let alone wait for me to line everything up!

On this day 03 08 1984 15:00-17:00 Wind S2 bright; 12+ Common Sandpipers, 3 summer-plumage Dunlin, 2+ Little Ringed Plover and 16 Lapwing. Of more interest 3 Ringed Plover.

PW

Oystercatcher Remains Uncaught

2011-07-28T13:40:00.003+01:00

A, for me, reasonably early jaunt up to the Lockwood revealed that I was clearly the first person up there as I got the privilege of flushing everything. Sadly everything did not include the Oystercatcher. I thought I heard one call on the South side about ten days ago but try as I might I didn’t hear it call again so shrugged it off as aural mis-perception. Well over the last ten days one has been seen a number of times around the Lockwood and the Maynards but not today.

I had left my hat in the car but didn’t bother going back for it, it was cloudy and my eyes would soon grow accustomed to the glare, I thought. A half an hour later the Sun came out, oh well. The Tern rafts were largely deserted, most of the young now well fledged but half way up the East bank of the Lockwood I came under sustained attack by Common Terns, one individual was especially persistent diving to within inches, where’s that hat when you need it. I carried my scope and tripod aloft to protect my head. It was enough to drive me off the bank and they kept it up for quite a while, it made Canada Geese with downy young seem pretty friendly.

There were about 10 Common Sandpipers along the edge; I flushed a party of five when I got up the courage to walk along the bank again. In the North-west corner was a roosting group of Cormorants, 151 of them, it looked like a casting call for Hithcock’s ‘The Birds’. I walked along the bottom of the bank to avoid disturbing them (plus I saw a couple of Common Terns roosting along the edge too!) It gave me the opportunity to check the minor Lea-side Trees for Flycatchers and the like. A couple of calling Kingfishers was the highlight.

I spotted a visiting Birder lying in the Sun with a cap over his face, classic technique for finding Crossbills; it enables you to focus every ounce of energy into listening for their calls as they go over.

A glutton for punishment I decided to walk around the High Maynard (if the Oystercatcher wasn’t going to come to me I would have to come to it) unfortunately I had forgotten about the Common Terns, they had clearly not forgotten about me, I hurried past!

The Maynards gave up no Oystercatchers but Pochard numbers are building up now, I started to count them but decided better of it. We probably have about 0.5% of the wintering population (UK 3,800) here, perhaps more, perhaps one day I will find out. Ever more desperate I forced myself to check the East Warwick but still no Oystercatcher. Last year I bumped into our visiting pair often, whereas Lol always kept missing them, I think the tables have been turned. A Common Sandpiper flying round No.2 was a strange sight, there is virtually no clear edge, it must have been flushed off No.4.

I had a couple of Gatekeepers and a Common Blue and there were a few Red Admirals around but nowhere near the numbers of the last week or so, it really seems to be their year. A couple of Brown Hawkers and a Banded Demoiselle just about wrapped up the morning.

PW

Channel Island Cream

2011-07-25T17:45:00.004+01:00

Not much about today really, but a few nice things here and there. I've attached a few crappy photos taken on my little digital, however i digi-binned the Dunlin and it looks not bad I think! There were a lot of Whitethroats, young and old everywhere, and a few Lessers too. I had the Dunlin, as well as at least 8 Common Sandpipers on the Lockwood.

There was an Oystercatcher on the banks of the High Maynard, the bird did a circuit and then landed on the roof of a nearby building. A single Meadow pipit was flushed from the banks of the High Maynard also and lots of Hirundines including a few Swallows over South.

I found a Jersey Tiger near No.5.

Jamie Partridge

Hip Hip Hip.....Hooray!

2011-07-23T21:45:00.002+01:00

Summer has arrived and the Sun has well and truly got his hat on. The weather looks like it is about to settle down. Let's face it the rainy period didn't do us any favours so it can't be any worse by being pleasant, can it?

This is the view towards the WNW from my house, the reservoirs and marshes are just over the horizon, from where many a Bird has added itself to my House, if not patch list.

I have just heard that the LNHS records committee has accepted my, very brief, Hooded Crow from last year, it was sat on the Conifer on the Right of the new blog title picture. It's been a bit slow this year for new house ticks, so far, maybe they will come in the second half of the year.

PW

Out for the Count

2011-07-22T08:31:00.004+01:00

Next year remind not to visit the patch after about February! Certainly not in June or July....dull, dull, dull. Why do I do it? Probably for the extremely unlikely possibility of a patch tick and, at this time of the year if it were to happen it would likely be a real goody.

Goodies of any sort were hard to come by on Wednesday (though I did once bump into Bill Oddie on the patch) I noticed that Pete L had counted Tufted Ducks on the Southern section on Tuesday (1060) this, and desperation, made me decide to count them on the Northern section. 697. There was precious little else on the Lockwood, the Common Terns had calmed down a bit, the chicks really should be able to look after themselves now. Common Sandpipers were down to 8 and the juvenile Little Ringed Plover had swapped itself for an adult, oh, and there was a battalion of grass cutters trimming the banks to oblivion.

I decided that counting Ducks was about as interesting as it was going to get and decided to do the Southern section too. As I got back to the car park to get some sustenance a Hobby flew over from the direction of Tottenham Marsh and started to hunt over No.1.

After a quick lunch I made a start on the Tufties of the South. 1224. So 1921 for the whole complex, though I didn’t do the West Warwick or the Banbury and there would probably be a few hundred on them. Quite impessive if you like moulting Ducks. The whole British Winter population is 110,000 so we must account for about 2% of the total, which makes Walthamstow a significant Wildfowl site.

Speaking of Winter Wildfowl; Lol had a Goldeneye yesterday, what next Smew?

As I got back to the car I am sure I caught a glimpse of the Hobby going back towards Tottenham, a bit of a daytripper like me. They have been mighty scarce this year so far, perhaps now the Swifts and Hirundines are starting to move through we will get to see some more of them. I'm off to Kent today to see some real Birds but It’s nearly August and hopefully time for Walthamstow to get some proper birds.

As Arnie says “I’ll be back”

PW

Reservoir Pods

2011-07-17T20:54:00.002+01:00

I was watching the rain this afternoon, watching for it to stop that is, eventually about 17:00 it looked like there was a big enough break that I wouldn’t get soaked to the skin and forth I sallied.

I spotted the pods of the millennium eye from the top of the Lockwood, yes it was that riveting a walk. I had seen them before from the Banbury, which is just a bit higher than the other reservoirs but I hadn’t realised that they could be seen from the Lockwood. You have to stand in just the right spot, about halfway along the North bank and there they are. Also visible, just, is the cross atop St. Paul’s Cathedral. It really goes to show why the patch is so good/useless (delete one, according to mood) we are surprisingly close to the city centre.

The LNHS (London Natural History Society) recording area is a circle with a twenty mile radius, centred on St. Paul’s. We are stacks closer to the hub than we are to the rim, check it out.

