The early morning watch from the garden was slightly better today, a few Meadow Pipits, Mistle Thrush, a couple of Finches and then, a quiet ‘tlooeet’, I searched the sky and found four, quickly disappearing birds, at least a couple of which looked a bit short-tailed and undulating in flight. If I had had another call or seen them a few seconds earlier I think they would have gone down as Woodlark...the highs and lows of viz-migging!
The bird of the day though must be Chiffchaff (compared to last week when bird of the day was Squirrel, millions of them) they seemed to be everywhere this afternoon as I walked across the Lammas fields and over to the Waterworks N.R. The male Cetti’s was heard to sing briefly, and there were Teal new in and, even better, 4 Wigeon which are scarce on the patch. The best was left to last however a fine male Ring Ouzel that just popped up in some bare branches and then dropped into some Brambles, I had been consciously looking for one, amongst other things, for a week or more, so it felt very good to finally connect. My 120th species for the patch this year (Patch as a whole on 137), which is what I set as a personal target, I feel like I have earned my break on the Scillies and some real birding (sorry Walthamstowphiles;-))
On this date: 02 10 89 At Walthamstow 3 Stonechats, 1 Whinchat and a Wheatear on the Lockwood, also there a Slavonian Grebe and a ‘scandinavian’ Rock Pipit.
PW
Saturday, 2 October 2010
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Viz Mipping
Had another go at viz migging this morning. What a difference a day makes, much quieter this time and actually a few birds, well 9 Meadow Pipits to be precise and possibly a couple of migrant Chaffinches. It's always difficult to decide what's local and what's a migrant with Chaffinches. Meadow Pipits, well they are easy, they don't live here so they are migrants and the first over the house this autumn so doubly welcome. Grey Wagtails and Great Spotted Woodpecker are pretty local, the former much commoner in winter than summer but both were quite obvious this morning too.
(When will Tree Pipit do the decent thing and give itself up over the house? Just how many Mippits = 1 Trippit? Talking of Lapland Buntings, which we weren't, I glimpsed a group of about 15 chunky Finch/Bunting things flying away from the house yesterday, oh if only I was outside and heard one of them call!)
Meadow Pipits were passing over on a broad front all day it would seem, judging from the number reported from different London sites and the fact that I heard them everywhere I went locally this morning. Every street seemed to have Chiffchaffs in the roadside Trees too, I wonder what else passes through suburbia unnoticed?
Later this afternoon I had a stroll over Walthamstow Marshes and saw the first Lesser Whitethroat for a while, in with an itinerant Tit flock. Sadly nothing much else gave itself up. I did see a pale Warbler disappear into some dense vegetation but it did not reappear. I flushed up 6 Reed Buntings from some other dense vegetation but unfortunately left with about 2000 seeds attached to my fleece for the trouble!
Another 15 Meadow Pipits flew over in one flock and some singles and the male Peregrine was seen flying over the Marsh and then sitting on it's favourite pylon. I was struck by how similar the call was to Ring-necked Parakeet, one or two of which were calling from nearby. Lol totally disagrees but what does he know he's only a musician:-)
On this date:
18 09 89 Lockwood Reservoir; A 1st winter Grey Phalarope was bobbing around in the waves at the North end, also still a female Common Scoter. An immature/female Ruddy Duck on the East Warwick. A large Sparrowhawk seen later over St’ James’s St. (that's when they were noteworthy!)
18 09 99 An Osprey flew South-south-west over the house this afternoon.
PW
(When will Tree Pipit do the decent thing and give itself up over the house? Just how many Mippits = 1 Trippit? Talking of Lapland Buntings, which we weren't, I glimpsed a group of about 15 chunky Finch/Bunting things flying away from the house yesterday, oh if only I was outside and heard one of them call!)
Meadow Pipits were passing over on a broad front all day it would seem, judging from the number reported from different London sites and the fact that I heard them everywhere I went locally this morning. Every street seemed to have Chiffchaffs in the roadside Trees too, I wonder what else passes through suburbia unnoticed?
Later this afternoon I had a stroll over Walthamstow Marshes and saw the first Lesser Whitethroat for a while, in with an itinerant Tit flock. Sadly nothing much else gave itself up. I did see a pale Warbler disappear into some dense vegetation but it did not reappear. I flushed up 6 Reed Buntings from some other dense vegetation but unfortunately left with about 2000 seeds attached to my fleece for the trouble!
