LSW at Richmond Park and LEO at Dungeness - what a day !

As I have said many times, I am not a 'twitcher'. I'm quite content with patch bird watching and visiting favoured sites for any birds that I don't get on my patch.

 

But I have two good friends in Jonesy and her fella, Paul, who aren't 'twitchers' either, instead they concentrate on just a handful of birds that they will travel to see. Wrynecks are one of Paul's obsessions - he has now seen over 50 of them in England during his lifetime. It's cousin, the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is also a passion of his and Jonesy. They don't just 'twitch' them for a 'tick', they understand the bird, they know exactly the habitat it prefers, when to start looking out for the birds, the calls, even the distinction between the drumming of a LSW compared to a GSW. Every February Paul starts researching likely areas and is often 99% on track.

 

Me ? Until today I had never seen a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and I had almost hit the stage where I thought I would never see one as their numbers are seriously declining. Nobody can say for sure how many LSWs are still around the London area. Bushey Park used to be a good site for them but none were seen last year. Wimbledon Common may have a pair but that's unconfirmed. Richmond Park used to have three pairs but these birds are so small (just a tad smaller than a Great Tit) that trying to observe them and keep records is an almost impossibility, so again records are unconfirmed.

 

Paul and Jonesy knew that I was a LSW virgin and earlier this week they asked me if I would like to 'break my duck' and go and see one..........

Of course, I didn't say no.

 

So this morning at 7.30am we were in Richmond Park.

Paul had seen both male and female LSW there last week.

And within an hour Paul had found us a male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

 

It was flighty, but it stopped a few times to 'drum' and 'call'. At one point we think we saw a female too but lost the bird before we could confirm it.

My photos are pure record shots, the male LSW rarely sat still long enough for me to focus on it and the weather wasn't exactly on our side.....

But I can safely, and very happily say, I have finally seen a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker.

 

 

My last visit to Richmond Park was for the rutting season last October (link to that days blog here) and I admit I concentrated only on the Red Deer, who rut so magnificently. I'm guilty in that I practically ignored the other deer residents of the park, the Fallow Deer, so here's a few photos of these little beauties today.....

 

 

Other birds that piqued my interest were a couple of calling Wrens....

 

 

a pair of Kestrel displaying, though I only got a photo of the female after she'd seen off a few Jackdaws that were getting on her nerves....

 

a pair of Stonechat (eight individuals were later reported on Wiki London Birders).... 

 

There was also a reported sighting of a Dartford Warbler but we weren't fortunate enough to see it today. In Jonesy's own words it would have been 'gravy' on our day if we had.

 

So a complete success of a morning traipsing around Richmond Park. I cannot put in to words (but will try) on what it is like to see a LSW, one of England's most elusive birds. I was literally gobsmacked. It is so small, so un-seen by some, but when you get your bins on that stripy back and (in the case of the male) that wonderful red 'beret', it just takes your breath away. What a ducking dainty cracker !

And it really is all thanks to Paul. Without his expertise field knowledge, I would have not seen this very rarely seen bird today.

 

I could have happily ended my field trip after that. I'd 'broken my duck', was happy, content and had enough photos and sightings to fill my blog post.........but my Jonesy likes me to have full 'field trips' when I'm out with her and Paul. So after a toilet and coffee break, Paul scanned through the recent bird alerts on the internet and came across another bird that was in a fairly driveable location, that I had never seen before. A Long-eared Owl has been at RSPB Dungeness for some weeks now, and today two were reported. A couple of hours later I was looking at my very first LEO.

 

However by this time, the weather had seriously changed from this mornings calm, dry, and often sunny, skies. Now the wind was howling, it was raining but it was so windy that the rain was horizontal and barely touched us. After a bit of guidance from a couple who were already on site, we located the first LEO. Sadly the hooley winds had pushed the bird back in to the scrub, but I managed a couple of half decent record shots....

 

 

After Paul set up his scope, we spotted the second LEO, less than a metre away from the first, but it had its back to us which is probably why we didn't spot it straight away. The camouflage on these beautiful birds is outstanding and really shows why so many are unreported - they honestly just don't get seen. Even in my two pics below, the first owl can be seen fairly clearly, but the second owl can only be seen if you know where to look.....

It is just NWW of the first LEO, just a couple of branches to it's left......

 

We still had an hour or so of day light left so scanned the Dennis's Hide for the recently seen male  Smew. We never did find it, despite visiting the other nearest hides, but we did find a lovely 1st winter female red head instead....