Whilst admiring the scenery I did stop momentarily to check the reservoir edge, there was a juvenile Little Ringed Plover, nice, and, a conservative count, of 14 Common Sandpipers. Someone please swap one of these for a Wood Sandpiper. No Green Sandpipers yet and also no Common Gulls in yet, they are arriving back in London at the moment so any day.

I risked life and limb by walking past the Tern rafts at the Southern end, the young are quite well grown now but the adults are still very defensive and fly the couple of hundred metres to the bank to dive at any passersby, perhaps this is the secret to why the young are quite well grown, good for them.

PW

The Kite Runner

2011-07-15T16:54:00.000+01:00

23rd April 1993 I am sitting in Nancy’s Cafe, Cley; the pager goes off ....BLACK KITE Cley, going West, whoa! Jump in the car and head, hell for leather along the coast road. Long story short we get to Holme before the bird, unfortunately the bird has gone inland before it gets to Holme!

30th August 2003 I am sitting at home; the pager goes off....BLACK KITE over Barne Elms going North-east, hmmm. The pager goes off again a short while later....BLACK KITE over Regents Park, HMMMM! A map is whipped out, a line is drawn between the two and then extended. Whoa! This is going to cross the Lea Valley just North of the Banbury! A very short while later I am standing just North of the Banbury. The bird has decided on a different route presumably.

15th July 2011 it being a weekday I decided that the Waterworks would be suitably quiet for a visit. I have recently realised that the weekends are just too busy over there for any meaningful birding. I think I am beginning to realise that it is never quiet on the patch! The Heathrow bound jets roared overhead; the City airport planes screeched past, there was the constant hum of the A12 and the Lea Bridge Road. On the working waterboard site next door the stone crushing machine was so loud it almost drowned out the noise of the metal grinding machine. The pile driving equipment was pounding out and the trains and emergency vehicles came and went. Still no screaming kids, so not a total loss.

I was keeping one eye to the skies, which looked lovely with big puffy clouds, just right for some goody to fly over, and one eye to the ground checking for Butterflies and Dragonflies. It’s a good trick if you can manage it.

In the skies there was a fairly steady trickle of returning, mostly adult, Black-headed Gulls. A hunting Peregrine livened things up but drifted off toward Hackney. After a Cornetto and bottle of water from the Waterworks cafe I was ready to take on the Golf Course and the marsh. Brown Hawkers are out now and I saw a, presumably, Common Darter. A couple of Holly Blues were evidence of a second emergence, I guess.
I kept one of my eyes skyward and this was joined by both of my ears as I listened, in vain it turned out, for Crossbills. I was mentally compiling the blog title for when I finally get some of these flying over...Do you want chips with that? Hello Mr. Chips. Chips with everything. Etc. etc.

I had just about reached the Northern edge of the marsh when the pager went off; BLACK KITE....Beddington, flew North, an email to the same effect arrived soon after complete with web link to photos of the beast. Hmm, North eh? The wind was South-west and if it had not flown into the wind my guess was that it would go with the wind, which would take it to.....ME! This time I am ahead of the game.

I hurried round to the small mound at the back of the filter beds, which gives a pretty good panorama for skywatching, and scanned. In between scanning I checked the wind direction, compass bearing, distance from Beddington, variations for if it really did go North (I would still pick it up over the City) or if it went more North-east (I could still pick it up over Docklands or Stratford) I calculated flight speed with and without a tail wind and compensated for it meandering en route. This was surely as good as in the bag! To see pictures of the Kite that didn’t fly over Walthamstow have a look here:

http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/

Future date t.b.a; I am on the patch and look up....a Black Kite flies over.

PW

Site #5 Walthamstow Marsh

2011-07-15T16:47:00.001+01:00

Bordered to the South by the A104 Lea Bridge Rd, the West by the River Lea the North by Walthamstow Reservoirs and to the East by Lea Bridge Riding Centre the marshes can be a productive part of the patch. Though quite dry compared to the even fairly recent past the marsh can be pretty marshy in the winter but numerous routes remain walkable throughout the year.

Around the Ice Skating Centre are a few Birches and taller Trees which have held Redpolls and Spotted Flycatchers over the years, though neither are very regular. The first open space just to the North is actually part of Leyton marsh, it used to host the occasional funfair and circus but they seem to have moved across the Lea to Hackney in recent years. This mown grass field has little of interest but the edges are now left a bit overgrown and can hold Meadow Pipits in the Winter. The scrubby Eastern edge is good for all the locally breeding Warblers.

Beyond a line of tall Trees lays the ‘Bomb Crater Field’ landing site of a World War II V2 rocket, the actual crater is now a Reed filled pond with occasional Reed Buntings in the Summer and even more occasional Stonechats in the Winter. The field itself often contains the Walthamstow Cows and is very tussocky and wet. In Winter there are often Snipe and Meadow Pipits in good numbers but they can be impossible to see without walking through, there are gates at both ends. I have never had any problems with the Cows but best to give them a bit of space. I once flushed a Jack Snipe and I suspect they are fairly regular if you can find them. In the early Autumn Whinchats usually pass through.

There is a wooden boardwalk to the North of the field and to the North of that is another scrubby area which is good for Reed and Sedge Warblers, and this year a Grasshopper Warbler. The large Grassy field at the end of the boardwalk will one day hold a Richard’s Pipit, which is why I call it the Richard’s Pipit field, all that remains is for that day to come.

The next section of marsh is the other side of the railway line. There is access at the East and West sides of the marsh by going under the arches. One of these arches was the workshop of A.V.Roe who built and flew the first British plane right here in 1909, there is a blue plaque commemorating the event. Just under the railway line is a cut-off section of the marsh called the triangle, it is heavily overgrown nowadays and probably does not have much of interest but once held a Dartford Warbler, the only thing to be found there now are lurking men, it is not checked very often.

The next section of the marsh contains a dry Reedbed in one corner and an expanding thicket in the other, between lies a decent bit of marsh which in the Winter can be impassable without boots. A dry footpath follows the Lea for the whole length so it is not necessary to enter it if it looks too wet. Sometimes the Cows are on here. It can be busy on the weekends but mid-week it is fairly quiet. Good birds of the past include Corncrake, Sub-alpine Warbler and another Dartford Warbler. The thicket sometimes has Woodcock in the Winter and Chiffchaff , including a ‘siberian’ one year. I have seen Treecreeper and Marsh Tit in there both once and missed Firecrest a few times.

At the Northern end of this part of the marsh is the Marina and the Coppermill stream which borders the Southern edge of the reservoirs, Kingfisher is sometimes seen around here, Cetti’s Warbler, Pied Flycatcher, Siskin, Water Rail and even Long-eared Owl have been seen here.

