Mill Hill & Central London

I decided to start the week at Totteridge so took a local bus (302) to Mill Hill and then changed onto the 240 to the Ridgeway where a public footpath starts by the RC primary school.

Site 35, Totteridge Valley, February 27th

There's quite a lot of access points for this area and most people start on the Finchley side but it's easier for me to approach from Mill Hill. It also gives better view over the farms. I followed the footpath all the way up to the northern boundary, then along the road to a large pond (Long Pond) where another footpath begins which heads back south. Towards the top end I saw a Red Kite flying around and there were three Mandarins on the pond.

Mandarins

Footpath runs through Belmont Farm

Long Pond alongside Totteridge Common road

Second footpath looking south

View towards central London

As I was walking down I came across a large mixed flock of Redwings and Fieldfares. I also heard the hefty 'cronk' of a Raven and quickly found it flying away from me up the valley. In the fields were a couple of Lapwing.

Lapwing

About halfway down the hill there's a path that runs eastwards so I followed that all the way to Darlands Lake. From there you can carry on and explore the east side and end up at Totteridge or Woodside Park but as I wanted to finish up at Mill Hill, I retraced my steps back to the footpath then followed it south.

Darlands Lake

The path goes past Folly Farm and a nursery and then you can walk back to the Ridgeway and catch the 240 back to Mill Hill. Instead I walked along the road and turned into Milespit Hill. I eventually found a footpath which leads into the next site.

Site 36, Arrandene Open Space, February 27th

This was a new site for me and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It was more wooded than I anticipated with several paths running through it. I more or less followed paths that would cut across the middle and take me to the west side. I found a nice flock of Siskins that started singing after a short rain shower.

Arrandene Open Space

Siskin

I exited the area on the west side and crossed over Wise Lane to my third site of the day.

Site 37: Mill Hill Park, February 27th

I hadn't thought about visiting this area until I could see it but a quick check on the map also revealed it was the quickest way to walk back to Mill Hill. It's much more of a town park than Arrandene and is mostly open grass with trees along the edge so there's limited birdlife here.

Jackdaws

Mill Hill Park

I walked along by the tennis courts where a flock of Jackdaws were feeding on the grass and over to the northwest corner where I climbed the fence to exit the park where the subway was. This leads to the top of the Broadway where I popped into Costa before getting the bus back home.

For a change I didn't see Egyptian Geese at any of these sites and also didn't see a House Sparrow all day.

Two days later I headed into Central London to visit some more sites. I took the 332 bus for a change down to Cricklewood, then changed onto the 16 and alighted at Marble Arch.

Site 38: Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, March 1st

I entered Hyde Park at the northeast corner and randomly followed paths heading south until I reached The Serpentine. 

Hyde Park

View from Speakers Corner looking south

The Serpentine

I then went around the edge and up the other side to the bridge and crossed over into Kensington Gardens. Here, the lake is called The Long Water and I walked up towards the Peter Pan statue then cut westwards. I explored the copses in vain for Little Owl, then went down to the Round Pond and exited the park at the southwest corner into Kensington.

Black-headed Gull

Common Gull

Immature Herring Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Stock Dove

Round Pond

I walked along the busy Kensington High Street until I found Holland Walk, from which there's an entrance into the next site.

Site 39: Holland Park, March 1st

This was actually my first visit here. It's considerably smaller than Hyde Park but also has a lot fewer people in it so was nicer to walk around. I walked up the steps to Holland House and followed the trails around various gardens. These are typically free of dogs and cycles so are pleasant to walk around.

Formal gardens around Holland House

Holland Park

Holland House

Kyoto Garden

At this point my camera battery died so I had to use my phone to finish off. The park is quite wooded in the northern section with a few ornamental ponds. In Kyoto Garden there was a Peacock displaying to a bunch of feral Pigeons and a Grey Heron walked across the path in front of me.

Peacock and Pigeons

Peacock in full display

Grey Heron

I followed the trails around and exited at the School Entrance back onto Holland Walk and followed it north where it terminates at Notting Hill. It was then just a five minute walk to the bus stop where I boarded the number 52.

