December birding

It ended up being a quiet end to the year with no wintry weather in December, just plenty of grey skies. There was little opportunity to add any new birds apart from one day when I ventured up to the top end of the Lea Valley to Amwell NR. 

It's been 15 years since I lasted visited Amwell (thanks eBird!) and much longer since I went by train. It's a fairly easy route for me though it does involve quite bit of changing trains to get to St Margaret's. Then it's only a short walk along the canal to the viewpoint. I walked down the other side to the Gladwin hide which I'd not been to before and started looking for the Smew. Eventually I found it asleep with some Shoveler under the trees on the opposite bank although it did wake up once.

Smew, Amwell NR

At the time it was the only Smew in the London Area, although another one appeared at Staines Res for a day. It's a shame that they have become so rare now as a result of milder winters. The peak numbers were well before my lifetime with a UK record count of 144 at Brent Reservoir in 1956.

I only managed three visits to Rainham this month and didn't see anything new so finished the year on 153 species. At least I surpassed my target of 150 for the year even though I managed to miss several birds I should have seen, notably Bittern, Little Gull, Osprey and Quail which were all present on days I was there.

Earlier in the year I blogged about the Three Crowns at Rainham. It's on a few of the signposts around Rainham West but there's no other information about what it is. I followed the signs and found a cut through to a footpath where you can view the Thames (and where I saw the Franklin's Gull over at Crossness). Thankfully the Romford Recorder picked up my physic thoughts and revealed all.

As you might expect the Three Crowns was a pub and was originally called Ferry House. It dated back to the 16th Century and stood on Ferry Lane next to where the ferry used to run across the Thames to Erith on the Kent side. It was  rebuilt in 1839 after a fire and eventually closed in 1951 and was demolished in 1972. I haven't been able to establish exactly where it used to be but am guessing it would be on the riverside where the Tilda rice factory now is.

Three Crowns pub

The ferry was used to transport pilgrims across the Thames, presumably on their way to Canterbury. There is a plaque on the riverwall to this effect.

I visited Dagenham Chase eight times and Beam Parklands five times in December where the only new bird was a Short-eared Owl at The Chase. It briefly landed then got hassled by a Magpie and chased by Crows as it started flying around.

Short-eared Owl being pursued by Crows

I did miss a couple of birds at The Chase: Pintail and Barnacle Goose but did connect with the returning Red-crested Pochard so at least there was some wildfowl movement.

Drake Red-crested Pochard back for another winter

I also revisited a few local parks that I hadn't been to for a while, namely Harrow Lodge Park, Central Park (not the one in NY - there's now three parks with that name near me!), Mayesbrook Park and Parsloes Park. My best sightings across all of them were Stonechat at the latter site and a Firecrest in HLP.

Between Xmas and New Year I did escape London for a day and dipped the American Yellow Warbler in Kent so the less said about that the better. I might even have to try again in the New Year as it reappeared two days later.

Photos

I photographed two new birds in December: the above Smew and a Goldeneye, also at Amwell and had a couple of upgrades. This brought my total to 141 birds photo'd in London this year, just slightly above my revised target of 140. I ended up seeing 175 birds in London this year so photo'd 80.5% It's possible I could have reached my original target of 150 with a bit more effort as there were quite a few woodland birds that I didn't get around to photographing.  Still, I think 141 is a good figure and as far as I'm aware is a record (only because I doubt no one has tried it before!). So if any togs want to give it a go let me know how you get on.

Goldeneye, Amwell NR

Tufted Duck, Beam Parklands (upgrade)

Rock Pipit, Becton Creekside (upgrade)

At the moment I'm not setting any challenges for 2025 but that could always change!