The last part of the marsh can be reached by going under the ‘Cattle Creep’ a low railway bridge in the North-east corner which in turn leads to Coppermill Lane. The track that runs down from the car park takes you through another small field and around the back of the filter beds. If you go up the small bank behind the filter beds you get a reasonable view of the marsh and this can be a good vantage point for a skywatch. Walking South brings you back to the top end of the Riding Centre.

The marsh holds more than just Birds with resident Water Vole and Weasel amongst the Mammals, and a small selection of the commoner Dragonflies and Butterflies. It is pretty good for Plants too but someone else will have to tell that tale.

Dearth Wader

2011-07-10T17:32:00.001+01:00

The Autumn is underway, as was evidenced by my first two returning Shoveler, one on the East Warwick the other on No.3. I was hoping for Waders, I’m always hoping for Waders but Waders there were none. I only did the Southern reservoirs as a couple of folk had been up on the Lockwood and seen Common Sandpipers and an LRP so I knew it would throw my blog title off if I went up there!

There have been Black-tailed Godwits at Amwell, Rainham, Beddington etc. where are ours? Even Wanstead is getting Green Sandpipers!

I diligently checked through Swifts for anything with an Eastern flavour but the numbers were really down on yesterday and I drew a blank. Kingfishers were a bit more obvious than of late, so perhaps we are seeing fledged youngsters in addition to the adults.

As I got up to the North bank of the East Warwick a Fox trotted off with a large Rabbit in its jaws, I tried for a photo but you know the score. When I got to the Southern end of the reservoir I saw the same thing, I thought it strange that it would have carried its prey all the way around the reservoir but on looking closer it was a different Fox (can’t swear it was a different Rabbit, all dead Rabbits look much the same to me) so not a good day for Rabbits.

As I had said to myself earlier in the year that I would check out Gulls a bit more I diligently went round to the filter beds. It was a bit early in the Autumn and the afternoon for much of a build up but I checked them out nonetheless, nada. I had a Yellow-legged Gull over the house yesterday so just about keeping the patch yearlist ticking.

Next stop was the Waterworks which was high on noisy visitors and low on birds, perhaps there is a connection somewhere? Two Swallows going North-west confirmed the earlier Autumnal theme.

Despite this Butterfly being on the old Essex filter beds it was in fact a Small Skipper.

GH

Midday Sun

2011-06-26T22:07:00.003+01:00

Mad Dogs 0

Englishmen 1

It was not quite midday, more like 14:00, but it was a touch warm this afternoon, still, undeterred I went out.

There were 704* people on the marsh this afternoon and I saw most of them, it was , however, relatively peaceful. Maybe the heat sapped the energy of the other marsh users, it pretty much sapped mine. I am not sure what I expected to see (no Crossbills as it happens, one day, one day) but I concentrated my efforts on the smaller creatures of the marsh.

A Large Skipper was my first for the year, other Butterflies were thin on the ground with a few Whites, both Large and Small a couple of Commas and a few Small Tortoiseshells. Dragonflies were not exactly plentiful either but a few Emperors showed well, including a rare perched up view of this usually constantly patrolling Insect. The only others were some Azure/Common Damselflies which I have both forgotten how and lost interest in trying to identify.

New for me on the marsh was a Leech in one of the ditches, Brown and about 75mm in length, not sure what species this is most likely to be. There were also, surprisingly, a number of Birds still singing in the heat of the day including Song Thrush and Lesser Whitethroat.

The most interesting Bird behaviour was a gathering of Swifts and Sand Martins over the Lea, behind the Ice Skating Rink, coming down to have a drink. The water was fairly undisturbed but still a supreme piece of precision flying to just dip the lower mandible of your bill in the water at 50 kph knowing that if you get it wrong you will not be flying again.

My thirst slaking took place at home later and was a much more sedate affair.

PW

*actual number undetermined.

Gulls ruled Offside

2011-06-25T18:00:00.003+01:00

There are 704 Geese on Walthamstow reservoirs, and today I saw most of them, it’s not what I was hoping for. Pete counted them in the week and, despite such thoroughness failed to turn up the Red-crested Pochard, so maybe it has moved on.

I spent a considerable time up on the Lockwood, hoping for a wandering flock of Crossbill to cross my path, but the best on offer was two fluffy Black-headed Gulls on one of the rafts. At the North end three Common Sandpipers together were probably Southbound returning migrants.

When I returned to the Southern end I spent a bit of time building watching (you can tell its Summer can’t you). There are one or two spots around the reservoir from which you can see the top of the Emirates stadium, Tottenham’s ground of course it right next to the Lockwood and Orient is fairly obvious but I tried in vain to get a sight of West Ham’s ground. I was going to start a thread on the Londonbirders group about which patch has views of the most premiership grounds but I don’t think we would win with just two so I will drop that one. The top of St. Paul’s Cathedral was showing well, as it probably has done for many a year and the world’s ugliest new sculpture is growing steadily on the Olympic site, I will grace you with a picture when it’s finished.

My attention was dragged back to the reservoir, however, by quite a racket coming from the Tern raft, the adults seemed to be mobbing something on the raft, I was puzzled because all I could see were Terns, young and old. The mystery was solved when two very large ‘Tern’ chicks were unceremoniously herded into the water and swam back to the Black-headed Gull raft. The answer to the question “how good is a young Black-headed Gull’s sense of homing?” is, not particularly good, they had obviously gone for a swim and climbed aboard the wrong raft.

Still missing Yellow-legged Gull for my patch year list I thought I would check out the pre-roost gathering of Gulls on the filter beds off Coppermill Lane. It’s early days, the Summer only just having started and the day was still fairly young but there were a few Gulls building up including at least 5 Greater Black-backed Gulls and a second summer Herring Gull which was ringed with a metal ring on the left leg and a white Darvic ring on the right, too far away to be read and the CR-Ringing website seems to have been altered so I couldn’t look up it’s likely origin but I have a feeling it is somewhere ‘mundane’ like Pitsea rather than Arctic Russia or another exotic locale.

PW

Red Letter (Shank, Crest and Eye) Day

2011-06-20T16:02:00.002+01:00

A rare Monday off had me arrange to meet Lol up on the Lockwood early morning, early morning became mid-morning and the Lockwood was blown out when Lol phoned to say he had just seen some yoofs coming from there and they would probably have flushed any lurking Waders. Hey-ho!

We proceeded over to the South side of the reservoirs and bumped into a nice little flock of assorted Warblers in the Lea-side Willows North of the East Warwick; A couple of Lesser Whitethroats, Garden Warbler, Blackcap, lots of Whitethroats and a few Chiffchaffs and Great Tits thrown in for good measure.

On the East Warwick itself Lol spotted a Summer-plumaged Redshank, (a day earlier than last year’s first) perhaps the yoofs had sent it our way. So although it is technically the last day of Spring it means that in reality it is now Autumn.