 

 

The weather got worse whilst we were there. Visibility was poor. The waters were choppy.

Two female Goldeneyes were just visible.....

 

Some Shovelers were trying to 'shovel'...

 

a lone Great Crested Grebe was sleeping....

 

plenty of Pochard were bobbing around...

 

and the very under-stated Gadwalls were mainly in pairs....

 

This is a dreadful photo below. I was trying to capture the highness of the water, along with the brutal winds that was making 'white horses' break against the shore, and also to high-light the number of Cormorants that were attempting to roost in the tree tops....

 

As windswept and tired as I was after getting up at 5am today, walking over 11km and with almost nine hours on my feet, I could not have come home happier. Two new 'lifer' birds for me. Several dodgy record photos. Excellent company. And now for a much needed and deserved large glass of wine.

 

Paul and Jonesy - you rock !! I cannot thank you both enough. XXX

Love is in the air at the London Wetland Centre and for the FaB Peregrines

Valentines Day. What to do ?

As I fought my way through the sacks of cards littering my doorstep (hahahahaha) I had decided on only two plans for today. The London Wetland Centre then on to Charing Cross Hospital. Not because I'm sick or ill, but because the resident Peregrines have been observed mating a few times over the two days.

More about them later in the blog.

 

 After yesterdays dreary dull wet weather, today was very fresh, very dry and fairly sunny and at the LWC it was unsurprisingly busy.

 

Love was definitely in the air for a pair of Canada Geese....

 

 

and for a pair of Egyptian Geese....

 

The Teals were pairing up...

 

 

as were the Wigeon......

 

The water levels across the marshes were quite high today. The photos below are both of the Peacock Tower, but the first one was taken from the Wader Scrape Hide and the second from the Wildside Hide....

 

 

I found only one Little Grebe during my short visit today, and he/she was fishing in the channel right outside the Peacock Tower....

 

Other birds pairing up were Robins. Below are a pair but I just couldn't get them in the same frame.....

 

 

After Nathalie and mine's success at discovering Bee Orchid rosettes at Heathrow a couple of weeks ago (click here for that blog post) I thought I'd check the regular bank at the LWC to see if theirs were coming up too, and they are. I only found two rosettes in this particular area, but that would fit with the two spikes that I saw in flower last June......

 

 

Keeping on the theme of bees, I also saw my first Buff-tailed bumblebee of the year today......

 

In between The Lodge and the Asian Short-clawed Otter enclosure there is a patch of evergreens. Today in those few trees we saw at least three Goldcrests, two Coal Tits and a ChiffChaff.

 

Best photo I could manage ? A Goldcrest's bum of course.....

 

 

I lost an hour of my life at the Wildside Hide looking for a Bittern. There are definitely two on site, possibly three, and one had been seen to fly from the area in to the middle reedbed channel earlier this morning. But despite searching and scanning I couldn't find any of them. So after a quick bite to eat (my one and only grumble about the LWC - the bloody price of the food !!!) I was on the bus back to Hammersmith and on the short walk to Charing Cross Hospital.

 

I hadn't even reached the Margravine Cemetery before I spotted one of the Peregrines perched on the corner of the nest ledge......

 

 

Before anyone starts haranguing me, this is a public site and I am allowed to mention where the Peregrines nest.

Normally we watch the Peres from the Cemetery, and I walked all around the hospital checking the usual perches before coming back to the nest ledge. This was the only view I had of one of them today. I think it is the male (Tom) but I could well be wrong. Either way he/she had a full crop and wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere.

 

Personally I was hoping to observe a mating - I'm a bit of a feathered bird pervert, sorry. But I made do with watching Tom (I think) preening and looking grand.

 

The Fulham and Barnes Peregrines (Tom and Charlie) started courtship on the 12th February this year, with their first mating captured on camera at 6.54am.

This is a week later than the 2015 records show.

 

 Last year sadly none of the eggs were fertilised and they failed to hatch. It was a sad time, with Charlie still trying to incubate the eggs until well past their hatching due date. So talons crossed, we hope to see viable eggs laid in mid March.

 

For regular daily updates on these two beautiful urban Peregrines, please follow their Facebook page - FaB Peregrines

 

Despite the chill today, I enjoyed myself. It was good to see the regulars at the LWC - Birdy Phil, Posh Boy, Joe, Shaftin and Martin, and it was great to see at least one of the Peres on the nest ledge.