Another 15 Meadow Pipits flew over in one flock and some singles and the male Peregrine was seen flying over the Marsh and then sitting on it's favourite pylon. I was struck by how similar the call was to Ring-necked Parakeet, one or two of which were calling from nearby. Lol totally disagrees but what does he know he's only a musician:-)
On this date:
18 09 89 Lockwood Reservoir; A 1st winter Grey Phalarope was bobbing around in the waves at the North end, also still a female Common Scoter. An immature/female Ruddy Duck on the East Warwick. A large Sparrowhawk seen later over St’ James’s St. (that's when they were noteworthy!)
18 09 99 An Osprey flew South-south-west over the house this afternoon.
PW
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Spotted...flycatcher! & bye-bye to the Terns
.JPG)
Had an afternoon stroll around the reses with Paul today (10th) & practically the first thing we clapped eyes on was a Spotted Flycatcher in the trees opposite the Ferry Boat pub near the entrance to the North reservoirs. This was our first flycatcher of the year, and I'm a little baffled as to why it's taken this long to connect with one considering they've been popping up all over London in good numbers of late (might have something to do with not putting in the necessary hours on the patch methinks).
Apart from that, not many other migrants to speak of except for ubiquitous Chiffchaffs (mostly juveniles with their distinctive squeaky calls), a few Meadow Pipits overhead, a dozen Teal (first 'large' group of the autumn), a single Wheatear & half a dozen Common Sandpipers - by far our commonest wader - on the Lockwood.
The highlights on the Southern sector were a couple of Kingfishers, and a magnificent Peregrine (we think, on size, a male), surveying the scene from it's favourite pylon.
Notable by their absence were the Common Terns which appear to've all departed in the last couple of days & will be missed until their return next spring.
Congrats also due to Dan Barrett for his lucky recent sighting of a male Merlin dashing through the Coppermill filter beds.
LB
Saturday, 4 September 2010
In-Viz Mig!
'Tis the season to start viz migging. Viz, as in visible and Mig, as in migration. I am sure someone will correct me but I think the whole thing started during WWII. Pre-Radar people started watching the skies to report incoming Nazi planes and no doubt found (at the appropriate season) that they were seeing quite a bit of avian migration, the growing Bird Observatory movement in the 50's continued on the practice and it carried on from there with occasional lulls and revivals, it seems to have gained a bit of momentum in London in recent autumns.
Generally the first you know of an approaching Viz. Mig. is when you hear it, so Aud.(ible) Mig. would probably be more appropriate. I have a factory and a school/building site behind the house which are surprisingly noisy but I thought that a Saturday morning might not be too bad, think again! There was definitely no Migging, nothing was Viz and certainly there was no Aud.
Surely Sunday will be quieter.
Lol and I checked, very thoroughly, Walthamstow Marsh this afternoon for all the drift migrants (is that Drif. Mig?) that are streaming into the country at the moment. A Redstart had been reported from the patch recently so surely there was at least another one of those or a Flycatcher to be found. Well to say the least Passerines were thin on the ground.
I mentioned that we would be unlucky not to get a large Raptor today and within 5 minutes all the Gulls went up from the Filter Beds, it certainly felt like something had spooked them and shortly afterwards Lol picked up a Buzzard sp. We did our very best to make it something better than the Common that it was, but it just didn't scream Honey. Later an adult Hobby made it a 4 Raptor day. Later still we called it a day.
PW
Generally the first you know of an approaching Viz. Mig. is when you hear it, so Aud.(ible) Mig. would probably be more appropriate. I have a factory and a school/building site behind the house which are surprisingly noisy but I thought that a Saturday morning might not be too bad, think again! There was definitely no Migging, nothing was Viz and certainly there was no Aud.
Surely Sunday will be quieter.
Lol and I checked, very thoroughly, Walthamstow Marsh this afternoon for all the drift migrants (is that Drif. Mig?) that are streaming into the country at the moment. A Redstart had been reported from the patch recently so surely there was at least another one of those or a Flycatcher to be found. Well to say the least Passerines were thin on the ground.
I mentioned that we would be unlucky not to get a large Raptor today and within 5 minutes all the Gulls went up from the Filter Beds, it certainly felt like something had spooked them and shortly afterwards Lol picked up a Buzzard sp. We did our very best to make it something better than the Common that it was, but it just didn't scream Honey. Later an adult Hobby made it a 4 Raptor day. Later still we called it a day.
PW
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner.....Dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner....
