Challenge results

Now that I've reached my total of birding 100 sites in London this year, I thought it would be interesting to look at the results. In total I saw 125 species just on my initial visits. The ten most frequently seen birds were:

1. Robin at 95% of sites visited

2. Carrion Crow 93%

=3. Woodpigeon 90%

=3. Blue Tit 90%

5. Magpie 85%

6. Ring-necked Parakeet 83%

7. Wren 81%

8. Great Tit 78%

9. Blackbird 72%

=10. Feral Pigeon 69%

=10. Goldfinch 69%

Robin, Horsenden Hill

I asked my followers on Twix to guess the  top three and while Crow and Woodpigeon featured highly, no one mentioned the humble Robin. The noisiest bird in London, the pesky parrot, came in sixth showing how ubiquitous it has become, ten years ago I doubt it would have been in the top ten. The humble pigeon just scraped into the top ten; although common in most parks it is largely absent from woodlands and rural areas on the outskirts of the city.

Pigeons at Beam Parklands

I think for me, the biggest and most disturbing result is the omission of Starling and House Sparrow. They would probably have occupied the top two positions if I had done this 30 years ago. This year, Starling was 19th, seen at 48 sites (behind Great Spotted Woodpecker) and House Sparrow was equal 29th, level with Egyptian Goose and Jay, seen at just 37 sites and scarcer than even Goldcrest.

I saw 29 species only once during these visits, some are not surprising, like Red-backed Shrike and Bittern but just one Bullfinch shows how much they've declined recently. I don't think it will be long before they get added to the list of 'former breeding birds of London' like Turtle Dove and Tree Sparrow.

As for birds of prey, Kestrel is still the commonest, albeit only seen at 15 sites, just ahead of Buzzard (13 sites) and Sparrowhawk (12 sites) and Red Kite a bit further back at eight sites. I wonder if Red Kite would be the commonest raptor if I repeated this challenge in ten year's time?

Kestrel, Warren Farm

Red Kite, Warren Farm

Unsurprisingly, I saw the most species at London's premier site, Rainham Marsh (65) and the fewest was seven species at Rainham Three Crowns, which to be fair was only a short walk. I enjoyed the challenge and visited many sites for the first time, some of which I'll be going back to regularly like Beam Parklands and Havering Country Park and a few sites I'll try to avoid returning to like Burgess Park. I visited 24 of the 32 London Boroughs.

With this challenge now over the year, I've been concentrating my birding at my local patches of Dagenham Chase and Rainham Marshes. 

I had a superb vismigging morning at the Chase on October 9th when I found a Richard's Pipit, the first record for the site. Another patch-tick for me later in the month was a female Goosander on the river.

Goosander

There's been a good influx of Short-eared Owls into London and on October 20th I saw two at Rainham Marshes.

Short-eared Owl at Rainham