We both noted a chestnut coloured Duck on the bank and (at least my) thoughts turned to Ferruginous Duck, which it wasn’t. Reminiscing on the old days, Ferruginous Duck was seen on quite a few occasions and often on the East Warwick, usually under the trees on the now denuded island, so I speculated that we should be on the lookout for another one of these days.

As if to emphasize the changing of the seasons (Summer does not exist in birding terms, it being subsumed into Spring and Autumn) the first returning drake Teal appeared at the North end and a couple of Gadwall were at the South end. There were large gatherings of non-breeding Tufted Duck and Pochard and great herds of Canada and Greylag Geese. On reaching No.4 reservoir I was stunned to see a moulting adult drake Red-crested Pochard. This is a puzzling species, most originating from the ever expanding feral population but a few genuine migrants certainly occur. It seems to be annual at Stoke Newington and, just a couple of weeks ago, there was one in Clissold Park both just a stone’s throw away, but this was only my second on the patch, the first as long ago as the 7th of November 1989!

The other ‘Red’ creature was a good deal smaller, a Red-eyed Damselfly on the Coppermill stream, there were a few of them plus some Common Damselflies and one of my favourites, Banded Demoiselles. We staked out the island on No.5 hoping for some Kingfisher action but to no avail, perhaps they have fledged. We did see one zip across No.1 earlier.

Talking of fledging Pete has been keeping an eye on the Little Egrets and reports 10 pairs with 32 fledged young, some are now settling down for second broods, wow! Black-headed Gull has bred, probably for the first time. Shelducks have had at least four broods, totalling at least 37 young, which may also be a record. It looks like Little Ringed Plover may be breeding too, as they have been seen quite frequently for over two months now,though we are not sure where. Great Black-backed Gulls seem to be summering now (or should that be Spring-Autumning?), although just a few immature birds this year, could they be the next colonist?

PW

All the News (That's Fit to Print)

2011-06-18T16:59:00.002+01:00

Was admiring Pete L's handwriting in the bird log at the fishing lodge on Tuesday (using an inverted bin technique recently learnt) when in walked the author. He in turn was interested in an entry "No. 4-5 Adult Gannet flying South - Ray T"....when in walked the author. A discussion followed, Pete L commenting that the Gannet should be busy breeding (elsewhere).

Later a group of about 12 people, some with bins including Pete L, were congregated by the entrance. I asked Pete what was happening and he told me it was a meeting to discuss the formation of a wetlands area.

Paul B, News at 5pm, Walthamstow Reservoirs

Meeting was very uninformative; co-ordinator was very vague on what might happen.

Pete (he of the small writing) L, Roving correspondent

I, like Pete L, was a bit incredulous with the Gannet sighting, which is no reflection on Ray T's abilities, just the unlikeliness of the record given the time of the year, weather conditions and lack of supporting cast etc. Today an adult Gannet was seen over in the South-west of London, which could even be the same bird, so on the list it goes. Kudos to Mr T.

Paul (sceptical, who me?) W

Site #4 Lee Valley Riding Centre

2011-06-09T21:15:00.002+01:00

http://www.leevalleypark.org.uk/en/content/cms/leisure/activities_and_sport/riding_centre/riding_centre.aspx

Running North from Lea Bridge Rd we have the stables and paddocks which are set out on Leyton Marsh. A gravel footpath, which used to be an old water channel, goes up the Western side and the Eastern side is bounded by the Lea overflow channel.

The front paddocks often hold Winter Thrushes, Fieldfares and Redwings well into the Spring. Mistle Thrushes are resident and also get on the back paddock. The side paddocks are good for Wagtails and lately are attracting Jackdaws which have started to colonise lower Walthamstow and Leyton.

The line of Trees that separate the stables from the back paddock are the home of one of the local pairs of Little Owls, though seeing them is a very hit and miss affair. The South side of the third Tree from the East is often favoured but the angle is critical and leaf cover in the Spring/Summer means that it is only really worthwhile looking during the Autumn/Winter. The only place you won’t see them is in the unused nest box especially erected for them!

The back paddock gets the same stuff as the front and sides but with the added prospect of Wintering Finches, it is the best part of the patch for Linnet. Stock Doves often build up on here, with flocks well into double figures possible. Wheatears and Yellow Wagtails appear on passage and almost anything could be possible, Ring Ouzel, Whinchat and even Stone Curlew have occurred.

The path down the West side has most of the breeding Warblers of the patch. The Trees at the Southern end have held Redstart and Spotted Flycatcher in Autumn. The overflow channel sometimes has Green Sandpiper in the Winter, especially at the North end just as it goes underground.

Damp Squib (or Parade not Rained on)

2011-05-30T17:19:00.003+01:00

Not to be confused with a damp squid, which is generally their preferred state. Is it possible for a drought to make something damp? In this case, I think yes. The lack of rain in these parts has doused all expectations of migrant excitement in this most exciting of migrant months; May. Our parade of vagrants has been well and truly rained on or, in this case, not. I think I am glad it’s nearly over. It means we can get started on June, which of course is expected to be poor and therefore by the rule of Murphy will spill forth all sorts of Birdy goodness.

I went out this morning for my last hurrah of the Spring, as it turned out it wasn’t so bad. First up was a flock of 6 Jackdaws flying East over the North end of the Lockwood. I stared at the Southern edge of Epping Forest (Chingford) willing a Buzzard out of the woods, as I usually do at the top end of the Lockwood, only for some strange reason this time it worked!

When looking for Raptors it is often good to let the other Birds find them for you, a couple of Crows and a Lesser Black-backed Gull did the honours for me and drew attention to, what I assume was a Southbound migrant. It took an age to get overhead in the brisk Southerly wind and finally move off towards Leyton.

There were plenty of young birds about this morning, some of them about to be fed to other young birds it would seem. A Sparrowhawk with prey headed toward Tottenham Marsh, followed later by a Kestrel also with prey. I saw what I initially took to be a Peregrine seemingly about to stoop on a Lesser Black-backed Gull but as the attacker drew close I realised that the protagonist was a Kestrel, it puzzled me for a moment before I realised it was not hunting but seeing off a nest raid. At the South end of the Lockwood another party of 3 Jackdaws flew East.

On the Southern Reservoirs a family party of Shelducks looked really cute. Really cute and apparently tasty as a few minutes later I saw a Peregrine circling above with what to all intents and purposes looked like a baby Shelduck, it attracted the attentions of an irate territorial Common Tern but eventually soared high enough to lose it. I was quite interested to see what direction it headed off in as we don’t really know which Peregrines hunt over Walthamstow. It chose South-west towards the City. All of a sudden it lost its grip and dropped the poor unfortunate creature and I thought I was going to see a spectacular stoop as it retrieved its lunch, unfortunately a Lesser Black-backed Gull beat it to it and the Peregrine drifted off South. It’s the second hunting failure I have witnessed in the last couple of weeks so perhaps this is not so much a breeding Bird but a non-breeding immature. It seems to be able to catch food, let’s hope it gets a bit better at holding onto it.

