Aint no time for those summer time blues

A judiciously timed email from Lol had alerted me to the presence, all day, of a couple of Redshank in the North-west corner of the Lockwood. So after dinner I trundled up there for a look and there they were, a welcome year tick for the patch. Someone had written Curlew (a strangely scarce bird in the Lea Valley, Whimbrel is probably the commoner species) in the book over the weekend at the fishing Lodge so that’s it, the Waders are returning!

It’s the first day of summer but for the birder it’s the beginning of Autumn, non-breeding, post-breeding or failed-breeding Waders are on their way South. The June lull is officially over. Actually the June lull is fairly brief as the laggards are still moving North at the start of the month, it just feels quiet I guess as most of the rest our migrants have been in for a while. (I may regret this official declaration if I don’t get another patch year tick until the end of August).

The rest of the evening saw a lot of Little Egret activity, tooing and froing from their breeding islands and also a brood of Shelduck on No.3, very sweet, fluffy grey and white. The low evening sunshine picked out a large loafing group of Pochard and Tufted Duck, mostly males, beautiful colours. It certainly chased those blues away.

PW

Nothing to see here

After Wednesday's audacious attempt at border raiding (trying to hear the Tottenham Common Rosefinch from within the Walthamstow patch boundaries) was foiled, mainly by the abscence of the bird itself, enthusiasm was mustered, by myself and Lol to go out over the marsh and find Walthamstow's very own rare migrant.....

.....there were none (in fact nothing) on the Horse field, yes there were plenty of Swifts over the filter beds but none of them remotely Pacific, a half a dozen Chiffchaffs, now getting ready for a second brood, sang across the marsh but none had an Iberian accent, a Heron fished in the Lea amongst the large Carp, but it was not the least bit Purple. Ahh well we tried. Something beckoned us to head for a more tranquil spot and see what we could turn up there.

The Dove of peace lied! (well Woodpigeon with twig) The Waterworks N.R. was not a haven of respite and rarities, it was full of year 7 pupils on a 'nature walk'. Apparently they had been told specifically not to stand on the benches and slam the hide flaps. How did we know? Because we heard them being reminded after they had done it of course! The/a Cetti's Warbler was still there, the usual suspects were probably breeding, Reed Warblers, Pochard, Little Grebe etc but nothing scarce to get the juices flowing.

Surprisingly few Insects around too, the only Butterflies were a couple of Red Admirals and Small Whites and no Dragonflies at all. The best show really was the plant life, Honeysuckle was absolutely abundant and fragrant too, I don't remember it ever being so plentiful on the marsh. In fact all the plants looked very lush indeed and fittingly so for nearly high summer. Bee Orchids have been discovered on the Waterworks, which is nice, or will be in a month. Whoever discovered them needs a medal as the only sign at present is about 1mm of green leaf, I think that pretty well sums up this blogs title.
PW

Rosy shenanigans

Mention should be made here in honour of another exceptional local find this past week 'just across the water' (the river Lea that is) on Tottenham Marshes of a singing 1st summer male Common Rosefinch. It was found last Sunday morning (13th) by members of the Tottenham Marshes survey group. During it's 3-day stay (and it may have been there longer of course), the bird - the first (twitchable) in London since 1986! - proved extremely elusive, spending most of it's time singing from thick vegetation near the picnic area on Clendish Marsh by the Stonebridge Lock. I myself only managed 3 all-too-brief flight views in close to 6 hours of watching; a few others were lucky enough to see it perched, for a mere few seconds.
Alas the Rosefinch, (or more aptly named by PW 'Brownfinch') - who's rather plaintive 5-whistle song recalled the words: 'pleased to, pleased to meet you' - never ventured across the great divide that is the Lea navigation, and consequently never made it onto the Walthamstow reservoirs patch list (although it is on my personal one as I've always included Tottenham marshes as part of my patch, he said smugly ;o)...
Like this year's earlier Dusky Warbler, heaven knows when or if another member of the species will ever grace our humble patch, and I'm just glad I saw it at all.
LB

(Record shot 'phonescoped' at 300m by Neville Smith)

Bandits at ten o'clock

I was browsing through my new copy of Collins Bird Guide yesterday and came across the illustration of juvenile Long-tailed Tit, quite a distinct looking plumage, I didn’t remember seeing it depicted ever before, and if I’m honest I don’t recall seeing it in the field, it’s one of those birds that I often look through I am sorry to say. I actually quite like Long-tailed Tits and can still remember the excitement of seeing my first in Epping Forest; probably 40 years ago, however I digress. Today a small party of Long-tailed Tits was working its way along the Lea on the West side of the Lockwood and wouldn’t you know it some of them were juvenile and had a really cute bandit masked look, just as it showed in the book. I tried for a photo with no joy but later another party came through and I got a halfway decent shot (I am talking by my standards). When I got home I had a look in my other field guide, HBI, which I have had for some years and guess what, it was depicted in there too. Just shows that you should look at common birds, and field guides, more closely I suppose.

