Review of 2022

With lingering snow and Ice and then the holiday period I didn’t see any new species in the second half of December. The cold weather brought nothing into London and many birds left so it was a very quiet end to the year.

I finished on 182 species, way higher than all my previous London Year Lists although this was the first time I actually aimed to get one. I was hoping to hit 190 (200 would have been a dream) but autumn was absolutely dire with no rarities and none of the expected birds such as shrikes, Ring Ouzel and Yellow-browed Warbler. My best find of the year was a Night Heron at Brent Reservoir in spring.

During the year I visited 41 sites across London from Swanscombe Marsh in the east to Staines Res in the west, Rye Meads in the north and Hutchinson’s Bank in the south. It’s been a lot of fun and I will try it again but not next year. Instead, my challenge for 2023 is to visit 100 sites across London and at each site record a species list on eBird and photograph at least one of them.

Happy New Year!

December 8th-15th: snow arrives in London

With the forecast being icy but bright I decided to explore a new area. I’d seen a reference to Davy Down by Ruth B which I’d never heard of so after a bit of Googling I took the train out to Ockendon. The plan was to take the bus the rest of the rest of the way but it didn’t show up so I walked down the road for 25 minutes and the bus only passed me when I was almost there. The path follows the lower end of the Mardyke, just where I leave it when doing Orsett Fen.

It’s a nice walk along the river with large meadows, scrub and mature woodland on the north side. I passed under the viaduct that carries the train between Ockendon and Chafford Hundred. The latter section also goes under the A13 and M25.

Railway viaduct

Road bridges over Davy Down

It was cold and there was a hard frost which enhanced the walk as all the vegetation sported a white overcoat.

Mardyke at Davy Down

A large and very old Oak 

At some point I should have crossed over the Mardyke and continued on the north side but I carried on until the path disappeared and I emerged by Thurrock Football Club. I knew where I wanted to go and found a way round to Ship Lane where I walked on to Aveley and got a bus to Rainham station. I didn’t see anything particularly outstanding but it was nice to explore a nature reserve that I hadn’t heard of before and I plan to revisit it another time.

On Friday I did the WeBS count at Brent Res. The cold weather hadn’t brought anything else in yet but the Pintail was lingering. The next day I headed back over to East London, this time to Rainham Marshes. With the ongoing cold snap, almost all of the pools on the reserve had frozen over so there were a lot of ducks on the river, mostly Wigeon & Teal. I kept scanning for seaduck but the winds weren’t strong enough to bring anything in up the Thames.

Among the regular waders on the exposed mud was a single Ruff but I couldn’t find the long-staying Grey Plover today. At the back of Target Pools one of the over-wintering Cattle Egrets was out tending its herd.

There wasn’t much on the reserve with it being frozen and I also required thawing out so stopped off at the cafe. A female Bearded Tit was showing well in the reeds by the dragonfly pond and a couple of Marsh Harriers passed by.

I went out through the turnstile for another look at Aveley Bay and immediately found a single Brent Goose on the shoreline with a few Shelduck.

Brent Goose

I spent the rest of the week at Brent Res due to a combination of severe winter weather and loads of train strikes. On Sunday we had fog to go with the frost but I did manage to flush a Woodcock as I walked through the woodlands on the south bank. That evening the snow started to fall and by morning there was a good covering of several inches.

Snow scenes at Brent Res

I walked along the south bank to where I had seen yesterday’s Woodcock and found new tracks but didn’t put it up. I must invest in a thermal imager to try and find them.

Footprints: Fox, Woodcock, Human

The snow hadn’t brought in anything new that day but a few sites around London recorded Golden Plover flying over. During the course of the week I made repeated attempts to find a local Goldie but to no avail. A trio of Wigeon were the only new arrivals on the wildfowl front. Wednesday night the temperature plunged even further and by the following morning most of the reservoir had frozen over leaving only a few small areas for the remaining waterbirds. The Pintail and Wigeon had been forced to leave. In previous winters these sorts of conditions have been good for Smew so I’m still hopeful something interesting will turn up.

Iced-over North Marsh at Brent

December 1st-7th: winter birding begins

With the official change to the winter season, I kicked off the last month of the year with a day out at Rainham Marshes. I walked from Rainham station up to Wennington Marshes where the two Cattle Egrets were still following their bovine overlords around.