I checked the Shelducks and counted 9 young, shame I didn’t count them before the incident to see whether it really was one of their Ducklings (Shel-Ducklings?) that was nabbed. The whole family were keeping quite close together on No.3, the adults shadowing the young as they swam up and down at the North end, feeding. What I found intriguing was that the young were constantly diving! To my knowledge this is never used as a feeding technique by adults, when do they stop doing this and start grazing/dabbling like their parents?

The island on No.2 held at least 20 Little Egrets and, continuing the White theme a family of Mute Swans walked the edge of No.4 looking for a way up onto the bank.

PW

On this date: 30 05 83 Walthamstow 16:15-18:45 Sunny intervals, warm; A female Pochard with Ducklings also 3 pairs of Common Tern on eggs on small island of gravel. Also with chicks, Canada & Greylag Geese, Coot and Reed Bunting. Many Reed and Sedge Warblers, 2 Cuckoos on West Warwick and Walthamstow Marsh. A drake Wood Duck on the reservoirs.

p.s. As I write this it is pouring down and I know Waders are dropping into the Reservoirs!

Heroes Wanted

2011-05-29T17:02:00.004+01:00

You will know doubt remember (!) that last year’s 129th species for the Walthamstow Patch Year List was.....Cuckoo. And this year’s 129th species is.....Cuckoo. Perhaps not an earth-shattering coincidence as most of the year list is fairly predictable and arrives with fairly predictable timing but worthy of mention nonetheless.

Number 130 last year was Redshank, of which we have seen a hatful already this year, and we had to wait about a month for it (21 06 2010). What is worrying is that this year we have seen quite a few of the birds that had yet to turn up in 2010. It makes me wonder; what will the second half of the year bring?

Seen already by now in 2010, but not thus far in 2011: Yellowhammer, Whooper Swan, Brent Goose, Bittern, Slavonian Grebe, Black-necked Grebe, Dusky Warbler, Black Redstart, Brambling, Hooded Crow, Tree Pipit, Little Gull, Sandwich Tern, Turtle Dove, (Blue-headed Wagtail).

Seen during the second half of the year in 2010, but not yet in 2011: Redstart, Merlin, Spotted Flycatcher, Ring Ouzel, Firecrest, Water Pipit, Golden Plover, Shag, White-fronted Goose.

So if you feel like making a name for yourself you could do worse than going out in the Summer doldrums and finding one of the above, or better still something new.

PW

Target Practice

2011-05-25T13:52:00.004+01:00

After quite a decent night’s sleep the day dawned bright and tempted me into one of those rare early morning sorties that I should do more often, though we all know nothing good is ever seen early at Walthamstow.

Being a Birder, and not a Birdwatcher, I had a few targets in mind; Marsh Warbler, Common Rosefinch, Spotted Flycatcher, Crossbill, Quail, Corncrake and Golden Oriole. Why so? I hear you say, well Birding without targets is a bit like a game of Football without the goalposts, you might not score but it makes the 90 minutes much more exciting if you’ve got something to aim for.

Why those particular targets? Well, it’s all down to the date, the habitat, what’s turning up around the country and what I still need for the patch or year. None of them were totally outlandish prospects, though admittedly most of them were fairly long shots, and, as it turned out all of them were somewhat off target.

On Marsh Lane Fields the two Bunnies of a few weeks ago had mysteriously become 15, wow those things really do breed like Rabbits. The Lesser Whitethroat was still singing, likewise a couple of Chiffchaffs, in fact Warblers were very much in evidence across the Southern part of the patch today.

I’ve always wondered why the Golf Course doesn’t seem to attract flocks of Geese, well today a couple of Canada’s discovered it, that should please the Golfers. I tried, again, for the invisible Mandarin in the Lea by the outflow of the overflow channel, nada. I hoped for the Grasshopper Warbler to still be singing and contemplated getting closer by walking through the Giant Hogweed patch but something prompted me to give it a miss, probably my Left hand which I still can’t close into a fist. A Reed Warbler was going for Gold in the very small clump of Reeds there, I don’t remember hearing one here before.

After this I had to run the gamut of Dogs and their walkers, the latter deciding how much fun it would be to let their mutts run right up to me! I don’t make my Birds fly up to them, come to think of it I don’t even get them flying up to me.

Expediency forced me to cut across the Friends Bridge and through the Middlesex N.R., I obviously kept my eyes down and hummed, lest I should spy anything in Hackney, which would never do! Breathing a sigh of relief I crossed the Lea Bridge Road (the under pass by the Princess of Wales is being Olympified and will re-open soon in all its glory) and re-entered the patch. Sand Martins are still hanging around the holes in the banks of the Lea just behind the Skating Rink, presumably breeding by now, and there were lots of Swifts over the Lea too, I guess there is good nesting to be had in the large houses of Clapton.

The footpath along the side of the Lea running up to the Marina has also been upgraded, a nice job too, very smooth and sandy compared to the rutted dirt track of yesteryear, let’s hope it wears and weathers well. The dust certainly doesn’t get kicked up by passing cars as it used to on the old track. It even got the Heron seal of approval.

My nose does not work very well (how do I smell? Ask my wife!) but, as I walked back down the East side of the marsh my olfactory senses were whacked by the heady scent of Honeysuckle. Thanks to pioneering technology you can experience this for yourself [just scratch the picture below and sniff] this may work best if you do it actually on the marsh.

Young Birds were a feature of the morning, Greenfinches and especially Starlings, which seem earlier than normal, also quite a few young Robins, some already losing their spots and getting an Orange flush to their breasts. On the back paddock a young Linnet was confirmation of breeding. Almost as surreptious as their disappearance is the re-appearance of the House Sparrow which can be seen at any number of places around the patch nowadays, can’t see Tree Sparrows doing the same as the nearest ones to here must be at least 10-15 miles away.

Around this point I started walking a little faster as I remembered, another essential target for the morning but then realised that the Waterworks cafe would not be open for another hour, so slowed down again.

The Little Owl Trees are nearly totally leafed up now, though there is just one narrow gap that they could be seen in but not today. A party of young Foxes in the undergrowth near the stables were amusing and as a bonus they didn’t run up to me. (It's a little like finding Waldo, but there is a Fox in there)

At the Waterworks N.R. a Little Egret flew over. On the little floating island on the first flooded bed a drake Pochard was preening and revealed that it was rung, I got my scope out to try and read it, though it’s doubtful what I would have got at that range, but at that point it slipped into the water. Interestingly further down the Lea at East India Dock N.R. they have just had two ‘nose saddled’ Pochard which, I believe, turned out to be Portuguese in origin.

Just when it seemed like none of my targets were going to be hit I arrived at the Waterworks cafe and lo!

