January Week 3

For the third week of January I continued visiting new sites in Greater London for this year's challenge as well going to other places in the wider London Area.

Site 16: Gladstone Park, January 15th

This is another of my local parks within walking distance and is named after a former Prime Minister who was a regular visitor to the area. Although it first appears to be much like any other London park consisting of open grassland and London Plane trees, it does have a few quiet scrubby corners for wildlife to make a home.

Gladstone Park at dawn

The remains of Dollis Hill House and Gladstone's plaque

I heard a Mistle Thrush singing as soon as I entered the park and diverted towards the tennis courts to try and find it. After that success I carried on with a full circuit of the park. There are several colonies of House Sparrows in the gardens backing onto the park. I heard Jackdaw a couple of times which was a new species for the park list and I also came across a pair of Egyptian Geese which I hadn't recorded here before although they were on the list.

Egyptian Geese are quickly colonising all of London's parks

Singing Mistle Thrush, a declining species.

The lake at the top of the park held the usual Mallards and Moorhens and it was too early in the day to look for raptors so I left the park at the NE corner and walked through Dollis Hill to the North Circular and had a quick stroll around Brent Res.

News broke late on Sunday of a Lesser Scaup at Staines Res so my original plans to visit Beddington went out of the window and on Monday morning I headed down to Waterloo. Typical Monday rush hour chaos on the tube as I arrived at Neasden station to find the southbound Jubilee service suspended. I quickly hopped on the train heading north then swapped over to the Met Line and then changed at Baker St. I met John & Janet at Waterloo and we were soon on our way to Staines. 

We arrived on the causeway mid-morning by which time news was out that it was still present and we went straight to the huddle of people watching it. Surprisingly for the first morning there were only about 10 people there. We soon picked it up in a group of Pochard but it remained fast asleep. That gave us time to scan the North Basin for the Black-necked Grebes - we saw a flock of three but six were seen later on.

The Lesser Scaup thankfully decided to wake up and started preening so we were able to get conclusive views. It's been present a month but was over the far side so its identity remained unknown until yesterday. Satisfied with our views and feeling the intense cold beginning to bite we headed back to the station for a hot drink and then home. According to my records on eBird I've now visited Staines Res 64 times, I would have guessed it was less than half that number.

Site 17, Primrose Hill, January 18th

I took an early bus over to Childs Hill (still not looked into this name yet) and then another one down to St John's Wood station. It was then a short walk over to Primrose Hill, another new site for me. It's best known as a visible migration spot in spring and autumn and regular watching began in the 1950s. I wasn't expecting much in the middle of winter but thought it was worth a wander round and there is more habitat than I was expecting.

View looking south over central London

Looking SE

Looking back up the hill from the southern end

I ended up recording 15 species, more than I was anticipating. It would be good to come back on a nice day in spring when there's a decent movement of birds. I left the park at the southern end and crossed over the road to my next site.

Blue Tit

Site 18, Regent's Park, January 18th

I've always visited the park via Baker Street so going in this time from the north was totally unfamiliar. I crossed over the canal then wandered down the western side to the Chat Enclosure where I saw Pied Flycatcher last autumn then cut across the middle to the lakes. Usually I only visit the park to see something specific such as Red-throated Diver or Iberian Chiffchaff so it was nice to just amble around. 

Regent's Canal

A frosty Chat Enclosure

One of the islands on the main lake

There's always a good number of birds in the park, even in the middle of winter and I recorded 42 species including woodland birds such as Great Spotted Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Coal Tit.

Crow looking down from the rugby goalpost

Jay checking for food in the leaf litter

I did have an additional reason for visiting - to find a couple of exotic ducks. It didn't take long to find some Red-crested Pochards and amongst the captive birds were a few free-flying ones but I couldn't locate any Mandarins today. I checked out the other ducks as well to see what else was 'wild'.

A free-flying drake Red-crested Pochard

A wild Shoveler

On Thursday I headed up to Brent Res to complete the monthly WeBS count. There was some ice and duck numbers are still low after the big freeze-up earlier in the winter. Snipe have started to return since then and there was a single Lapwing. I left the site at the NE corner by Hendon Magistrates Court and crossed over the Edgware Road to my next location.

Site 19: Rushgrove Park, January 19th

This park in Colindale is so tiny that it doesn't currently have a hotspot on eBird but I've requested one so it should be available for anyone to use in the future. I visited here a few times when I was doing survey work for the last LNHS Bird Atlas so I know it quite well. It runs alongside the Silk Stream which flows into the Brent Reservoir.

Silk Stream

Rushgrove Park

There's even a tiny pond

It doesn't take long to do a circuit of the park and I recorded a reasonable total of 22 species including two singing Goldcrests, Coal Tit, several Redwings and best of all, a pair of Teal on the stream.

Redwing

Site 20: Walthamstow Wetlands, January 20th

I met up with John & Janet for the second time this week, this time at Tottenham Hale station. We walked the short distance along Ferry Lane where another birder alerted us to the presence of a Kingfisher. It stayed for a few seconds then belted up the stream.

Kingfisher

We walked into the north side first and went up to the Lockwood. Walthamstow seems to be suffering the same malaise that is affecting all the other reservoirs I've been to in London this year - a lack of wildfowl. I don't know if it's the after effect of the freeze-up when a lot of birds would have departed or something more sinister like Avian Flu.

An empty Upper Maynard

Another empty reservoir at Walthamstow

We tried scanning distantly for the Scaup on Number 4 but couldn't pick it up from any public vantage point. It was noted prominently on their blackboard of birds around which is rather taking the p*ss when you're not even allowed to go to the reservoir it's on!

We carried on around to East Warwick where the now resident Great White Egret was to be found on the island.

Great (White) Egret and pair of Gadwall

At the end of the third week of January I've now visited twenty sites. I've exhausted all my local ones so I'll have a bit more travelling and exploring to do for the rest of the year.