Cattle Egrets

Marsh Harriers and Buzzards were hunting over the marshes while on the river it was low tide and the exposed mud was draped with waders. As I was counting the mass of Dunlin they suddenly all took off, perhaps flushed by an unseen (by me) predator. They split into three smaller flocks which made estimating their numbers a bit easier and I reckoned on 1,700 - the most I’ve seen here this year. Easier to count were the flock of 30 Avocets, two Curlews and a solitary Grey Plover. Added to this were plenty of Lapwings and Redshanks.

Once on the reserve I walked to both ends of the broken loop with a break in the middle back at the cafe. On the clockwise path the Bearded Tits were out on the grit tray so I spent some time watching them but the rather gloomy conditions meant that the light wasn’t great for photography.

Bearded Tit

After three consecutive days at Brent, I decided to try a new park. I’ve been past King Edward VII park in Wembley on the bus plenty of times thinking I ought to visit it. I wasn’t expecting a lot as it’s only a small park with trees around the edge but did manage to record 18 species in the half-hour it took to walk a circuit. Coal Tit and Goldcrest were probably the highlights. Checking eBird later on it was nice to know that I’ve now seen every species that has ever been recorded there – I don’t think there’s many other sites where that’s the case!

With the onset of cold weather I fancied a trip out by the Thames so on Tuesday I went to Crayford Marshes for a change. I’ve only been there twice before, the first being after one of the Covid restriction periods when I desperately needed some open space. It’s easy to get to, train from London Bridge to Slade Green and a two minute walk. For some reason the railway station always conjures up the name Norman Stanley Fletcher rather than Noddy Holder! I guess it must be watching endless repeats of Ronnie Barker’s brilliance whereas I only saw Slade live once - at the Monsters of Rock festival at Donington in ‘81.

It was a crispy, cold but sunny day at Crayford with the low sun making it hard to see anything to the south. That was another reason for visiting here today as the sun is behind you on the walk out and then viewing the river. The moat held the usual assortment of ducks and rails. I don’t know what the remains are that surrounds it, I’ll have to investigate.

Moat and ruins

The path cuts through paddocks on one side and scrub on the other so there’s plenty of small bird activity until it hits a T junction at the riverwall. Across the river is Dartford Marsh so you’d expect the river to be either the Cray or the Dart but it’s neither. Instead it’s the River Darent.

Dartford Marsh across the River Darent

This stretch of the river usually holds small numbers of Wigeon and Teal as well as a few Redshank and I also saw a Common Sandpiper which is likely to be overwintering.

River Darent

Pair of Wigeon

Once past the flood defence you arrive at the mouth of the Darent where it flows into the Thames. 

Flood defence across the Darent

The path then tracks westwards with views across to Aveley Bay and Rainham Marshes. I counted 43 Avocets on the Essex side before the incoming tide swept them into the river. At this point they took flight and just over half of them flew towards me and landed on the Dartford side of the Darent where there was still some mud.

Avocets

A small flock of Dunlin fed busily on the water’s edge knowing that they didn’t have long before the mud would be covered by the tide. In contrast the Lapwing just snoozed as they’d been feeding at night.

Dunlin

Lapwing with Cormorant and gulls

An artistic sign pointed out that London was 24 miles away in addition to being inscribed with a poem about the Thames footpath.

I carried onto the large reed bed in which I heard a couple of Water Rails. 

Reed bed

Along this section of the river there’s no point looking inland as it’s an industrial wasteland of dead cars and recycled scrap. A bit further along this suddenly stops and there’s a nice area of green with fields and scrubby hedges. I always scan this area with eager anticipation as it looks such a good place for a nice rarity.

But there was nothing there today so it was back to watching the river. One of the regular ferries went past after dropping off its cargo at Dagenham.

I retraced my steps until I reached the junction with the path, then carried on along the Darent for a while before heading back to the station.

I ended the first week of December with another visit to Brent where the drake Pintail was still present and hopefully it will spend the winter here. With the weather forecast to be getting colder this month, there’s a good chance of more interesting wildfowl to be seen in London.

Nov 19th-30th: Bittern hunt

The second half of November this year marked the transition from autumn to winter as visible migration petered out except for winter thrushes. Even those are more likely to be seen on hedgerows gobbling Hawthorn berries rather than just flying over. At Brent Reservoir, I virtually stopped my vismig mornings on the Dump as there was nothing flying over. A few Siskins and Redpolls can be found feeding on the alders and Silver Birches around the reservoir.

Lesser Redpoll

One morning I heard a Blackcap in sub-song along the path to the hides at Brent. We usually have a few over-wintering individuals but they’re hard to track down as they’re usually silent. Duck numbers have been going up and it feels like cold weather will be arriving soon although there’s not even been a frost yet.