Bats, man!
For years I have been promising myself that I would do a Bat walk one of these days, Friday was that day. I duly arrived with spouse, friend and friend's nine year old son at the Waterworks N.R. and was greeted by the very friendly Lea Valley staff. The ranger started off her talk by apologising that she was not a Bat expert (my heart sank a little). There was a quite interesting talk about the Lea Valley Park (heart sank a little lower), then we got around to the Bats (heart rising) apparently we would possibly only see 2 species (falling) these were Pipistrelle, species unknown! and Daubenton's (heart definitely rising again).
We waited until dusk, were issued with Bat detectors, (immediately claimed by 9 year old), and off we went into the dark.
The Bat detectors were picking up various calls, ours stated 'Bat' on the readout which unfortunately meant low battery rather than an actual Bat. I got the Pip, in fact everyone got the Pip, we heard them flying, we heard them feeding, we even caught glimpses of them.
Later we tried for the Daubs over the Lea but they didn't want to play ball.
Was it fun? Yes, everyone seemed to enjoy it, even your curmudgeonly blogger! Would I do it again? Nah! Should you do it? Probably. It is quite nice being out with an enthusiastic crowd venturing into the night without fear of mugging, and seeing people, who had possibly never seen a Bat before, enthuse about wildlife.
Now I think I need to promise myself to do a Bat walk with someone who knows whats what and where we might actually see some Bats.
As for the thorny question of 'do Bats get tangled in your hair?' I checked out the other half and the answer is, reassuringly, not.
PW
On this day: 27 08 83 Walthamstow Wind NW1 calm and hot: 1 juvenile Little Grebe on High Maynard also 1 Kingfisher seen twice. 1 juvenile Cuckoo on Lockwood, moulting into adult plumage. (?) 1 Greenshank heard flying South over Lockwood. 1 Snipe on No.3 Many Yellow Wagtails and a few Common Sandpipers.
For years I have been promising myself that I would do a Bat walk one of these days, Friday was that day. I duly arrived with spouse, friend and friend's nine year old son at the Waterworks N.R. and was greeted by the very friendly Lea Valley staff. The ranger started off her talk by apologising that she was not a Bat expert (my heart sank a little). There was a quite interesting talk about the Lea Valley Park (heart sank a little lower), then we got around to the Bats (heart rising) apparently we would possibly only see 2 species (falling) these were Pipistrelle, species unknown! and Daubenton's (heart definitely rising again).
We waited until dusk, were issued with Bat detectors, (immediately claimed by 9 year old), and off we went into the dark.
The Bat detectors were picking up various calls, ours stated 'Bat' on the readout which unfortunately meant low battery rather than an actual Bat. I got the Pip, in fact everyone got the Pip, we heard them flying, we heard them feeding, we even caught glimpses of them.
Later we tried for the Daubs over the Lea but they didn't want to play ball.
Was it fun? Yes, everyone seemed to enjoy it, even your curmudgeonly blogger! Would I do it again? Nah! Should you do it? Probably. It is quite nice being out with an enthusiastic crowd venturing into the night without fear of mugging, and seeing people, who had possibly never seen a Bat before, enthuse about wildlife.
Now I think I need to promise myself to do a Bat walk with someone who knows whats what and where we might actually see some Bats.
As for the thorny question of 'do Bats get tangled in your hair?' I checked out the other half and the answer is, reassuringly, not.
PW
On this day: 27 08 83 Walthamstow Wind NW1 calm and hot: 1 juvenile Little Grebe on High Maynard also 1 Kingfisher seen twice. 1 juvenile Cuckoo on Lockwood, moulting into adult plumage. (?) 1 Greenshank heard flying South over Lockwood. 1 Snipe on No.3 Many Yellow Wagtails and a few Common Sandpipers.
Monday, 23 August 2010
Get here while you can!
I rang Pete on Sunday (this is the lay-zee-birda method of working the patch) to find out what he had been seeing lately, as Lol may have mentioned he and I have been working silly hours recently and therefore neglecting Walthamstow. It turned out that Pete had also not been doing his regular tours of the place but was actually on the Lockwood as I spoke to him. I asked if he had seen any decent Waders, it turned out he hadn’t even seen any indecent Waders, I then asked if he had seen any Whinchats on his travels, he replied that the Lockwood was not the best bit of habitat on the patch for them and anyway they were more frequently seen in September. I thanked him and wished him well.
