Feb 15-21st: Storms stop play

I spent Tuesday morning up at Brent Res, it was fairly quiet until a group of parakeets started squawking away, more agitatedly than normal. I looked up and a Red Kite drifted overhead being pursued by a few long-tailed green darts. It didn’t seem particularly bothered by these noisy interceptors and carried on heading west towards Wembley leaving the parakeets to turn around and head back to base.

Red Kite with attendant Ring-necked Parakeets

The next day I headed over to the east again, back to Orsett Fen following a tip-off from Ruth. I took the train to Ockenden, and headed along my normal route to the Mardyke, running into several singing Yellowhammers as I had last week. I couldn’t find the footpath that was on my map so went round the field and onto to a path that runs parallel to the Mardyke. I hadn’t gone far when my quarry took off from the adjacent field – Red-legged Partridge, my only London year tick this week. I carried on the path for a while and kept checking the fields and various lumps kept turning into more partridges, all of the Red-legged variety. I couldn’t turn any of them into Greys which are now fairly rare in the London area.

Yellowhammer

Red-legged Partridge

After a while I turned round and headed slowly back. It’s a nice walk and I don’t often visit farmland so will probably try again in spring when there will be different birds around; it’s the sort of place a Turtle Dove might just hang out.

My only other expedition this week was the following day when I headed over to Highams Park Lake as there had been a recent report of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. I’d not visited this spot before which is a fragment of Epping Forest: a lake surrounded by ancient woodland that is now in suburban northeast London. Getting there was straightforward, it’s just a short train trip from Liverpool Street station and then a ten minute walk.

I did a virtual circuit of the lake but instead of completing the loop, retraced my steps as the most likely area for woodpeckers looked like being north of the lake. I found several Great Spots, including one drumming but there was no sign of their diminutive cousin.

Apart from the exceptionally muddy paths, it was a nice walk and I photographed quite a lot, both on the lake and in the woods. The day had a touch of spring to it with quite a lot of song and territorial Coots having a fight like boys in the school playground. And I saw yet another Red Kite that flew low over the canopy heading south. Hopefully, there will be more chances for Lesser Spot this year.

Fighting Coots

Peaceful Moorhen

Siskin

Blue Tit

With Storm Eunice blowing through on Friday and strong winds remaining all the way through to Monday, I stayed local and visited Brent Res each day. Unlike the Great Storm in 1987, there were no seabirds blown into London this time apart from a couple of Little Gulls at Staines on the Monday. I hope to connect with them at some point this year although I failed to see any last year. I spent a couple of hours at the weekend cutting down and removing fallen branches but one large tree that had fallen across the path was too big for me and requires a chainsaw.