On the 22nd I wandered up to Fryent CP for a change of view, one of the other large green spaces I can easily walk to. I don’t tend to visit it a lot during the winter months as it is often quiet and the paths are atrociously muddy. It was a nice walk around this morning, helped by it being bright and sunny. Redwings and Fieldfares were in the hedges and a Red Kite circled around over me looking for food although I’m not sure what it was expecting to find.

Fieldfare

Red Kite

The following day I met up with Frank down at the Wetland Centre. Despite coming from opposite sides of London and using public transport we both arrived at the same time. After coffee and cake we headed straight to Dulverton hide to look for Bittern. On our last visit we spent over an hour here and didn’t see one, this time it took just ten minutes before one crawled through the reeds and stopped on the edge for several minutes before slinking back out of view. Over the course of the next half an hour we saw it two more times, including once when it flew along the reeds to another spot.

Bittern

We carried on to the Peacock hide where we were the only birders for a while. I found a second Bittern on the edge of the reeds along Reservoir Lagoon. This one was bolt upright in its sky-pointing stance and from a distance looked like a wooden post. A couple of other birders joined us and found two Stonchats along with a Dartford Warbler on the wader scrape which at least had a bit of water in it. When these birds first turned up a month ago the scrape was bone dry. A second Dartford Warbler had subsequently arrived and after a lot of scanning we managed to see both of them. Water Pipit and Goldeneye have both been seen recently but we couldn’t track down either today.

Bittern

On the 25th I met up with my regular Friday birding friends and at Liverpool Street station and we went up to Cheshunt for another Bittern hunt. Unfortunately we weren’t successful as both Bitterns had been flushed by a working party and had flown to the far side of the lake. We also couldn’t locate the redhead Smew that is back for another winter. It was another sunny day which encouraged the local raptors and we saw at least three Red Kites and four Common Buzzards.

Red Kite

We also explored around Holyfield Hall Farm and Hall Marsh Scrape but didn’t turn up too much else. It was a bit tricky at the latter site as someone’s nicked the benches from the hide and the slats are too low if you stand up!

I popped down to Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens on 28th but didn’t spend a lot of time there as it actually felt cold and there weren’t many birds around apart from Egyptian Geese which seen to have taken over the area near the Round Pond.

I finished the month at Crossness, meeting John & Janet at London Bridge earlier than planned. This was fortuitous as the Barn Owl was showing as we walked past but had gone in to sleep shortly afterwards as a local birder who we met later by the outflow didn’t see it. There weren’t as many waders as on our last visit and all the Wigeon had disappeared but it was still heaving with birds. Two Little Egrets fished from either side of the outflow and the usual Common Sand was there along with a few Redshank plus several Grey and Pied Wagtails.

Little Egret

Redshank

Grey Wagtail

As we walked back beside the area where the Great Reed Warbler was a few years ago we stopped to watch a large flock of Goldfinches bathe in the puddles on the path. Another finch was with them which, at the distance we were at, appeared smaller and darker. As it bathed it flashed a yellow rump but then flew off before we could get close enough to identify it. We waited for a while but the finches had finished their ablutions and some of them were resting in the trees; unfortunately there was no sign of this particular bird so we’ll never know what it was despite our suspicions.

We crossed over to the Southern Marsh which certainly lived up to its name as the path was really wet and there was a large pool at the end of one stretch of boardwalk which we had to wade through. Large numbers of Redwing with a few Fieldfare were again feeding in the hedgerows but there wasn’t much else there until we got to Thamesmere and found a large assortment of wildfowl.

With eleven months of the year now gone, my London Year List has stalled somewhat on 182 species. It’s going to have to be a really amazing December to even reach 190.

November 18th: Grand Union Canal

I recently uploaded my bird lists on eBird from my first local patch along the Grand Union Canal. When I lived in Queens Park I walked the towpath from Kensal Green up towards Alperton although I didn’t always go that far. I thought it would be interesting to walk that route after almost 40 years to see how things had changed.

My starting point was behind Sainsbury’s in Ladbroke Grove – that was the first change as there was no supermarket there in 1983. It didn’t take long before I noticed the next change: the towpath had become a highway for cycles and e-scooters. I don’t remember encountering any cyclists back in the day but I usually only walked there on Sunday mornings.