After a visit to Rainham Marshes on Thursday where I finally managed to see the Barn Owl this year, I went up the Lea Valley on Friday. I met my friends at Liverpool Street station and took the train to Rye House where it's then a ten minute walk to Rye Meads RSPB. Although it's my first visit there this year, it doesn't count as one of my 100 sites as it's outside of Greater London.

It was a cold, grey day but we still managed to record 54 species. I was hoping to have another day without an Egyptian Goose but one put in an appearance by the old manor house on the way back to the station. Probably the best bird of the day was a Peregrine atop a pylon on the reserve.

The inevitable Egyptian Goose

Magpie with pet Muntjac

Peregrine

November 1st-15th: Woodies and Whooper

With the autumn migration tailing off, I’ve not being going out and about as much, mostly concentrating on local areas apart from a few days in Norfolk which I covered on my last blog.

The first week of the month traditionally sees the bulk of the Woodpigeon movement and there were several days at Brent Res where I recorded a few thousand going over. Weather is really key in the overland passage of these birds which come from Scandinavia and head over the UK to winter in Spain. Blocking weather systems over the North Sea may mean they take a different route altogether and go along the south coast rather than up the Thames Estuary and over London. In some years they pass over in large numbers on a single day, my best count being 50,000 plus over Swanscombe. This year my highest count was 4,200 over Rainham.

Part of the Woodpigeon migration over Brent Res

Winter thrushes aren’t as common this year, especially Fieldfares. I always hope to see a Ring Ouzel in with them if there’s a good passage but I didn’t get one this year. I did venture over to Rainham on the 4th, aside from the Woodies going over, the number of waders has started to pick up with 180 Lapwing and 60 Black-tailed Godwits counted but still no Dunlin yet. Water and Rock Pipits are both in now for the winter and the latter are often showing well along the lower concrete wall near the visitor centre.

Rock Pipit

The only other place I visited in the first half of the month was Rye Meads RSPB. There had been a juvenile Whooper Swan hanging around for a few days so I thought I’d head up on Monday morning. As I was on the bus from Brent Cross to Edmonton I was wondering if it was such a good idea as there was thick fog around. I got off the bus at Silver Street and took the train up to Rye House. It was still foggy but the visibility had improved a bit. I don’t often visit Rye Meads but am determined to make an effort to get there more often as it is a nice little reserve and easy to get to.

My first port of call was the Draper hide, just missing a Kingfisher which had been posing for the togs on a nearby branch. Out by the island was a sleeping immature swan. It seemed quite long-legged and I suspected it was the Whooper. It woke up briefly and stuck out its head to confirm my suspicion and then went back to sleep. A Green Sandpiper flew in and some Water Rails called over the far side but there wasn’t too much else to see so I carried on walking around.

I visited the main hides and ended up in the Kingfisher hide where a few more togs were waiting for a blue-and-orange piscivore. I didn’t think that winter was the best time to be staking out a nesting site so left them to it and headed back to the Draper hide. By now the Whooper Swan was out feeding and with the fog clearing a little bit more I was able to get a few photos.

Whooper Swan

It's only the second Whooper Swan I've seen in the London Area, the first being on Lockwood Res quite a while back and of course it was another new one for the year, bringing my total up to 172.

June 1-10th: summer slowdown

I had a couple of targets in mind when I headed down to Crossness on June 1st, one of which was guaranteed. It can be fairly slow birding in summer but after a frantic spring it did give me the chance to go a few sites to try and catch up with birds that had so far eluded me this year. Crossness is a pleasant place to wander around for a few hours (unless the wind is blowing directly through the sewage treatment works).

I started at the paddocks and headed towards the riverwall. Most passerines were going round with their new family but there was the odd pair of birds that were unaccompanied that had probably failed the first time around. One such pair was a couple of Linnets that perched just ahead of me, the male resplendent with its raspberry flush. Crows and Jackdaws stalked the grassy meadows looking for food.

Jackdaw

Linnet

Approaching the riverwall I looked back and was delighted to see a Barn Owl looking out of its box, a much hoped for year tick. There wasn’t a lot on the river apart from Shelduck, tonnes of Gadwall and a couple of Oystercatcher so I headed back down the track along the protected area where a few Reed Buntings were singing. I always describe their so-called song as counting ‘One, Two, Three and a Half’ before it starts again and never manages to get to Four.