PW

It Ain't Over Till It's Over

2011-05-22T19:43:00.003+01:00

Apparently May is the new June; everyone is saying it and everyone can’t be wrong, surely. Notwithstanding I decided a visit to the reservoirs was in order just in case a Wader had dropped in after last night’s rain.

I met up with Pete at the bottom of No.5 and he filled me in with what he had seen thus far...not so much, though he had been watching the Kingfishers coming and going at the nest hole on the island of No.5. There were lots of Cormorants around, many young have recently fledged. Herons too were in good numbers.

We found a Swan Goose on the South side of the reservoir, the Red-breasted Goose in a paddock to the East of the Reservoir and the Barnacle Goose was sat on No.4. Later a Water Bailiff told us there had been a Bar-headed Goose knocking around too, sounds like the place is not far off from becoming a wildfowl collection.

On the island of No.2 young Little Egrets were plentiful, Pete counted them but I forget how many he made it (something like 6 nests with about 18-20 young) there are probably a few other nest that are not visible and maybe some non-breeding adults too, so a local population currently of around 50. If the weather holds they will almost certainly go for a second brood.

We received news of 2 Little Ringed Plovers and 2 Yellow Wagtails on the Lockwood, which is where we were heading. Swift numbers have built up over the last few days; though still strike me as on the low side, unusually a Sparrowhawk, masquerading as a Hobby, was hunting through a large group over the High Maynard.

We walked up the side of the Lockwood and as Pete checked out some potentially nesting Egyptian Geese I thought my pager was going off, he thought it was something calling from the island on the High Maynard, what it actually was, was a nervous Little Ringed Plover that we had inadvertently stood next to. If it had not called we would have walked straight past.

Further up the bank a smart summer-plumaged Dunlin was working the edge, reluctant to fly, no doubt due to the strong wind.

The only other sighting of any consequence was the weird leucistic Starling, which is now nesting next to the Lockwood; it will be interesting to see what the young come out like.

As ever Pete was a mine of information and as a result we can add a couple of species to the patch year list, an ancient Oystercatcher seen back in the Winter and a Cuckoo which he saw very briefly last week. If only Walthamstow was watched more comprehensively, there must be so many things which slip through unnoticed. Perhaps we shouldn’t write May off just yet.....

PW

Tern Again

2011-05-21T23:39:00.001+01:00

Just received this picture of one of the Black Terns from the 4th May, thanks to John Murray.

Proper Gropper

2011-05-17T22:29:00.003+01:00

Yay!

Gropper still in the same area, though can't pin it down.

Lol B

That's What Friends Are For

2011-05-15T21:26:00.001+01:00

I received a text this morning that Pete L had found a Grasshopper Warbler on the Wild Marsh East, during the survey of Tottenham Marsh by The Friends of Tottenham Marshes. WME is of course well and truly part of the patch (plus it’s in E17 and not Tottenham, being the scrubby bit between the Lockwood and Banbury) but we are not ones to quibble here, after all a patch is a personal thing and you can count what you want. I do!

Lol and I had already planned to do the Banbury and maybe the Lockwood but we were easily persuaded to give the Gropper a bash, metaphorically speaking. We bumped into George on the marsh and he was able to narrow down the search area. Apparently the bird had not been singing much since it was found and hadn’t shown at all. A judicious bit of playback soon saw it fly out of cover and drop in near to us, it didn’t sing at all nor did it show again. We decided not to harass the bird so moved on to the Banbury, though Lol said he might pop over there later this evening.

As far as anyone knows this year seems to be fairly unprecedented for local Grasshopper Warblers, with possibly 4 on (or just off but audible from) the patch, though there could be some duplication I suppose, I hope it is a sign of things to come and hope too that some of them managed to attract a mate.

There were no Waders at all on the Banbury, which is currently quite low, but expectations in that area are not always fulfilled. The large group of Terns that were present on Friday had grown and were now numbering at least 60, there were some very Arcticy looking individuals amongst them but they were mostly staying over the far side. Often they bunched up as a tight group and we suspected a Raptor of being the cause, it wasn’t long before Lol spotted a Peregrine which had a prolonged hunting sortie over the reservoir, eventually it caught a large immature Gull but we both missed the catch. All the other Gulls, Terns and Crows didn’t miss it though and gave the Peregrine such a hard time that it dropped the unfortunate creature and after another 10 minutes gave up all together.

As a result some of the Terns moved a bit closer and we were able to confirm 2-3 as Arctic, though there could have been a few more.

On this date: 15 05 94 On Walthamstow Marsh a singing male (Western) Sub-alpine Warbler seen a few times as it clambered around in Hawthorns near the level crossing.
PW

Not Again

2011-05-14T17:36:00.004+01:00

History repeated itself yesterday, whilst on the way home, when Lol texted me about a Ringed Plover on the Banbury. It probably has to do with the time that Lol gets out on the patch that coincides with me heading home from a hard day at the office, anyhoo, shortly thereafter, I dropped in to the Banbury en route to meeting a friend for drinks. History repeated itself again when there was no sign of it, just like last years Ringed Plover on the Lockwood. (note to Lol: nail the next one down! Note to me: get there quicker or find your own!)

All was not lost as it was a very pleasant evening to be spending a half hour scanning the Banbury after being cooped up all day and, amongst the 30+ Terns zipping about at least one was an Arctic.

Today I felt like trying my luck with the Golf Course Mandarin again, typically the feeling was less than mutual. On my way I walked around the Lammas Fields and was pleasantly surprised to hear a singing Lesser Whitethroat and moments later, even better, a singing Garden Warbler. 370m from my house...I wonder....if the wind went round to the South-west would they be audible? Garden Warbler would be a new bird for the house list but I suspect this one will not be the bird that gets it on the list. If I wake up at dawn, which seems to be happening more often lately, I may well pop my head out of the window, you never know.

There was nothing exceptional on the Waterworks later in the afternoon but this Little Grebe was quite confiding.

PW

Burn Baby Burn!

2011-05-07T19:12:00.004+01:00

I had a crack at the Hackney Grasshopper Warbler yesterday; it involved walking through the vegetation by the outflow of the Lea overflow channel by the Southern end of the Golf course. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Do not do this!

There is an invasive introduced plant that grows quite commonly by the Lea; Giant Hogweed. It has a phytophotodermatatic poison. That is, the sap when exposed to sunlight burns like hell. And no, I didn’t see the Grasshopper Warbler, or the on/off Mandarin which frequents the same area on occasion but I did get sapped.

On the Lockwood later in the afternoon I got a good dose of sunlight on the sapped areas.....ouch! Birdwise there was a large female Peregrine scaring the living daylights out of the 40ish Common Terns, 3 Common Sandpipers and a Wheatear. A very uncomfortable night followed.

Today we had rain, Spring + Rain=Waders right? Well after a fashion. I walked the length of the Lockwood and met Lol at the North end, we had the 3 Common Sandpipers and on the way back down a Redshank appeared from nowhere, (nowhere is a place well worth checking out given how many birds seem to appear from there!) it had a predilection for landing on water when disturbed, odd when there was plenty of edge to land on.

