March 15-23rd: spring awakens

The week began still stuck in winter despite the warmer weather. Brent Res still had its full complement of over-wintering Black-headed and Common Gulls. I usually expect them to be gone by St Patrick’s Day so they’ve not got long now. The only nod towards spring was an increase in singing Chiffchaffs with ten now singing their own name. At least the butterflies thought it was spring with both Comma and Peacock seen.

Comma

Peacock

The following day at Brent, the gulls had obviously checked their calendars and had largely gone, just seven Common and a few more, mostly immature, Black-heads were left. The heronry has expanded this year with at least seven active nests. They’re always so much later than the Regent’s Park birds, with a couple of recent arrivals just starting to build new nests. A couple of Green Sandpipers were flying around East Marsh but the early movement of waders hasn’t really started yet unless the fine weather is just sending them flying straight over London.

March 17th –I started the day with a walk around Fryent CP where there was a passage of Redwings and a lot of song from woodland birds like Great Tit and Robin. Even common birds like Magpies looked good in the sunny weather.

Great Tit

Magpie

Robin

 I carried on over to Brent where I finally managed to catch up with the recent raptor movement, seeing two Red Kites and a Buzzard. I’m not really sure what these March birds are doing as they don’t get seen on the south coast until later in spring so perhaps they’re immature birds that their parents have expelled from their breeding territories? Whatever the answer, it’s always a pleasure to be able to see Red Kites over your local patch in London. Historically, they used to breed in central London so maybe they’ll return one day. I can just picture them scrapping with the gulls and wildfowl in St James’s Park for scraps and stealing sandwiches from unsuspecting tourists!

The next day was spent at Rainham Marshes. One of the Barnacle Geese has gone missing but the other four were happily still hanging out on Wennington. Gull numbers had noticeably declined here as well but otherwise there was little change in the bird population since my last visit. The Spoonbill was still here, although today it had taken to sleeping in front of Butts hide. Marsh Harriers were calling and displaying up high. Otherwise, the only change was plenty of Marsh Frogs (not yet calling) and lots of butterflies in the sunshine (Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Peacock, Small White).

Brimstone

With only the odd migrant turning up elsewhere and nothing else that I could realistically add to my year list I spent a few more days at Brent before heading down to the Thames on 22nd. This time it was on the south side at Crossness. It was another warm and sunny day, the hottest of the year so far and that certainly encouraged more butterflies to be out on the wing. Raptors took advantage of the thermals and I saw two Buzzards and a Kite, the latter being new for me at this site and now just one short of a ton.

Red Kite

Goldfinch

Linnet

At the outfall, the wintering Common Sand hadn’t moved from previous visits. A couple of the Black-wits had acquired summer plumage and the hoards of Common Teal still all had horizontal white stripes. A lone Curlew showed well out on the mud. Cetti’s Warblers were all over the place and one even sat up in a bare tree.

Curlew

Cetti's Warbler

A pair of Kestrels appeared to be nesting in an exhaust pipe on the adjacent building; it will be interesting to see what the local Peregrines make of them! I tried a new route so I could take in the Southern Marsh and still finish up at Abbey Wood station which worked well although it may have meant that I missed a Brent Goose that was reported later! And there was a Wheatear although I don’t think it was on my route.

Kestrels

To finish off I went around Brent Res on 23rd, seeing my first Bee-fly of the year and my fifth local Red Kite this month. Some spring flowers had emerged since my visit two days earlier including Primrose. It’s interesting how so many of the flowers in March are yellow.

Bee-fly

Primrose