29/1/11: Wings of Red, Wax - from Tooting Common to Finsbury Park

An unpleasantly cold LNHS meeting at Tooting Bec Common in search of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (none found). There had been a report of Waxwings on the Common so we set off to see them first, finding circa 40 Waxwings in the 'triangle' east of Balham station, near the underpass to Cavendish Rd. They were pecking away at something on their Sycamore perching place on the railway embankment, but soon took flight at the approach of a passing train. Amongst other species seen were: 8 Redwing, 1 Sparrowhawk (over), 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Nuthatch and 12 Ring-necked Parakeet. Those on the lake included 4 confiding Egyptian Geese, which were presumably used to being fed, 10 Shoveler, Tufted Duck and 2 Mute Swans.

Quite a lot of Waxwings have been reported from the Islington area lately, so I made my way to the Victoria Line, baled out at Finsbury Park station and crossed the road to the ground of that name. The highlight here was circa 98 Redwings and 95 Starlings feeding together, on the north side slope. Some of the other birds seen were 4 Chaffinch and 2 or 3 Goldfinch, and on the lake - which I hadn't looked at on previous visits - 11 Shoveler, 11 Pochard, 28 Tufted Duck, 2 Cormorant + 1 over, 4 Greylag, 22(+?) Canada Geese and 2 Mute Swan.

Some Finsbury Park lake pictures follow:

2 male and 1 female Pochard (foreground) with 4 male Tufted Duck behind

3 Mallard (male and female in foreground), female Pochard and male and female Tufted Duck

Mute Swan, with a male of each of Tufted, Pochard and Mallard Duck (left to right, behind)

4/1/2011: Bursted Wood and Danson Park birding ....

Bursted Wood (Barnehurst): Very close view of a Great Spotted Woodpecker which came within about 20 feet of me, only 10 feet up a small tree, before realising I was there and finding somewhere bigger and further away. Also 1 Jay on a tree out in the open near the Primary School. Plus all the usual suspects: Carrion Crows, Wood Pigeons, Ring-necked Parakeets, Magpies.

Danson Park (Bexleyheath/Welling): Still a largish ice sheet on the lake. Three species I've not seen here before. 50+ Shoveler, 6 Pochard, 4 Tufted Duck, 18 Mallard (mainly males), 1 or 2 Great Crested Grebe, 8 Cormorant, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Egyptian Geese, 46 Canada Geese, lots of Coot and Moorhens, 2 Stock Doves amongst a large number of ground-foraging of Wood Pigeons, 5 Magpies, Carrion Crows, 15 Starlings, a few Ring-necked Parakeets, and lots of Black-headed Gulls.

25/12/10: ducking out of Christmas bags Kingfisher and Pochard

Urghhhhhh. I really can't stand the even-more-over-consumption-than-usual-fest that is 'Christmas,' nor getting bored stiff in other people's over-heated houses for hours on end. Not to mention the wall-to-wall rubbish on the telly.

I did my bit by visiting my brother and his family in the morning, counting 82 Wood Pigeon on or in the vicinity of Barnehurst Golf Course.

There was a Jay, 3 or 4 Long-tailed Tit, 2 pairs of Blackbirds and a Blue Tit in his garden on Mayplace Rd East.

A Mistle Thrush was in a tree in the grounds of Crayford Manor House.

Heading for the River Cray there were 12 Lapwing, 40 Starlings, 3 Goldfinch, 2 Long-tailed Tit and a Jay with an acorn in the St. Paulinus/Manor Rd. field.

There were 2 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Blackbirds, a small group of Chaffinch , Feral and Wood Pigeon and 3 Collared Doves along Footpath 106, where I managed to slip over on snow by now compacted to ice, bruising my elbow :-(

By the Maiden Lane bridge 2 Redwing - still few and far between around here at the moment - were in a bush, and 2 Great Tit were nearby.

3 Ring-necked Parakeets were chasing each other over the Willow Carr along By-way 105. A male Pochard - possibly the one that was around last winter - was on the river by the Thames Rd bridge in the company of a few Mallard. Then something of modest size came speeding towards me, low and straight under the bridge and upriver. It took me a moment or two to realise it was a Kingfisher, and I caught sight of a confirmatory flash of blue as it went past.

