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.

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

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

Glorious Mud!

I have been wallowing on 114 for the patch year list for a while now, just 1 below my eventual total for the whole of 2009, with the water levels low on most of the reservoirs my expectations of a new Wader being the equalizer for the year were quite high. The Lockwood had a nice muddy edge and numbers of Common Sandpipers were impressive, perhaps 15 on this one reservoir alone, so it was a little bit of a surprise when a juvenile Skylark flew onto the grassy bank of the Lockwood, looked at me and flew off, I didn’t get one last year at all and this was my first for 2010, given that they were a common breeder not so very long ago it is a bit sad that it is such a headline bird now. I usually just get them as flyovers in the Autumn or perhaps the odd bird in the Winter. So 115 Mudlark.

Less of a surprise was year bird 116 a young Little Ringed Plover on the North bank of the Lockwood. My hoped for target of 120 for the year must be quite realistic, probably less so the target of 150 for the site as a whole but we will see.



Another 5 Common Sandpipers and a Green Sandpiper on the Southern part of the complex were the only other Waders. Surely a more exciting Wader will drop in soon.....A Sparrowhawk pursuing and then catching a hapless Starling was quite exciting, certainly for me and the Sparrowhawk, perhaps less so for the Starling.

PW

The last of the summer whine

Normally I wait for inspiration whilst on the patch for my blog title but today I cheated. A) I knew I wouldn’t see anything, hence the whine, and B) I won’t be patching for a couple of weeks (unless some kind soul finds some goody that sticks till evening or a convenient time on the weekend) hence the last of the summer, as the next time I get over to Walthamstow it will surely have an autumnal feel to it.

Birders seem to say nowadays how rubbish June is, that has now spread to saying how June-like July is. I don't remember this lull before, maybe we all just make more effort on our patches early on in the year and see everything there is to see by June. When you look at peoples patch lists it does seem like most have virtually seen as much as last year in the first seven months of 2010. Perhaps we should all relax a bit more and save some year ticks for the summer, perhaps it doesn't really matter, perhaps I am just padding the blog out :-)

Just to prove I didn’t see anything here is a list: Mute Swan, Gadwall, Mallard, Pochard, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Little Grebe, Sparrowhawk, Moorhen, Coot, Black-headed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Rock Dove, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Common , Swift, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Sand Martin, House Martin, Cetti's Warbler, Long-tailed Tit, , Chiffchaff, Whitethroat, Blackcap, Reed Warbler, Starling, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Song Thrush, Robin, House Sparrow, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Goldfinch. See nothing!

Actually not that bad really, nice to hear the Cetti’s again, I think they must have bred and perhaps having a second brood (if they do that), Blackcaps also singing and quite a lot of roving Tits and Warblers.

The best of the rest was a single Common Darter, my first of the year, which true to its name darted off as soon as I caught sight of it. Plenty of Butterflies including my f.o.s. Gatekeepers and surprisingly large numbers of Rabbits, they normally disappear during the day, but I think the bunnies haven’t learnt that yet.
I was lucky to catch the rarest sighting on film, not normally a summer visitor in these parts and usually only seen in a narrow window around the end of December.
PW

Tales of the Riverbank

I thought it would be a good idea to get an early start on the patch and avoid the sweltering heat, so, up to the Lockwood and re-find the White-tailed Plover, well up to the Lockwood anyway. I thought I might have heard a Common Sandpiper but didn’t see one (one on No.4 later was the only Wader of the day). There were stacks of Little Egrets feeding and flying over and great flocks of moulting Tufted Ducks and some Pochard, presumably the flocks of Coot were also moulting but it’s a bit harder to tell with them.

The most interesting bird of the day was Common Tern fishing from a perch. Are they supposed to do that? I have never seen it before. An adult bird was sat on a rail above a disturbed area of water, watching intensely for any movement, bobbing its head like a Kingfisher, I assumed it was fishing but waited to see what it would do, sure enough after a few minutes it plunged into the water, though unsuccessful, and then sat back on the rail and repeated the exercise.

More Little Egrets were on the South side of the reservoirs also plenty of Warblers, including one or two Lesser Whitethroats. A Ring-necked Parakeet was still lingering around one of the islands; I guess we have got them for good now. (When does the cull start?)



Best of the rest was a 5 Spotted Burnet Moth, not sure which one but I suspect narrow bordered.

Also a large Carp in the River which defied photography, a Silver Y Moth landing in the River for some inexplicable reason, and a possible Jacana, though Moorhen has not been ruled out at this stage.
PW

Keep the faith

After declaring, in the last post, that the June lull is officially over, I can now officially declare the July lull to have started! Fear ye not though, as July will surely bring a good bird. Not today though.

I had a good look around the Waterworks this morning but apart from a few Dragonflies, Damselflies and Butterflies there was not much else aflight. There was little on the deck either come to that, a Mouse/Shrew/Vole scampered into some scrub before I could get a look at it, as did something bigger (Rat?) and despite it being fairly warm there was no sign of any of the 300 Common Lizards supposedly rescued from another site and released here, how can you miss 300 Lizards? Perhaps all the Grass Snakes have eaten them, come to think of it where were they?

Always worth the effort at this time of the year as you never know.......

PW

(On this date: 04 07 98 An adult Peregrine carrying prey over the house this afternoon.)