On the Southern complex the Garden Warbler was still singing North of the East Warwick, there were 4 more Common Sandpipers on the reservoir itself and at least 3 Hobbies drifted over. A Black Tern was over the West Warwick and a further 2 Common Sandpipers were on No.5.

PW

Dan's the Man

2011-05-04T19:46:00.002+01:00

Afetr his exceptional May Waxwings yesterday at the filter beds, Dan B scored again with the first Black Terns of the year. A duo over the Low Maynard. I got a text whilst on the Bus home (thanks Lol) but was soon scoping them, albeit at vast range, from the bottom of Coppermill Lane, having been tipped off that they were on No.4/5. They had returned to the Low Maynard but were emminently doable. Pretty much annual, but never lingering for long, this is one species I didn't want to miss.

PW

An Ill Wind

2011-05-03T07:38:00.002+01:00

A nocturnal bout of indigestion had me standing by the bedroom window for some air whilst a ‘Rennie’ kicked in. It was a fortuitous bit of timing as I was able to hear the strange and confusing call of a wandering Coot. It is by no means the first time I have heard it from the house, but the first time it took some research to figure out what was making the noise.

The nearest Coots to me are a good 800m away and can’t be seen from the house. Just as well I count ‘heards only’ for the house list. The calls can be checked out here:

http://www.xeno-canto.org/europe/browse.php?query=coot&pagenumber=2&order=taxonomy&view=0&pagenumber=1

PW

Oiseaux du Jour (Godwits are off but try the Gropper)

2011-05-02T19:26:00.006+01:00

I was itching to get on the patch after a weekend away, hoping for a Bar-tailed Godwit, the bird-du-jour. There is a, probably unprecedented, passage of these taking place up channel at the moment and many are cutting the corner and coming through London.

However I was also offered a space on a trip to Dungeness this morning which was almost as tempting (Mmm....Spring Pom) the starting time was 04:00; so Walthamstow it was then!

First up was the Lockwood, sans Godwits, I’m afraid. Best were 2 Common Sandpipers and a fly through Little Ringed Plover, battling in todays, very annoying, wind. Swifts had increased tremendously and there was well into three figures floating around. On the Low Maynard a hybrid Tufted x Pochard (probably visiting from Stoke Newington or Alexandra Palace) was chasing a female Pochard with about six other male Pochard. Such uncouth behaviour!

I bumped into Mike M later and he greeted me with those dreaded words.....’I know what I wanted to tell you!’ Actually he is a mine of information and always has something new to reveal of what has been seen on the lower patch. My ears were well and truly pricked.

‘That Mandarin has been seen quite a few times from the Golf Course (Grr.) The Little Owl has been seen a few times by the Lea too (Grrr.) Oh, and I had a male Whinchat on the marsh last week (Grrrr.) And (there was an and!) I had a Grassshopper Warbler on the marsh since I last saw you’.

Oh! When was that? ‘Tuesday 26th’ Hmm, interesting, Dave M had one on the 22nd. It can’t be the same bird can it? Perhaps we can check it out later. We popped over to the Southern reservoirs first and tried for Pete L’s Garden Warbler, he’s been seeing/hearing one for about 10 days now just North of the East Warwick in a Willow, I’m glad to say it’s still there (he had it later this afternoon too). There was not too much to report from the rest of the site so, after a Coffee stop we headed for the marsh. Zip on the riding stables Little Owl but 2 Yellow Wagtails flew over the back paddock, one landing and showing well. A Wheatear was still present, could it really be the same one or do we have a constant turnover of Wheatears in the paddock? There were quite a few singing Lesser Whitethroats too, one of which gave me a chance for photography.

Then onto the boardwalk, Eastern end if you are interested, nothing much stirred so I suggested we walk about twenty metres towards the railway line where Mike had seen the Gropper last week. I played my iphone briefly and a Grasshopper Warbler flew up and dropped into the Reedy edge, not prolonged views but enough to see it’s yellowy underside, darkish Olive back and rounded tail as it landed. A few moments later it appeared at the edge of the Reeds and sang for a few seconds, remaining on view just long enough to tempt me to try for a photograph, needless to say not long enough for me to succeed. This was definitely bird of the day, my only patch records were of singing birds in June/July 1982 and on a couple of dates in August 1991, so at this rate the next is due about 2026......unless this is an extremely cryptic visitor, after all they really prefer to sing at dusk, which is not my favourite time for visiting the marsh.

The Mandarin had chosen to swim back down to Hackney, the Little Owl by the Lea was a no show, though at least I now know the Tree and the Waterworks gave us precious few additions to the day list, though Green Sandpiper and Snipe are still persisting. All in I had 69 species for the day, which is fairly respectable but I could have done with a few more Waders and Terns. The guys got the spring Poms by the way, am I bovvered though?

PW

Most Stones Left Unturned

2011-05-01T16:40:00.002+01:00

I have been away for the weekend, in a mostly bird free Shropshire, obviously worrying about the flocks of Bar-tailed Godwits that must surely have been plying their way over Walthamstow. When I got back this afternoon I checked with Pete L on what's been happening. I guessed that he had been responsible for the '5 Turnstones North over the Lockwood' pager message this morning, as indeed he had, but he also told me that there had been another reported on the Fish cage on No. 5.

Well it wasn't there when I peered through the fence at the bottom of Coppermill Lane later. However a Common Sandpiper was picking it's way around the edge and I was grateful for that having conspired to miss the species so far this year. Apparently they are all over the complex today so I will probably see hordes of them tomorrow when I get over there properly.

Another well overdue patch year tick and year tick in general was in the shape of a Swift, well 30 of them to be more precise, high over the Warwicks.

On this date: 01 05 90 Walthamstow produced ten species of summer migrant today including; 5-6 Common Terns, Swifts, Willow Warbler, Yellow Wagtail, all three Hirundines and Little Ringed Plover.

PW

Arctic roll

2011-04-29T00:25:00.005+01:00

Had my first Arctic terns of the spring from the house over the Lockwood this evening - 4 birds N at 18.22 to be precise...and I'd been expecting them. Always a delight to see these ultimate long distance migrants so close to home, and only a day later than last year.
Talking to Mr Whiteman, seems he also had a first of the year - a Hobby from his window. Yet to see one of these thus far or more surprisingly perhaps, a Swift, given the recent prolonged warm spell...escaping to the countryside this bank holiday weekend (not least cos of a certain wedding taking place), so they'll have to wait.
The 2 accompanying pics are of a Dunlin seen on the East Warwick on the 15th along with a very sick-looking, semi-submerged Herring gull- diseased perhaps? Who knows, but probably a mere skeleton by now.
LB

No Question, It Was Over The Patch

2011-04-24T21:40:00.003+01:00

After a tip off from Wanstead, I was out in the garden at 21:00 waiting for the predicted flypast of the International Space Station. It was supposed to appear at 21:03, by 21:04 I was becoming doubtful but 30 seconds later it was there, cruising serenely Eastwards.

