2023 - New Year, New Challenge

After the effort of doing a London Year List in 2022 I've decided to try a different challenge: to visit 100 sites. Additionally, it will be in a smaller area - Greater London rather than the LNHS recording area and I'll be recording a full species checklist on eBird as well photographing at least one bird per site.

Site 1: London Wetland Centre, January 1st

View from Peacock Hide

I thought I'd start the New Year here for a change and I arrived just after opening time. I headed straight to Dulverton Hide to look for a Bittern and after half an hour one did a brief flight over the far reeds and dropped in out of sight. At WWF Hide there were a few gulls to look through and I found a nice adult Yellow-legged Gull. I spent an hour or so in Peacock hide looking for Dartford Warbler and Jack Snipe but neither showed themselves. There was a Water Pipit skulking on the grazing marsh and Gloria the Goldeneye appeared on the main lake.

Robin

Common Snipe

Teal displaying

Yellow-legged Gull

Site 2: Rainham Marshes, January 2nd

Purfleet Scrape, Rainham Marshes

I met up with my friends on the train at West Ham and we alighted at Purfleet. It was high tide so we went in the reserve as soon as it opened and headed over towards KB Hide. The Barn Owl wasn't showing and there wasn't much to see from the hide so we retreated back to the centre for coffee and cake. Taking the clockwise route we heard Beardies in front of the numbers but they were keeping their heads down in the reeds as there were a lot of togs about.

The Butts hide had most birds with Ruff and Snipe out the front and large numbers of Pintail on Target Pool with Marsh Harrier hunting over the back. We went out at the turnstile to check Aveley Bay now that the tide had dropped. There were plenty of waders including two Grey Plovers and some Avocets but no Dunlin or Black-wits.

Pintail

Ruff

Wigeon

Site 3: Brent Reservoir, January 3rd

The Northern Arm of Brent Reservoir (AKA North Marsh)

I popped up the reservoir for a quick visit in the morning. The Tawny Owl was peeping out from its usual hole as I walked past on my way over to North Marsh. I stopped on the playing fields to feed the Crows and Common Gulls the rest of my xmas turkey which they very quickly devoured. At the main hide there was still only one Snipe, with all the others leaving during the freeze-up. I completed the loop by going along the South Bank and ended up on Neasden Rec to check the goose flock before heading home.

Crow hoping for some more turkey scraps

The Canada Goose flock usually has two Greylags in it

Site 4: Queens Park (Kilburn), January 4th

A rather muddy Queens Park

The formal garden in the southeast corner

Queens Park's bandstand

I decided to spend the morning in the Kilburn area and started off by taking the bus down to Kensal Rise and walking over to Queens Park. I used to live by the park and walked through it daily on the way to work but never recorded any birds there so it seemed an obvious place to visit. It's a typical London park with a large grassy area surrounded by London Planes so isn't particularly inspiring. 

Queens Park does have a formal section with a little scrub so there is somewhere for birds to nest but I only managed a miserly 11 species on a full circuit. It did have breeding Spotted Flycatchers when I lived there in the 1980s but I don't think I actually saw them.

There wasn't much to photograph here so I only managed an out-of-focus Robin

Site 5: Paddington Old Cemetery, January 4th

There were Redwings in the tops of these trees.

A short walk with the entrance on Willesden Lane, this is a site I'd not been to before. It's open daily for the public to use as a green space and has a lot of mature trees and scrub so has more birds than Queens Park. I actually recorded 16 species, about half the total on eBird and has potential as a local patch for anyone living nearby.

Ring-necked Parakeet

Site 6: Grange Park (Kilburn), January 4th

Grange Park

Black-headed Gulls at Grange Park

It was just a short walk along Willesden Lane and over Kilburn High Road to Grange Park. I had popped in here in the past but not seen a great deal. It's a really small park but has more cover than Queens Park and my quick loop produced 12 species including Chaffinch which I wouldn't have expected in Kilburn.

Magpie

Site 7: Green Park, January 5th

Top end of the park bordering Piccadilly

South end looking towards Buck Pal

A couple of buses took me down to Hyde Park Corner, just a short walk away from Green Park. I used to walk through this park sometimes when I worked in Westminster but it's the least birdy of the Royal Parks. My loop of the park just accumulated 13 species, the best of which was probably the trio of Egyptian Geese that flew through the park from St James's. Despite the impressive  list of wildfowl recorded on eBird I think they're all recorded in error as there's no lake in this park.

I suspect there will be a Robin in every site I visit

Woodpigeon - probably another bird in every site

Site 8: St James's Park, January 5th

Lake in St James's Park from Buck Pal end

Southern end with Duck Island to right

I crossed over the Mall and entered St James's Park. This was my regular lunchtime patch when I worked in Westminster although most of my best birds were found when I walked through the park on my way to work. It's easy to complete a lap of the lake in half an hour and I made a few diversions to explore the scrubby areas.

The best birds today were a fully-winged Shelduck that seems to have taken up residence with a couple from the collection and Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers which were both heard on Duck Island.

Coot - gotta love those toes!

A 'wild' Shelduck, note presence of two wing tips

Moorhen

Site 9: Wanstead Flats, January 6th

With train strikes limiting my travel choices today I headed over to East London. I rarely visit the Flats, usually it's just to twitch something so it was nice to randomly wander around seeing what was there.

pond on west side

Fenced off area for Skylarks

There's a lot of rank grassland and bushes across the Flats.

I didn't turn up anything particularly interesting but did get my first Linnet of the year and added a few species to my rather pathetic Flats list. According to eBird I'm now 22nd in the all time rankings but there's not much chance of catching up with Jono!

Shoveler

Pair of Starlings in the sunshine

Mute Swan

Site 10: Wanstead Park, January 6th

I left the Flats at the top end and walked along Park Road to reach the park. This was a new site for me and I prefer it to the Flats.

Heronry Pond, Wanstead Park

Wanstead Park

I only had a short walk around and didn't visit all the lakes. On my wanderings through the woods I heard a Nuthatch which was another new one this year. It looks a good place to visit in spring so hopefully I'll find time to make another visit.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Eurasian Teal, I was surprised to find a little group of these displaying in the woods

With rain for most of Saturday I finished the first week of the year on 10 sites, well ahead of target.