2 Goldfinch were around the Sewer Embankment. Not much was happening on Thames Road wetland which was completely frozen up. I was there long enough to see a Lapwing come down on the flat adjacent to Thames Road on two separate occasions. On the second I was close enough to see the bird actively foraging. It may or may not have been the same bird, as two had been doing some aerial 'combat' over the nearby park a short while earlier, and later on two were seen in the Council depot car park over the road. This is the first time I've seen the species actually using the site, rather than just flying over it.

A Wren and a Dunnock were observed in the bowl of the Wetland itself. A fly-over Cormorant was seen.

Three groups of Starlings were seen at the southern end of the marshes, the largest, of 37 birds, was over the Viridor site.

A couple of Teal were on Crayford Creek. I though of trying to make it to Moat Lane, but the light was fading and enough people had been along the path to ice it up under their footfall, so I took the safer option and headed back towards Thames Rd., lingering in the area where I saw the Bearded Tit last Friday. After a while 1 or 2 Bearded Tit were heard calling from the large embayed area of reed bed on the Dartford side. Although the sound appeared to be emanating from the margin of the bed near the water, it was now dusk, and try as I might, I couldn't see anything moving in the gloom.

6/11/10: Hyde Park - birds and Southern Oak Bush Cricket

A nice afternoon in Hyde Park with LNHS friends Miriam and her daughter Celeste.

Celeste is great at spotting 'bugs', and noticed this female Southern Oak Bush Cricket on the underside of one of the hundreds of London Plane leaves lying on the ground.

Good views were had of a foraging Green Woodpecker.

On the Serpentine were: two Mute Swans, two young Great Crested Grebes, Mallards, Tufted Ducks, Pochard, a male Shoveler, Canada Geese, Greylag Geese and a number of Black-headed Gulls.

20/3/10: Three Borough trek for birds and botany

Went to a London Natural History Society meeting on Tooting Bec Common in Wandsworth, billed as an opportunity to try and see all 3 native Woodpeckers. Like several other members present, I had yet to see the Lesser Spotted species, which is uncommon in the capital .

I may as well say at the outset that despite much craning of many necks to look at the top-most branches of mature trees, we didn't see our elusive target - though a couple had reportedly been observed here several times in January and February.

We did see several Great Spotted Woodpeckers and 2 Green Woodpeckers, however. A Nuthatch was spotted. There were Ring-necked Parakeets. 2 Goldfinches were noted. A Stock Dove, Starlings and Redwings were feeding on the ground.

On or by the lake were around 16 Tufted Duck, 1 male Pochard, a Mute Swan, an Egyptian Goose, Mallard, Coot and Moorhen.

Plants included Gorse, Silver Birch, Cow Parsley, Viola odorata, Common Reed, Ribwort Plantain and some Coltsfoot coming into flower. In one area there were the winter remains of a number of Wild Carrot and Black Knapweed. A large stand of Broom occured in one spot.

Coltsfoot coming into flower by the lake on Tooting Bec Common

A progressive attitude to the sometimes maligned Gorse, here growing up against a building by a main road

2 Jay were seen in the woodland on Tooting Graveney Common, south of the athletic ground.

After the meeting ended, I decided to head east to Streatham Common in Lambeth. I took the tube from Tooting Bec to Balham, and the overground from there to Streatham Common station then walked up Greyhound Lane.

The open grass included plants such as Ox-eye Daisy, Creeping Buttercup, Lesser Celandine, Yarrow, Ribwort Plantain and Spotted Medick.

The attractive bark of a London Plane on Streatham Common, made more so by the trunk being wet on one side and still dry on the other

Fungus on an old log

Large clump of Butcher's Broom in the wooded area of Streatham Common

The increasingly wooded area to the east threw up several Beech saplings, Oak, one small Stinking Iris (probably a garden 'escape'), a large clump of Butcher's Broom, one clump of Snowdrops (well away from roads and houses) and two small non-native Mahonia aquifolium. There was Bracken and a small amount of Gorse in more open areas.

Birds included Ring-necked Parakeets, Robin, Wren, Blue Tit, Great Tit and a female Chaffinch. At the bottom of the wood, near what looked like an old estate 'lodge' 2 Stock Doves were sitting in a tree.

Around the Norwood Grove 'mansion', a couple of Greenfinches and a Nuthatch were seen.

