Third Time Lucky?

In 2013 the rangers of Hackney Parks and Green Spaces pollarded a tree in which had a Little Owl occupying one of its hollow branches. The Little Owl could be regularly viewed from the WaterWorks NR Pitch & Putt.

Back in the day:  https://archive.is/20130626053801/theleevalleyparkbirder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/walthamstow-and-waterworks-nature.html#selection-1065.0-1065.89

https://archive.is/theleevalleyparkbirder.blogspot.co.uk

A year 2 child’s dad (in the class I was teaching at the time) worked for HPGS and after I had mentioned what had happened, HPGS had me design a nest box which they put it up in the pollarded tree. 

The nest box was mostly occupied by squirrels and stock doves for 6 years. But yesterday, Eugene Dillon-Hooper tweeted (with photos https://tinyurl.com/rzmx9fj ) that he had spotted a Little Owl on the platform of the nest box. Eugene later confirmed that Mike Messenger spotted the Little Owl earlier on New Years Day.

Fantastic and well done Mike and Eugene!

I paid a visit to the WaterWorks NR today and after a bit of searching the nest box tree (whilst 3 Treecreepers creeped, sang and called around the trees near me), a Little Owl was found in the pollarded tree to the left of the nest box tree. It called several times. The HPGS nest box was placed facing south. However, the original branch and its hole in which a Little Owl used to look out of, faced north. And today, a Little Owl was in a natural tree hollow, facing north. Maybe it doesn’t like the box or prefers facing north or is keeping an eye on the banks of the old river lee for small mammals?

On the same Feb 2013 day, before watching my last WaterWorks NR Little Owl, I also had a Bittern in the WaterWorks NR: https://archive.is/cn2m9

Fingers crossed!

PS. A Little Owl tree had also been pollarded on the Walthamstow Marshes SSSI paddocks a few years prior to the WaterWorks NR pollarding. Lets hope at a third time of asking, a Little Owl can get a few good years of solid me time in its desired tree (however, there are a lot more parakeets around the waterworks these days and a 'doggy beach swimming club' very near the Little Owl tree: https://tinyurl.com/yx78u74l).

Pics, Vidz and eBird links from today:

Little Owl

Treecreeper

WaterWorks NR eBird numbers: https://ebird.org/checklist/S63035716

Graham

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

Jan & Feb on Walthamstow Marshes SSSI and the WaterWorks NR

January and February saw Walthamstow Marshes SSSI and the WaterWorks NR add 6 new birds to the Walthamstow patch year list.

On the 2^nd of January three Lesser Redpoll were roaming the waterworks.

A Firecrest was seen near the raptor view point bench of the marshes on the 7^th of January.

A Red Kite made its way over the waterworks on Jan the 8th.

On the 11th of Feb a Nuthatch was seen and heard from the bridge near the horseshoe thicket of the marshes.

A Siskin went north over the marshes on the 25th of Feb.

A Woodcock was flushed from the horseshoe thicket of the marshes - also on the 25th of Feb.

Other sightings of note were:

7 Redwings and 2 Fieldfares on the marshes

3 Stonechats on the marshes and 1 on the waterworks

2 Jackdaws on the houses by the marshes

2 Water Rails in bed 18 and 13 of waterworks

2 Shovelers on the waterworks

2^nd January 2019

 Walthamstow Marshes SSSI & WaterWorks NR

50 species combined

Male and Female Stonechat on marshes boardwalk.

ebird numbers for Marshes:

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S51204007?share=true

Goldcrest in Horseshoe Thicket

ebird numbers for WaterWorks:

https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S51204791

 

Shoveler in WaterWorks

The Patch on eBird (& Why do so few birders use eBird?)

Why do so few birders use eBird?

What is eBird?

eBird is the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed each year by eBirders around the world.

https://ebird.org/home

With a few minutes spent on the mobile phone app, birders can record their sightings and their data would contribute to this. Many birders spend time blogging or tweeting about their latest escapades in the field, so why not put the sightings to conservation use on eBird?