First section opposite Kensal Green Cemetery

Harlesden section

The birdlife had changed significantly as well, every section had Coots on it whereas I didn’t see a single one until my 11th visit. There were also a lot of Moorhen compared to the odd one or two I used to see. On my very first visit I recorded a single goose (exact species unknown), this time there were several groups of Canada Geese and two Greylag Geese. One of the latter was sporting a colour-ring and had been ringed in the Royal Parks. 

Coot

Greylag Geese

I had expected to see Egyptian Geese but they don’t appear to have found the canal yet. One other exotic that was new was Ring-necked Parakeet. Back in 1983 I don’t think I knew they even existed as they didn’t feature in my copy of the Observer’s Book of Birds but now they are well established throughout London and it didn’t take long before some loud squawks gave away their presence.

It’s an interesting walk along this stretch of the canal as it weaves its way west out of London, passing beside quiet oases such as Kensal Green Cemetery and Wormwood Scrubs while never being far from a railway. The mainline from Paddington follows the canal for the first section and then there are the huge sidings at Old Oak Common with several varieties of trains including the new Elizabeth Line. London Overground trains cross over the canal at a couple of places a bit further on.

Elizabeth Line train

London Overground rail bridge

Passing under the road bridge of Acton Lane brings you out opposite the Grand Junction Arms, a really nice canal-side pub. I have at least been in the pub during these intervening years.

Grand Junction Arms

You then pass alongside the large industrial area of Park Royal. I didn’t recognise most of it and am sure some of the really large factories have been knocked down in the intervening period. Funnily enough, it was on this stretch that I encountered my only House Sparrows of the day, a little group of three. On my early visits they were commonly seen all along the route. There were also a few Chiffchaffs calling here as well. Back in 1983 they were still a novelty in winter with only 28 birds recorded in November and December in the whole of London.

These directional signs are new!

No, not that one!

A pair of Magpies in a tree were soon joined by several more and their chattering also attracted a passing Crow. I’m not sure what brought them together as Magpie Weddings are typically in early spring but maybe it was the sunshine and blue sky as we’ve not had a lot of that recently.

Magpies and Crow

There were a couple of Herons feeding in the canal today, I did occasionally see one on my earlier visits but they always flew off as soon as anyone came into view whereas now they ignore you and carry on feeding.

Grey Heron

Another new bird today was a Cormorant, perched on a fallen tree in the middle of the canal; in the early 1980s they were quite scarce in London away from the big reservoirs and I had to wait until I started birding at Brent Res before I first saw one.

Cormorant

I recorded Black-headed Gulls on all my earlier visits and noted how there was a large group on a factory roof. They may have been the many times Great-Grandparents of today’s birds as they were common along the canal today as well as there being a resting flock on a factory roof. I wonder if it was the same factory roof after all these years?

Black-headed Gulls on a factory

I also saw one Common and several Herring Gulls today, neither of which I recorded back then although I probably wouldn’t have been able to identify them back then as I didn’t have any bins for most of my early visits.

There’s likely to have been several small birds that would have gone unnoticed by me back then that I picked up on call today including Goldcrest, Wren, Dunnock, Pied and Grey Wagtails. I also saw and heard a flock of Redwing that flew over, most probably recent arrivals to these shores for their winter holiday.

The most obvious omissions today were Starling and Blackbird which I used to see quite regularly. I’m not surprised that Starling wasn’t seen given their drastic decline in numbers recently but I would have expected to see Blackbird and maybe they are still in the area.

As I reached the end of the Park Royal section I could see further changes in the landscape. In the distance Wembley’s arch was visible between the buildings while ahead, the skyline of Alperton has undergone a drastic makeover recently with many large blocks of flats being built overlooking the canal.

Wembley's arch in the distance

The border between Park Royal and Alperton is the North Circular Road and unlike all the other bridges on this section which pass over the canal, this bridge carries the canal over the road. Every time I’ve driven along this section of the North Circ, I always wonder how many people actually realise they’re going under the Grand Union Canal.

Crossing over the North Circular

Looking down; traffic is quiet after the rush hour

Just past the NCR bridge the canal also goes over a partially obscured waterway which is actually the River Brent.

River Brent

This was my last section of the canal and I took the footbridge off Water Lane to the bus stop outside Alperton station.

Water Lane footbridge at Alperton

My walk took almost two hours and covered 3.7 miles and it was a really interesting visit after such a long time. I also recorded 30 species of bird, almost double my previous highest total. I might have to make another visit!

My walk on Google maps starting on the right. The oval in the top left is Wembley Stadium.