Noticing a splash of green at the far end of Christian Fields road I went to take a look Norbury Park (off Green Lane) in Croydon. Unsurprisingly this was your typical over-mown swathe of grass, though 38 Carrion Crows and some Wood Pigeons were finding it to their liking.

I decided to head for Crystal Palace Park via the next-nearest 'green target', Biggin Wood.

Biggin Wood, Croydon - a suburban survivor

This exhibited the usual features of a small, heavily-used suburban woodland, with an apparently limited flora. The ubiquitous Ring-necked Parakeet was present. A few Lords and Ladies were coming up near the eastern Covington Way exit, and there was a lot of Lesser Celandine emerging here next to a small stream. The variegated garden form of the native Yellow Archangel was beginning to take hold in this area also.

Lamium galeobdolon 'Variegatum', the commoner of the variegated 'garden forms' of the native Yellow Archangel, starting to take hold at the eastern end of Biggin Wood, by the stream

The long road Waddington Way was selected as my route north-east. The grass verges here displayed species such as Creeping Buttercup, Creeping Cinquefoil, some Spotted Medick and, at a couple of locations, Sorrel (Rumex acetosa).

The park opposite the east end of Waddington Way has a horseshoe of woodland round it.

Fungus in woodland between Spa Hill and Beulah Hill, Croydon

As as Streatham Common there were a number of self-sown Beech saplings. A couple of leggy Gorse and some Bracken was in amongst the trees. Up towards Beulah Hill there was a stretch of Lesser Celandine, this population being characterised by little greyish mottling, but a strong black stripe along the central leaf vein.

I took Church Lane towards Crystal Palace but soon turned left down Sylvan Hill to get off the main road, noting Corydalis lutea in a wall. At the end of Sylvan Rd I was tempted by a park entrance, and decided to look at the signboard. This indicated that there was a lake at the far end, which I figured I could get to in time to check out any birds before it got dark and before the park gates got locked. It was now 17.59, but still fairly light, and I was delighted to see a Pipistrelle bat species fluttering overhead, repeatedly circling a play area and coming within about 18' of me - the best view of a bat I've had in a while, and the first I've seen this year.

The Crystal Palace plan ditched, I hurried to South Norwood Lake, a fairly featureless expanse of water with an island but not much interest in terms of surrounding vegetation, much of which was rather thin 'amenity planting'. There were Moorhen, Coot, Mallard, 3 Mute Swan, about 15 Tufted Ducks, 20+ Canada Geese and, rather surprisingly, I thought, two Great Crested Grebe.

12/1/10: River Cray and Thames Rd wetland/Dartford Marshes

The Cray Riverkeeper Volunteers are taking over the man-made wetland between the River Cray, Thames Rd, railway and Sewer Pipe embankment. More on this sometime in the future.

Having done a basic botanical survey in the summer, I thought the snow would increase the possibility of some interesting bird life using the water. But it was almost entirely frozen over. A couple of things I couldn't identify flew up and disappeared back into the dead reed/bulrush stems, but that was it.

Up on the embankment there was a small party of Chaffinches (I think) and 2 Redwings.

Before I checked the wetland there had been 3 Mute Swans just upstream of the Thames Rd bridge, and when I came back out there were 2 Cormorants on the river, giving a close view as they took flight in a hurry.

Mute Swans on the Cray near Thames Road

Man-made wetland area next to where Thames Rd crosses the River Cray. This former field was excavated to below the already high water table, and planted with Reemace and other species. The raised strips of ground with channels between are designed to attract Water Voles.

Numerous animal tracks in the snow leading up to the Sewer Embankment - it's not just Thames Rd that has heavy traffic!

There was a Redwing in a tree in the canalized 'gulley' on the downstream side of Thames Rd. A Heron flew over just as I came under the railway line.

Just before it got too dark to see what was going on, 2 female Shoveler duck, a probable male in flight and a male Pochard were seen on a ditch on Dartford Marshes. 3 Lapwing were spotted, one flying within a few feet of me on the inside the Council compound's fence as I made my way back to the main road.

Around 54 Starlings were in the air behind the 'Jolly Farmers' pub.

25 House Sparrows were seen (and judging by the sound there were more) in low hedging by the 'Imagination' company building on Thames Rd, and more were heard in the bushes in the centre of the Perry St roundabout.