September birds and moths

In the birding calendar September is in the middle of autumn, most Swifts have left before the month begins and by the end of the month winter birds such as geese begin arriving. The weather has much more of an influence as storms bring in seabirds and easterlies bring in migrants from the continent. This year all that happened in September, and more.

Rainham Marshes

I made ten visits this month including a couple of river-watches when the winds were blowing from the east. They weren't quite strong enough to bring lots of seabirds up the Thames but the 24th was the best. I'd already seen a couple of Sandwich Terns and while I was having lunch and scanning the river I got a phone call to tell me there was a skua on the river. I soon picked it up in flight by the Amazon depot and then it flew across the river and back. I could see it was an Arctic Skua and Dave and Andy also confirmed the ID.

It landed in the middle and spent the next 20 minutes drifting upriver past us and then got up to harass some Herring Gulls before landing again and drifting out of view towards Erith.

Arctic Skua at Rainham

This was my first skua species at Rainham and we'd been talking about skuas earlier so it was a good reward for my efforts. The skua and the tern were both London year ticks.

Waders were still fairly thin on the ground at Rainham apart from Black-tailed Godwits which had increased to a decent sized flock of a couple of hundred but there was no hoped-for Little Stint this month.

Red Kites were regularly seen on the tip and Hobby was present throughout but down to just a singleton in the last week of the month.

Insects have been flying all month with several Clouded Yellows, plenty of Wall Browns and the odd Brown Argus being the most notable.

Clouded Yellow

Dagenham Chase & Beam Valley

I also visited The Chase ten times, mostly trying to catch up with chats/flycatchers. I eventually managed to see an elusive Common Redstart that spent several days hanging around the burnt patch on Fels Field. It was another new bird for the year although I did later hear one at Rainham.

I missed the Whinchats but just about caught up with one of the Stonechats in Fels Field. Otherwise, it's been a quiet autumn at The Chase, not being helped by The Slack being out of action as it dried up in the summer. A few Siskins and Redpolls have flown over, hopefully the vis-mig should pick up in October.

A further eight visits were made to Beam Parklands/Beam Valley CP, some of which were on the way to The Chase. Beam Parklands is still recovering from the large fire in the summer. As yet, I've not found anything of interest at either site this autumn but there's still time.

Brent Reservoir

I've been waiting over two years for a good bird to be found at Brent since I moved and when Ben found a Glossy Ibis - it was Sod's Law that it was during a week long tube strike so I didn't attempt to go on the first day. I did hatch a plan for an alternative route if it stayed another day and with positive news I went the following day.

I took the train from Dagenham Dock to Barking, changed onto the Goblin Line to Gospel Oak and then the North London line to Brondesbury (I really cannot be bothered to learn the new names of the six splits of the Overground). I then got the 32 bus to Staples Corner and cut through East Marsh to the hide, two hours and 20 minutes after leaving home.

After a few minutes searching the ibis suddenly appeared, feeding around Willow Island. I watched it for a while and managed a few distant record shots before leaving for the return journey. As it was a first record for the site, it was also new for my Brent list #211 but I'm going to have to wait a long time at this rate before I can catch up to Leo who's seen the most birds at Brent.

Glossy Ibis, Brent Reservoir

I decided to try a different way home and walked up to Hendon station and luckily just made the Thameslink train which had just arrived. I changed at Farringdon onto the Lizzy line all the way east to Romford where I got a bus home; it ended up being quicker by half an hour. The ibis wasn't seen in the afternoon and presumably went back to the London Wetland Centre where it spent the rest of the month.

Beddington Farmlands

With news of a Grey Phalarope at Beddington, I resorted to TFL's journey planner to plot a route to go on positive news the following morning. So on the 18th I took the tube to Balham via Bank and got a train down to Hackbridge. It was a fairly simple journey considering I was travelling across London. It's just a five minute walk from the station onto the public footpath that runs up the west side of Beddington and a few minutes later I'd reached North Hide.

A couple put me on the Grey Phalarope, it was walking around on the muddy island and was a bit distant but over the course of an hour it eventually came a bit closer.

Grey Phalarope, Beddington Farmlands

It's been a very long time since I've seen any phalarope in London so it was good to catch up with this bird. It had been blown inland by a storm and two more were on Staines Reservoir. I finished the month on 171 species in London on eBird, higher than any of my previous annual totals and with a quarter of the year left, there's still plenty of opportunity to add to this total.

Southend

I made one trip outside of London this month, into deepest, darkest Essex. I met John and Janet at Upminster and we took the train to Southend. After a look around the seafront where I counted 60 Little Egret, probably the most I've seen in the UK. 

We went onto the pier (it opens at 10.15) and walked down to the end. The wind was NE but too light to bring in much in the way of seabirds but we did see a few Gannets and some early Brent Geese flew past, my first of the autumn and probably the earliest I've ever seen them. 