There were plenty of singing Reed Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps too today but not really much else to write home about, though I did see a few newly fledged Little Egrets (‘Egrets.....I’ve had a few’ was going to be the alternative title to this post but I spared you.) and lots of young Grey Herons.

Just to stay in keeping with the blog theme of Wildlife at Walthamstow I will share a picture of a gorgeous Banded Demoiselle, surely the best of Walthamstow's Odanata.


PW

Payback

It was fairly quiet over the reservoirs today, possibly to be expected at the end of May. But with yesterday’s crop of Red-footed Falcons, Bee-eaters, White-winged Black Terns, not to mention White-tailed Plover arriving in the U.K. there was a certain lightness in our steps as Lol and I sauntered around the Lockwood. The usual Peregrine was in the usual place but sadly nothing unusual was in any place.

A Sedge Warbler was doing a passable Common Tern impersonation, the Common Terns were doing....well, Common Tern. I spoke to Mark at Stoke Newington, telling him we were up at the Reservoirs and could he please let us know what was flying our way, only to find he was in South London! This was serious, there was nothing for it....we would have to find our own birds!

There was some fluffy young Lesser Black-backed Gull chicks being eyed protectively by their parents on the island on the East Warwick, either that or they were fluffy young Herring Gull chicks being eyed hungrily by the Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Reed Bunting, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler and Song Thrush sang, Kingfishers called and flashed by, I paid little heed and stoically watched the sky for the inevitable big bird that was going to cruise through.

As I momentarily stopped my near constant sky vigil, Lol found an Osprey. I was pleased and not amused all at once. It should have been mine. However Lol had seen one earlier this Spring and so it was a nice patch grip back for me. It circled the filter beds for a bit but soon gained the attention of some Gulls and Crows and left, exit stage West, where it was picked up over Clapton by another birder shortly after. Lol informed me that I now owed him a Turtle Dove, a quid pro quo thing I was assured, I offered a Red Kite as I was not confident of ever seeing a Turtle Dove on Walthamstow again, well not for a long time anyway.

Forty minutes later I was able to discharge my debt as a Red Kite, with attached Crow, came in from the South and moved steadily off West. Birders are never satisfied and always want one last good bird so we searched (in vain as it turned out) for a Hobby and a Buzzard to try and make it a seven Raptor day at Walthamstow but none of the Sparrowhawks and Kestrels could be transformed and so we left it at that.

PW

Tell them about the Honey, mummy!

With 9 sightings of Honey Buzzard in the last 4 days in London I thought a vigil at the Southern end of the Lockwood was in order. One had no doubt flown over an hour before I arrived, as one had flew East over Ally Pally.

Did I see one......what do you think?

Jono texted me to say he had had 2 Common Buzzards over Wanstead, apparently a Common Buzzard had also flown over the Waterworks N.R a couple of hours earlier, I was getting hotter and still no Honey Buzzards, then I remembered I didn’t actually need it for the patch, other than for a year tick, but I did still need Marsh Harrier, so decided I would look for one of those instead.

Did I see one.....what do you think?

PW

3 Oystercatchers

No not the elusive birds but a team ( The London Wildlife Trust All-Stars) racing in TfL's Oystercatcher Bird Race 2010. The competition, organised by Natural England and Transport for London (TfL), has teams travel to different wildlife sites and green spaces within the Capital using only public transport, while spotting as many bird species as possible. Last years winning team scored heavily at Walthamstow, this year teams were permitted to travel further afield as Oystercards are now valid for overground trains. Obviously the lure of Rainham was great but it was nice to see that the team comprising John Archer, David Callahan and Mark Pearson chose to finish up with Walthamstow as their last site. We didn't disappoint them and came up with 8 additional ticks to bring their total to 90 for the day. (Peregrine, Lesser Whitethroat, Shoveler, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Kingfisher, Common Sandpiper, Grey Wagtail and Sparrowhawk,as you ask.)

Update: They won by four over the nearest rivals, Dave Lindo and the Beddington boys.....Walthamstow rocks. :-) Congratulations lads!

Full winners and losers accounts here:

http://northernrustic.blogspot.com/

http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/


PW