 

It wasn't until I was on my way home that I found out Birdy Phil had not only seen one of the Bitterns whilst I was stalking the FaB Peregrines, but he'd got a digi-scoped photo of said Bittern with a Heron.....

 

 

What a cracker !! Well done Philip Giles !!

Dipping the owls at Kensington Gardens

I had every intention of staying home today but after reading Ralph Hancock's excellent blog from yesterday, I knew I had to visit Kensington Gardens and have a search for the owls.

 

Ralph got a fantastic photo of both of the Little Owls peering out of the newest found nest tree by the Albert Memorial. Despite visiting the tree three times today, this was all that I got to see.....

 

 

An empty hole.

 

I also checked the other Little Owl nest tree near the Leaf Litter yard, but had no luck there either.

 

My next quest was to find the new tree that Ralph thinks the Tawny Owls have moved to, after their old nest branch came crashing down during one of last years storms. With Ralph's directions and photo on his blog yesterday, it didn't take me long to locate the possible new nest tree. And any doubts were cleared up by finding several owl pellets on the ground....

 

As Ralph pointed out in his blog, the other reason they think this is the new nest tree is because of all the downy feathers that have been caught on the wood just below a decent sized hole....

 

Scouring around in the leaf litter I found several feathers, and a bubble of excitement grew inside me when I thought that at least one of them (the most marked one) could be a Tawny....

 

but my bubble was burst when I was told they were feathers from a male Mallard.

Oh well.

 

In the old Tawny nest tree, there was a proper violent kerfuffle going on between some Marmite Parakeets.....

 

 

 

 

Starlings have nested in that same hole before, but I believe they acted with a bit more decorum.

 

All the noise didn't bother the Egyptian Goose that was sat atop the stumpy tree just behind the Tawny's old nest tree.....

 

 

He just watched with mild interest.

 

More pleasant sounding birds were the Robins today. There were loads around, most of them paired up and singing softly from their chosen perches....

 

 

Along the Leaf Litter yard the usual little birds were around hoping for a titbit to eat....

 

 

I found the Black Swan by accident. Just past the Lido Café, he came swimming into view with one of his girlfriends (if you regularly read Ralph's blog you'll know he's become quite attached to two juvenile Mute Swans, and they might be both female)

 

 

They done a synchronised dive for me in the swimming area...

 

Then ate some weed, and drifted off to the other end of the Long Water.

 

As I dipped on the owls, I entertained myself with the gulls.

The Black-headed Gulls are in all sorts of plumage at this time of year.....

 

 

There was a ringed bird on the Solar Shuttle pontoon. It might be one that Ralph has already noted so I will wait to see what he says before bothering to find out more myself.

 

Another Black-headed Gull was eating something that looked very unappetising.....

 

And there was another ringed BHG doing the 'worm dance' on the grass by the Diana Memorial Fountain. Unfortunately I could not get a closer photo of the ring, and when I had a go at approaching a bit nearer, the bird flew off....

 

 

A Common Gull was also doing the 'worm dance' in the same area, but he stopped to loudly announce his presence to anyone who might be interested....

 

Another gull, a juvenile Herring I think, had found a plastic bag and was flying around with it.

I hope it got bored of it and didn't try to eat it....

 

The Coot below had gathered a decent sized clump of leaves, probably to add to it's nest, which was just out of sight behind some reeds...

 

 

There must have been about six or seven Great Crested Grebes around today, none in pairs I might add, but all on their own.....

 

By the Peter Pan statue the usual suspects were bobbing about waiting for food. Pochards and Tufted Ducks still appeal to me, as I never get these on my patch...

 

 

Other birds seen today but not photographed included Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Nuthatch, Tree Creeper, Shoveller, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, Canada Goose and Goldcrest.

I also saw a Kingfisher which flew across the Long Water and disappeared in to a patch of willow opposite the Peter Pan statue.

 

The alien like Butterbur has started to emerge near the Italian Gardens....

 

 

Up by the bridge I found these padlocks on one of the chain links.

Is this part of Kensington Gardens set to become the new Pont des Arts ???

 

 

Last but not least, I managed to add two new birds to my 'Bird Bums' list...

 

Great Crested Grebe bum.....

 

 

and probably my best photo of the day, Long-tailed Tit bum....

 

So I dipped on the owls, but I still found plenty to observe and enjoy.

The weather was probably against me today, blustery and overcast. Thankfully Ralph blog posts every single day, unlike myself, so there's never any danger of missing what is being seen at Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park

Thanks Ralph.