Southend Pier

A couple of Sandwich Terns flew past and several Med Gulls were around the pier. Turnstones lurked around the picnic tables looking for scraps.

Mediterranean Gull

A marauding Turnstone

Mothing

I managed to run the trap on most nights during the month, the number of species declined as the temperature went down. As the month progressed, autumn fliers started to emerge.

Beaded Chestnut

Black Rustic, AKA Goth

Canary-shouldered Thorn

Cypress Pug

Deep-brown Dart

Double-striped Pug

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Lunar Underwing, this was really common in the second half of September

Marbled Fern

A very tatty Old Lady

Olive-tree Pearl, an immigrant

Rose Tabby

Treble Brown Spot

More East London sites and an owl

April 29th: Brent Reservoir

As it was the Spring Bird Count at my old patch I decided to head back across London for the day and join in. I've always enjoyed participating in these big days at Brent, the only difference this time around was that I wasn't heading out pre-dawn to listen out for owls. Despite the later arrival time, I still managed a respectable 60 species with the group total being 71. It wasn't a good day for migration as the weather was probably too nice.

April 30th: Ingrebourne Valley

I took an early bus towards Rainham and alighted at Dovers Corner. It was a bit of an exploration as I didn't know if there was an access point to this end of the Ingrebourne Valley but I soon found an egress point at the car park for Ingrebourne Hill. This gave me access to the southern end of the valley which I hadn't visited before. I walked along an abandoned (?) cycle track beside some lakes which I think are known as the Albion Pools. There's also a large reedbed which seems to be an extension of Berwick Ponds.

I kept on walking East until I reached an area that I recognised, which is what I refer to as Mallard Lake. I carried on eastwards through Berwick Glades and realised I wasn't far from a new site for the year so decided to give it a visit.

Site 66: Bonnett's Wood

I had been through a section of this site last year on my way back from seeing some wild geese at Gerpins Lane but this was my first visit in spring. I walked a loop around the new area that was acquired in 2012 which has a lot of young trees planted by Forestry England.

There was a lot of birds around including Cuckoo, Lesser Whitethroat, Skylark and woodpeckers. Overhead a Common Buzzard was soaring around and a Kestrel shot through.

Buzzard

At the end of the loop I walked back across Berwick Glade and into Hornchurch Country Park.

May 1st: Cheshunt GPs

I met up with John & Janet for our regular spring trip to the Lea Valley. From Cheshunt station we headed towards Seventy Acres Lake, seeing a couple of Garden Warblers along the way. 

Garden Warbler

We then crossed over the river to the substation island and were soon listening to a Nightingale. This has become the last bastion of these birds in the London Area and they could easily join the long list of birds that have ceased breeding in the capital such as Tree Sparrow, Turtle Dove, Tree Pipit and Willow Tit to name just a few of the recent ones.

We decided it was time for cake o'clock and went to the excellent cafe at Holyfield Hall Farm. Whilst sitting outside with a large slab of cake we saw Red Kite and Common Buzzard. At this point John received news of a possible Long-eared Owl on his patch so we decided to head straight back and go for it. It took one hour exactly from Cheshunt station to arriving on site.

Site 67: Stave Hill & Russia Dock Woodland

We walked the short distance from Canada Water station and entered into the site at Stave Hill which then turns into Russia Dock Woodland. One of the local birders had the owl pinned down but it had moved from where it was into a denser spot in the tree. However, its huge bulk and bushy ear tufts made it obvious that it was in fact some sort of Eagle-Owl rather than a Long-eared Owl. Better photos taken later revealed that this bird was in fact a Great Horned Owl, an obvious escape. It was still an impressive bird to see in this inner London site. It was reglarly mobbed by Crow sand Magpies but it just ignored them.

Great Horned Owl 

May 3rd

I started off at Dagenham Chase where the best sighting was watching a Hobby pursue a Sand Martin. I couldn't tell if it was successful or not as they flew behind the trees at the back of The Slack. A bit later on I saw a Peregrine circle over, two new falcons for my patch list. I decided to find the bridge over the railway line and explore a new area.

Site 68: Beam Valley Country Park

This site joins up Dagenham Chase and Beam Parklands where I visited last week, all of which are part of the Dagenham Corridor of green spaces.

Bridge over the railway which connects to Dagenham Chase

I had a look at the private fishing lake before exploring the rest of the site where there was a pair of Great Crested Grebes. It's quite a narrow site which runs down the west side of the River Beam. There is a footbridge which leads to a large open space, marked as Playing Field on the map which doesn't form part of the Country Park and appears to be unnamed. The lake at the southern end is also outside of the park's boundaries but both are best treated as part of the CP for recording purposes.

Squabbling Magpies

The southern border of the site is the A125 and I crossed over here and entered Beam Parklands. I followed the path along the river all the way to the southern end and then went west by the lake and out on Ballards Road. As this was just my second visit here I did manage to see two new species: Canada Goose and Great Spotted Woodpecker.

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.