Walthamstow on eBird

eBird is a useful tool.

To give eBird a patch watching context, Walthamstow Reservoirs is the 3^rd top London ‘Hotspot’ for number of species recorded and Walthamstow Marshes is the 9^th.

The WaterWorks NR appears in the top 30 under the guise of ‘Leyton Marsh & WaterWorks.’ But then Leyton Marsh is part of Walthamstow Marshes, so that’s a bit messy. The WaterWorks NR itself comes in at London number 34:

Bird blogging or tweeting, at its best, informs another birder or wildlife enthusiast of wildlife news or shares where and when to view wildlife; at its worst, it is someone’s holiday photos or latest tick (somewhere in between does a bird blog or tweet lay).

With eBird, there is no question of its usefulness. An eBird report can contribute to graphs, data and trends for the patchworker or conservationist. For example:

January to December Observations of Waterfowl on Walthamstow Marshes 1900 - 2018

Northern Wheatear Observations on Walthamstow Marshes 1900 - 2018

This is a link to London's eBird data (find your patch from here):

https://ebird.org/region/GB-ENG-LND/hotspots?yr=all&m=

So, why do so few birders use eBird?

Reeves' Muntjac

A new and first taxonomic species for the patch is always enjoyed and appreciated. 

But a new and first taxonomic order - now that's SPECIAL!

That Walthamstow record goes to Sue Huckle, 

with her 2 male REEVES' MUNTJAC at the WaterWorks NR.

Walthamstow Mammal #28: Reeves' Muntjac (species) - Artiodactyla (order)

 pic from video @suzehu

Sue's first sighting was on the 1st of April and her photos were not an April fool.

April 1st @suzehu

Sue's second sightings, a day later, left no doubt.

April 2nd @suzehu

And her videos of two different males sealed the deal!

To give the discovery some context, take a look at where 'order' is in relation to 'species' here:

Very well done, Sue!

The Walthamstow Mammal List can be found here: 

http://walthamstowbirders.blogspot.co.uk/p/mammal-list.html

@grahamhowie

Catch Up

It's been fairly busy on the patch since the 6th, Stuart found another Redstart at the waterworks, My Sibe Chiffy has been singing and showing well around the entrance bridge, I managed to hear it call for the first time too, and get better photos.  

 Common Redstart

Siberian Chiffchaff

There have been wheatears and hirundines moving through, But not in huge numbers yet, The sandmartins at the SW corner of Lockwood are on territory already, I've had two white wagtails in the past week, and I know Pete L has had at least two also

White Wagtail

I also came across this stunning intermedius Lesser Black Back on the east warwick on the 10th, a fairly uncommon bird on the patch.,Such saturated orangey yellow bill and legs and striking posture really gets me going!

Intermedius Lesser Black backed Gull

Today was a good day on the patch,  whilst paul and I were waiting in the traffic queue on ferry lane, I spotted a Short Eared Owl from the car window, It was high and drifted ENE, good bird to get in spring.

 SEO

When we were up on Lockwood, we joined Mike M, and had our first Yellow wags fly over, Also flyovers were a Rook, 2 Barnacle Geese, (another single barncle goose flew over the car earlier with 2 candadas, so there's three about!) and a single Jackdaw, all North (ish)

A Coal Tit Called briefly from the allotment, where I had one singing, calling and showing niecly a couple of days before. Later that day I went on to see a Low Red Kite, 2 Wheatear and at 7pm over the marsh, The third Osprey of the spring for me, It drifted NE up the Leabrige road.

Rook

 Shelduck

 Barnacle Geese

Greylag...liked the shot

Common Buzzard

Back to today and about midday, we started getting a few large Raptors over, a Redkite and a fewBuzzards were drifting about,  we then had our first common Whtetroat of the year, which was my 100th bird for the patch so far this year.

Then whilst listening to a distant sedge warbler, Paul shouted "Sandwich Tern!"  Five sandwich terns came in low and circled the west warwick and then left within about a minute, we were very lucky to catch them!!

Sandwich Tern record shots

@jarpartridge