Arctic roll

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

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

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

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)

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

The Invisibility Cloak

Early Birds: Many

Worms: None noted

Water Vole: .5

Mouse: .5

Rabbits: Many, some whole

Groundbreaking, Innovative, Maverick are just some of the (printable) words used to describe the work being done here at Walthamstow to unravel the mystery of migration.

The Schrodinger’s Kite theorem has unfortunately suffered from premature publication by pseudo-avian boffins across the Bamboo curtain in Wanstead.

http://wansteadbirder.blogspot.com/2011/04/glossy-ibis-over-wanstead.html

But the good news is that results from our latest research can now be revealed, We are calling this phenomena ‘The Invisibility Cloak.’ After years of painstaking research, it appears that no birds can be seen at night on the patch. At the moment we are keeping all the details secret for obvious reasons but can tell you that it is connected to light, or to be more accurate the lack of light.

We "see" an object because light waves hit it and scatter off - some bouncing into our eyes, making the object visible. The experimental invisibility cloak at Walthamstow works by bending light - like water around an object in a stream. Because light from the object doesn't bounce back and hit our eyes, you get the illusion of invisibility. For some reason this phenomena seems to work best at night but there are some days that it is manifested during daylight hours too.

I have been experimenting for years by going birding at a sensible hour and have seen various numbers of species. It has been determined that the optimum number of species to see at Walthamstow in a day is 54, anything more is categorised as a ‘good day’ and likewise any less is usually deemed, in scientific terms, ‘rubbish.’

As promised yesterday, I determined to carry out the final control experiment in this long series by getting up early for a change to see if more, or as theorized, less birds were seen.

I started off at shortly after 06:00 and walked across the Lammas Fields, there were disconcertingly many birds singing, there were also Rabbits. I was rather pleased to see the latter as they seem to do the opposite to birds and disappear during the day (this is perhaps the counter part to the invisibility cloak, the anti-cloak if you will, further research reveal the truth) anyway just as I was enjoying watching Bugs a rather large Dog raced towards me/it. Neither of us were happy Bunnies I can tell you. Two more giant Hounds appeared. Their owner was mysteriously absent, though I could hear him behind the bushes directing the affair, sadly I left them all to this urban coursing and strolled speedily on, past the ‘Murder - Reward for help’ posters attached to the Trees, it was a year ago this week that someone was shot in the park. Past the ‘Hoodies’ still partying from last night over by the changing rooms. I kept my eyes forward and wondered who could have been behind the killing, my money’s not on the Rabbit.

Crossing the bridge by the Eurostar sidings I heard an unusual tacking call, I tacked back and it answered, I did it again and it responded, I mused for some minutes what this stranger would prove to be. Have you ever heard a train cooling down? Be advised don’t waste as much time as me finding out!

The Golf Course was quiet, which after the Park was a relief to be honest, but birdwise it was quiet too. On to the marsh and precious few additional species crept into the notebook, metaphorically speaking. It’s a metaphorical notebook as well come to think of it.

As I got up to the Rowing Club I heard a plop, much as I did a week or so ago, again I was sure it was a Water Vole and stood and waited, after a while I saw the top half (the bottom half was no doubt connected but underwater) of a swimming Water Vole was coming towards me, I edged my camera phone out of my pocket but too late as the inevitable Dog and handler arrived on the scene, probably setting up some sort of Vole Coursing event.

With few extra species added, save for a Green Sandpiper in the overflow channel, I looped back alongside the Riding Stables, just in time to see the back half of a Mouse going down the front half of a Little Owl. A Snipe was the best that the Waterworks could offer, and then it was time to go back home, don the white coat, lick the pencil and tot up the stats. 52 species seen, none calculated to get the adrenalin going, no year or patch ticks!


So it’s official, going out early results in seeing fewer birds. In fact extrapolating from these figures one could deduce that at about 00:30 no birds at all would be seen. I bet no one saw that stunning result coming. Just another example of the Stirling service we perform on your behalf here at Walthamstow Labs.

What of the future I hear you say? Well work has already started on proving the accuracy of a premise we are calling ‘Ockham’s Razorbill’ Just because something is black and white, sitting on a cliff and smells a bit fishy is it really just an Auk? Time will tell.