Barn Owl

Reed Bunting

At the road I crossed over to access the Southern Marsh and a range of different habitats. A calling Cuckoo was a site tick for me, otherwise it was a fairly quiet walk to Abbey Wood station where my guaranteed ‘tick’ awaited, a ride on the Elizabeth Line which opened last week. Aside from the shiny new trains, the journey was much quicker and I alighted at Farringdon about 20 minutes later to pick up the Met Line home.

The following day I again went to the Thames marshes, this time the other side of the river at Rainham. I wasn’t expecting to see anything new but it’s that odd time of year when unexpected birds can just drop in. Today wasn’t one of those days but it’s worth the effort to try. There were a couple of Cuckoos calling on Rainham West and a late Sanderling in the bay.

Cuckoo

Whilst out on the reserve a message alerted me to a Red Kite heading my way which I managed to locate, my first here this year, otherwise it was full of breeding waders.

Wishing to spend the second bank holiday out of London, I travelled down to Sandwich with my friends for a day out in Kent. I hadn’t done this train journey for many years and this time we were heading to a new site. I don’t do a lot of long-distance twitching nowadays but the lure of an Eleanora’s Falcon two hours away was too good to miss. It was only a short walk down to the temporary car park where we accessed the footpath to Worth Marshes.

There were a couple of Hobbies hawking ahead so we headed towards them. We knew the falcon had been seen recently and there were plenty of people about, nevertheless it was a bit of a surprise when it flew in close to us and started hunting over the lake. After a couple of minutes it drifted off and we never saw it again so we decided to go and look for the Red-footed Falcon. It was being seen a fair way along the path so we took our time, seeing what else was around on the marshes.

By the time we reached the designated spot there were only a couple of other birders staking out the site so we stopped and had lunch. The clear water in the ditches held plenty of dragonflies like Four-spotted Chaser, Red-eyed Damselfly and two new species for me: Variable Damselfly and Norfolk Hawker. Over the past few years the latter has colonised parts of southeast England, most likely from the near continent rather than from its English base of the Norfolk Broads. A couple of Kestrels were seen and then, our fourth falcon of the day when the Red-foot was seen flying around in the distance. We did see a fifth falcon but it was a Lanner hybrid that one of the local farmworkers showed us that is used as a much more efficient bird scarer than Worzel Gummidge.

Four-spotted Chaser

Variable Damselfly

I spent most of the next week birding locally, mostly at Brent Res but also visiting Fryent CP one day. The latter site is mostly grass meadows and woodland with a few small ponds so it was a real surprise to find a pair of Tufted Duck on Barn Hill pond which was a new species for the site. I also finally saw my first Common Buzzard at Fryent which had been an obvious omission, especially as I had seen a few Red Kites before.

Tufted Duck

Common Buzzard

To finish the first third of the month off I decided to visit Rye Meads RSPB with my friends. They hadn’t been there before and my last two visits were some years ago when I twitched Solitary Sandpiper and Glossy Ibis so it was almost a new site for me as well. Although there’s not a cafe like at Rainham, you can still purchase a hot drink and a tasty flapjack at reception so we polished these off before setting off for a circuit of the reserve.

We first stopped off at the dragonfly pool where I was pleasantly surprised to find a Norfolk Hawker, our second in just over a week. We saw another one around the back of the reserve so maybe they are breeding here.

Norfolk Hawker

The first hide was the Draper Hide from which we saw the most birds. The commonest bird was Gadwall while the scarcest duck were a couple of Red-crested Pochard. Waders included Lapwing, three or four Little Ringed Plovers and a couple of migrant Dunlin – it was impossible to know if they were tardy adults heading north or a pair of failed breeders that were already on their autumn migration southward.

Red-crested Pochard

Little Ringed Plover

We carried on around, popping into various hides to see what was about. It was a good day for raptors with two Buzzards, Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, Hobby and Kestrels all seen. The sunny weather was also good for insects with plenty of butterflies seen, a female Banded Demoiselle and even a Mayfly which landed on my face! We also found a couple of Bee Orchid, my first ones of the year.

Banded Demoiselle

Mayfly

Bee Orchids

Even when birding is quiet in the summer, there's always plenty of other wildlife to be seen so it was a good start to June and I expect there will be more to be seen during the rest of the month.