Seventh Annual Walthamstow Patch Watch (AWPW7)

Annual Walthamstow Patch Watch 7

On the 27^th of April, some of the birder’s of Walthamstow will be doing their dawn till dusk 'Annual Walthamstow Patch Watch' day. It’ll be our seventh one.

Anyone is welcome to contribute and get involved. Timely news of birds on the patch will be appreciated by all taking part. Those on Twitter can use the hashtags #AWPW7, #walthamstowbirders or the usual #londonbirds to post news of birds on the patch. It all helps the birders on the day connect with birds and not to mention totting up the list at the end of the day. The ‘Latest News’ page on the London Wiki https://londonbirders.fandom.com/wiki/LatestNews is a good place to put sightings (though not as immediate as Twitter).

As for previous AWPW lists:

As you can see, the average is around 80. Hopefully we can at least match last year’s tally.

This is the patch boundary we will be following on the day:

 

Anything seen on or from the patch counts.

The patch consists of the Banbury Reservoir, Wild Marsh East, Walthamstow Reservoirs, Coppermill Treatment Works, Low Hall Sports Ground, Walthamstow Marshes, WaterWorks Nature Reserve and Leyton Tip.

For anyone taking part, here is a useful tick list for the day:

Link to AWPW Bird List

All the best on the day

Walthamstow Birders

Mammaling and some Birding

An early morning browse along the Walthamstow Marshes ditch produced lots of Water Vole field signs in the shape of droppings and burrows:

There were quite a few burrows (marked as O) and droppings (marked as X) on my scribbled field map.

There was one brief Water Vole sighting here, near the Springfield Park bridge but the wee guy was too fast for my camera.

Water Voles and Rats and their respective field signs can be very similar and confusing. This guide is very handy with distinguishing them: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7cVHwu-wWzKM1lTX2pZdm9TdDA/view?usp=sharing 

Some Fox poop was left to peruse and a Fox was later seen in the Waterworks.

A Wood Mouse tried its best to be inconspicuous.

As it is National Mammal Week, I thought I’d share a little Mammal Field List I knocked up. It lists all the British mammal species with check boxes and a few other bits. It’s much like the RSPB’s bird watcher’s field list. There didn’t seem to a mammal equivalent, so I made one. My British mammal list is at 26.

You can download it as a Word document here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7cVHwu-wWzKZVRVYXdhT2hmazg/view?usp=sharing

 Or as a Publisher document here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7cVHwu-wWzKQzQzMVlidVV2djg/view?usp=sharing

On a sad note:

Walthamstow Reservoirs is nowhere near a nature reserve or a wetlands or anything else with the welfare of nature at its core. It is now quite simply, a park. It is a theme park that is primarily motivated to generate money. The London Borough of Waltham Forest has monetised nature for its own benefit. 

There was a Wheatear on the banks of Lockwood when I visited, trying to feed up before a long flight south, but it couldn’t settle for the droves of people playing in the park.

Walthamstow Theme Park visitors are now using the log book which birders record the presence of significant birds present on the reservoirs as a guest book!

On a positive note:

I’m trying to be a positive soul these days and on a more positive note, I’ve spent the last two days on Walthamstow Marshes, just south of Walthamstow Theme Park which has seemed considerably quieter than normal. Maybe the theme park is to thank for that.

A stone chat on the much less theme parky, Walthamstow Marsh:

@grahamhowie

Pea Soup

I traveled in style up to the reservoirs to see what it looked like in the mist.

I passed the misty marshes on the way.

At the reservoirs, the fog was thick and atmospheric.

Along the Lockwood...

and from out of the pea soup…

… another patcher did appear.

Between us, a pipit flew up from the Lockwood bank. Lol picked out its singular ‘viisst’ call making it a Rock Pipit. Meadow Pipits give a burst of ’ist, ist, ist’ type calls. Something I didn’t know. Thanks, Lol - especially since I’d never seen one on the patch before. 

A walk around Lockwood produced:

Two Stonechats

A Batman Cormorant

A Common Sandpiper

And a Green Sandpiper (with smaller pied wagtail to right for size reference)

 On the East Warwick a small party of Wigeon mingled.

I checked the log book at the office and interestingly, Pete noted he had had Brambling calling overhead earlier in the morning.

The Rock Pipit takes my Walthamstow list to a nice round #130.  

Thanks, Lol.

Tufties (in pea soup)

@leevalleybirder

Swift Tribute

Ive spent most recent mornings on the patch, with few new birds or much of a feel of migration, I spent a lot of time trying to photograph Swifts as they feed in the early morning over the reservoirs in their 100s.

The speed they move at and the shapes they make are mind blowing, photos don't do them justice.

Some years ago I, being that/this way inclined, Made an Homage to the swift with ink and needle on my own leg, terrible drawing but means alot...

@jarpartridge