Ten minutes later I received Pete’s text telling me he had got a Whinchat on the Lockwood, I thanked him profusely and went back to sleep, it had been a long week! Forty minutes later I was entering the reservoirs, me and the rest of the population of East London. I have never seen so many people on the complex and this is before it is made a Country Park and opened up to every Dog walker in the Greater London area!
There were great parties of walkers, photographers, fisherman and a number of Birders too. I have never been in favour of restricted access sites, especially those restricted to me, so I cannot really complain but if it carries on at this rate there will be precious few birds to see much after dawn I would think.
I bumped in to Lol up on the bank and we wandered North until we eventually spotted the Whinchat, unfortunately it spotted us seconds before and flew up into a Willow on the High Maynard before disappearing whilst I fiddled with my cameraphone. The other Birders who arrived within moments sadly missed it.
It really was a case of get it while you can. I suspect this might be the way of things to come, either that or some very early morning rises.
PW
Ten minutes later I received Pete’s text telling me he had got a Whinchat on the Lockwood, I thanked him profusely and went back to sleep, it had been a long week! Forty minutes later I was entering the reservoirs, me and the rest of the population of East London. I have never seen so many people on the complex and this is before it is made a Country Park and opened up to every Dog walker in the Greater London area!
There were great parties of walkers, photographers, fisherman and a number of Birders too. I have never been in favour of restricted access sites, especially those restricted to me, so I cannot really complain but if it carries on at this rate there will be precious few birds to see much after dawn I would think.
I bumped in to Lol up on the bank and we wandered North until we eventually spotted the Whinchat, unfortunately it spotted us seconds before and flew up into a Willow on the High Maynard before disappearing whilst I fiddled with my cameraphone. The other Birders who arrived within moments sadly missed it.
It really was a case of get it while you can. I suspect this might be the way of things to come, either that or some very early morning rises.
PW
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Goodness gracious three...
A trio of migrant goodies over this weekend starting on Sat pm when a succession of afternoon squally showers brought down a number of passage gulls, terns & waders at different sites across the capital. Noticing a fair bit of activity over Lockwood, a scan from the comfort - and shelter - of my loft was rewarded this time with a beautifully marked juvenile Little Gull (my first this year); It didn't linger for long though, and I assume it went South.
Amongst the adult & juvenile Common Terns and a steady stream of Sand Martins (migrants or locals I wonder?) was a paler, more slender-looking youngster with a clearly shorter, all dark bill - an Arctic Tern which hung around for half an hour or so then appeared to go North towards the Banbury.
Sunday was a much sunnier, drier affair with a promising North-Easterly breeze. Around 11.30 I was alerted by PW down on the Lockwood, to the presence of a juv Black Tern, our first on the patch this year. Good views were obtained again from the loft ('armchair birding' at it's best!). Paul later had another BT but I failed to get onto that one...A rather nice little assortment then, but with both PW & I away working a lot at the moment, one can only imagine the stuff that's passing through unnoticed...
Other recent sightings include a juv Black-necked Grebe on the Lockwood & Garden Warbler by the allotments on 7th(me), and adult & juv Dunlin on the Lockwood Friday 13th (Gavin Coultrip).
Lol Bodini
Amongst the adult & juvenile Common Terns and a steady stream of Sand Martins (migrants or locals I wonder?) was a paler, more slender-looking youngster with a clearly shorter, all dark bill - an Arctic Tern which hung around for half an hour or so then appeared to go North towards the Banbury.
Sunday was a much sunnier, drier affair with a promising North-Easterly breeze. Around 11.30 I was alerted by PW down on the Lockwood, to the presence of a juv Black Tern, our first on the patch this year. Good views were obtained again from the loft ('armchair birding' at it's best!). Paul later had another BT but I failed to get onto that one...A rather nice little assortment then, but with both PW & I away working a lot at the moment, one can only imagine the stuff that's passing through unnoticed...
Other recent sightings include a juv Black-necked Grebe on the Lockwood & Garden Warbler by the allotments on 7th(me), and adult & juv Dunlin on the Lockwood Friday 13th (Gavin Coultrip).
Lol Bodini
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An adult Little Owl keeping watch over its young @samodonnell25.bsky.social ... -
A confiding Avocet spent the morning on High Maynard pic @lolcumming The generally mild weather helps explain why the winter ... -
Osprey getting the usual warm Wetlands welcome pic @samodonnell25.bsky.social Osprey, Little Owl and, per...