According to Wikipedia 'the station is maintained at an orbit between 278 km (173 mi) and 460 km (286 mi) altitude, and travels at an average speed of 27,743.8 km/h (17,239.2 mph), completing 15.7 orbits per day', apparently.

I just thought Wow! as it went over.

Can you tell what it is yet?

PW

Plastic Fantastic

2011-04-23T20:38:00.001+01:00

Roy W and team were doing a big day in Essex and asked if we could assist with a few species, Walthamstow is becoming an essential stopover for London/Essex day listing nowadays, so naturally we obliged.

They had done pretty well from pre-dawn till they arrived at about 08:30 and had a lot of other stops planned so the route was a short one, ‘not far from the entrance gate’ was Roy’s request!

We blasted down to the East Warwick and got the required Kingfisher, bonus Shoveler, probably the last one left from the winter, Little Egret etc. Then a dash up to the bottom of the Lockwood for any Waders still around, sadly the smog, plus noxious fumes from the nearby warehouse fire at the Billet put paid to scoping any dots at the far end and they had to leave Waderless, they very nearly had to leave Grey Wagtailless but one flew in as they were walking away.

As I was up there I thought I might as well slog round and see if any of Lol’s Common Sandpipers were still around. He had two yesterday evening after I had been up there all afternoon. Half way along the East bank I was stopped in my tracks by this little beauty.....

....rather too tame for comfort but new for the site (uncountable though) perhaps it comes from the same place as this farmyard type Goose which has recently appeared on the West side of the Lockwood.

At the far end the Greenshank was still around and one of the LRP’s but no Common Sands. A Meadow Pipit and Yellow Wagtail flew over. Common Tern numbers are building.

Later a look around the ‘Triangle’ on Walthamstow marsh revealed many random lone men hiding in the undergrowth, no Grasshopper Warblers and my first Dragon of the year, a Four-spotted Chaser. It has really grown up a lot in there since the last time I had a look around (when the 1989 Dartford Warbler used to get in there) strangely it’s not a part of the patch I check very often. Interestingly a Pheasant called from the marsh, I have not had one here for quite a while, so nice to know they are still around. With Pheasant and Red-legged Partridge in the last couple of weeks, what's next...Quail? Grey Partridge?

The Wheatear was still in the back paddock, the Little Owl was absent as it usually is when Lol is present and the service at the Princess of Wales was as surly as ever, though the Beer was cold and wet, unlike me that was hot and wet so a perfect combination.

We walked back to the car at the other end of the marsh very much refreshed and decided to have a little skywatch as it was now clouding up. We peered South, watching for the Raptor/Crane/Stork that will surely one day come our way, when out of the corner of my eye a pointy winged bird, backlit by the Sun and looking quite dark, flew from behind us going South, my first thought was that ‘Tern is not a Gull and it’s dark, could be a Black Tern’ as soon as I raised my bins I realised that ‘that Tern is not a Tern, in fact it’s a Wader and what’s more it’s a Whimbrel’ It didn’t call and as quickly as it appeared it disappeared behind a Tree never to be seen again.

On this date: 23 04 83 07:30-09:00, Wind SE2, showery; 10-12 Swifts at Walthamstow also 2 House Martin, 4 Sand Martins and 1 Swallow. 9 Sedge, 1 Reed and 1 Willow Warbler. 3 Common Terns and 2 Yellow Wagtails represented summer migrants with a pair of Teal and a male Shoveler left from winter. 1 pair of Mallard with 18 young!

PW

Reeling Them In

2011-04-22T17:45:00.000+01:00

Out at a more reasonable hour this morning and first up was the Waterworks, singing Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps abounded. 2 Snipe in one of the beds and frustratingly brief views of a silent Warbler that could have been a Cetti’s, will have to keep an ear/eye out for that one. Gangs of pumped up male Pochards were stalking the few very nervous looking females present.

A Little Owl was actively preening at the mouth of its Tree hole, the way the leaves are shooting up they will not be visible for many more days. To the East of the riding stables I was halted in my tracks by the distinctive sound of a singing Savi’s Warbler! There is no suitable habitat, though it does look good for Grasshopper Warbler. I stood puzzled for a while. Thinking back to last week’s episode with a ‘tacking’ train, I wondered whether it could be some sort of mechanical noise from the industrial site across the overflow channel. It didn’t call again (or more likely the operative didn’t switch the machine on again, so I moved on.) A Wheatear was in the back paddock and a few Linnets flew over. A singing Lesser Whitethroat eventually gave itself up. As it got warmer I had a quick look from the viewing mound that backs onto the filter beds, there were quite a few House Martins over the F.B. but no Raptors on the wing. No sooner had I walked away than the Gulls went wild! I turned round to see a Buzzard barely at Pylon height, being mobbed, where did that come from? Maybe it had been sat on the pylon!

On the Lockwood in the early afternoon I saw a Greenshank and after a short skylisten (it’s similar to a skywatch except you do it with your eyes shut lying on your back) a pair of Little Ringed Plovers appeared from nowhere, maybe the same birds as last week. A singing Lesser Whitethroat, Yellow Wagtail and hunting Peregrine (man those things can move!) completed the days line up. 65 species, a good day. Though somehow managed to miss Swift and Garden Warbler and maybe Grasshopper Warbler (see Dave’s post below) on the marsh this morning.

On this day: 22 04 91 1 Greenshank, 9 Dunlin and 2 Little Ringed Plovers on the High Maynard. 4 House Martins and 1+ Yellow Wagtail over the Lockwood.

PW

Out Early This Morning (for me)

2011-04-22T17:00:00.000+01:00

I went over to the marshes at about 6.45 this morning and it was for the most part fairly predictable, but when I returned south from Coppermill Fields I heard a Grasshopper Warbler-like reel near the railways. Obviously the overhead powerlines, but No, it stopped. I was never able to see the bird of course as I was on the wrong side of the lines/fence, but it seemed to be ensconced in what I call the Low Hall triangle, in between the Low Hall curve and the other railway lines. Lot of Linnets down the east side of the large riding paddock and then a bird I haven't seen around here for ages, a female Yellow Wagtail feeding around the muzzle of a grey horse, out on it's own. No Wheatears but the Wagtail was a far better bird for me.

Also a retraction as I've started off the year with some dodgy botanising. My Early Forget-me-not, a plant which does occur in the valley, is in fact Common Cornsalad, a plant I've never been very familar with and which I didn't realise flowered this early. I still need to double-check the fruits to make sure it's not a much rarer species.

I have seen my first damelfly inthe last few days so keep an eye out for these too.

David Miller