In the right place at the right time - twice in one day !

I very nearly didn't go out today. I felt very lethargic and tired after all the walking I did yesterday. The forecast was for cloud and a chilly wind again. But I had an incentive in that there was a Firecrest still being spotted at Barnes Common, Bitterns were still being seen at the London Wetland Centre and the Fulham and Barnes Peregrines were very actively mating several times yesterday (link to the FaB facebook page here). So I thought I'd have a go at seeing all three considering the distances between all three sites are certainly do-able for me.

 

My first train was cancelled, which in turn made me miss the connection to my second train and I very nearly turned around and went back home. By the time I got to Hammersmith my confidence in finding the Firecrest on my own had waned probably because I was tired, hungry and not in the best of moods after my travel delays, but knowing several of my friends were at the London Wetland Centre, I went straight there first.

 

In the courtyard a pair of loved up Marmite Parakeets were checking out a possible nesting site....

 

 

But in front of the observatory it was very obvious that another Marmite Parakeet had become a meal for the resident Sparrowhawk....

 

From the Peacock Tower the Lapwings and Starlings were put up several times as the Sparrowhawk flew around....

 

 

I bumped into Birdy Phil, his lovely daughter and the knowledgeable John Cass whilst in the Peacock. Some other birders had already clocked a Bittern that was right across the marsh and way too distant for me to get any photos of. But it was nice to distantly see it swim from one section of reedbed to another, even if it was through my bins. It didn't look as if I was going to see one any closer, so I decided on an early lunch and then a visit to the Wildside.

 

Surprisingly I was the only person on the ground floor of the Wildside Hide for a while, and took full advantage of a close swimming Cormorant.....

 

and as I watched it swim towards the reedbeds, I caught a movement between the reeds and there was a Bittern.....

 

 

If it hadn't have been for the Cormorant swimming in that direction I wouldn't have spotted the Bittern, and there was no one else in the hide that I could share it with. I was alone. So I spent 15 minutes watching the Bittern move across the front of the reedbed and quickly texted Birdy Phil to let him and John know I'd got one out in the open.

 

Some other birders arrived and it was nice to share my sighting with them. At this stage I thought it was a second Bittern, with the first still being seen from the Peacock Tower, but when John arrived he confirmed they had seen it fly down and land outside the Wildside Hide. So it looks as if just one Bittern on site today, but I'm glad it was me that re-found it. Normally when I go to the Wetland Centre I jokingly tell Phil and John to 'find me a Bittern', but today I found my own.

 

 

 

and I got to add a new photo for my 'Birds Bum Shots' - a Bittern's bum.....

 

 

I spent a very pleasant hour watching the Bittern moving around and got loads of photos so thought I'd chance my luck with the Peregrines.

 One short bus trip and a five minute walk later I was at Charing Cross Hospital.

 

On my last visit on the 14th February (link to that blog post here) I had seen one of the Peregrines on the nest ledge but couldn't find the other, and saw no courtship behaviour. I later found out I had missed a mating on the same ledge about half an hour previously.

 

Today as I walked down to the best viewing point for the nest ledge I could neither see nor hear any Peregrines. I checked the back of the hospital from the Margravine Cemetry but still no sign of either Tom or Charlie. I walked around the hospital, checking all of the Peregrines favourite perches, but saw nothing. I walked back round to Fulham Palace Road, and stopped by the main hospital entrance for a quick fag and as I looked up Charlie (the female or Falcon) flew in from behind me and perched right at the top of the hospital....

 

 

I manoeuvred myself back a bit to get a better angle of her....

 

and then this happened..........

Charlie lowered herself in to the typical 'mating' position.....

 

and in came Tom (the male or Tiercel)......

 

 

 

 

and by another lucky stroke today I had my camera on 'sports' setting which meant I got better action shots than if it had been on the usual setting !

 

After what seemed like ages but was actually just over a minute, Tom took off.....

 

and in my last photo of the pair below, I swear they are both looking at me !!!!!

 

Tom flew around the hospital back in the direction of the cemetery, whilst Charlie stayed where she was and had a preen....

 

and I re-manoeuvred myself to get a photo of her bum for my 'Birds Bum Shots'.

 

A quick garbled phone call was swiftly made to Nathalie, the Peregrines 'Godmother' so she could log the time, and for a brief moment I wondered if my luck would continue if I travelled over to Barnes Common for the Firecrest. But as I skipped happily back to Hammersmith station, I decided instead to pop back quickly to the Wetland Centre and eventually head home.

 

I don't need a rarity to make me happy, though a first sighting of a Firecrest would be nice and according to London Birders latest sightings the Firecrest was seen today by Frank, I am more than content with seeing the regular Bitterns at the London Wetland Centre and for the first time ever, seeing the FaB Peregrines mating. That sighting and literally being in the right place at the right time, will keep me smiling for a very long time. It's an even added bonus as the mating took place away from the ledge (which has good views) to the front of the hospital (which for me today, has great views)

 

A brilliant day out, considering I nearly didn't bother and also nearly turned around and came home after travel issues.

Plus I got to see some favourite faces - Birdy Phil, John Cass, Joe, Posh Boy, Stig and Sue, Phil's missus and her son, and Phil's beautiful daughter (she definitely doesn't get her looks from Birdy Phil !) and had a brief chat with Laurence the Lizard Man.

 

 Now all we have to do is guess the date of the first Peregrine egg of the season to be laid, and how many. I've gone for four eggs, the first laying to be on March 10th..........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A wandering kind of day....

 

I had a few errands to run today, so decided to do a bit of nature watching along the way.

After a bit of shopping in Hayes I made my way to St Peters and St Pauls Church in Harlington. There is a war memorial there, which I wanted to photograph for a friend....

 

 

and whilst I was there I found a Great Spotted Woodpecker excavating a hole in a nearby tree...

 

There were also several Goldcrests calling, a Coal Tit, lots of Blackbirds including one with a white tail and a Heron flew over. Sadly this churchyard contained not one spring flowering bulb. It was just grass. There are a few evergreen trees and a couple of shrubs, but absolutely no spring flowers. Unlike the pretty churchyard at Cranford Park's St Dunstans.

 

From Harlington I made my way to Heathrow. I was last there on 4th February with my friend, Nathalie, looking for Peregrines. We were unsuccessful but we did chance upon a whole load of Bee Orchid rosettes. For more please take a look at my blog for that day. As I wasn't far from there today, I decided to have another look for the Peregrines, but again I had no luck.

I did see some Linnets though.....

 

 

and found a juvenile Pied Wagtail.....

 

The Bee Orchid rosettes were still visible. I had guess-timated on my last visit, that there were about 100. I was very wrong. I had a count up today and stopped counting at 200. If they all succeed in flowering, it's going to be a bee-utiful sight.

I'm not the only one that's paid a recent visit though. On my last visit three weeks ago, the rosettes had been surveyed and each one had a red, blue or yellow paint marker next to it. Today, all the paint markers had been changed to blue. I have no idea what this means but would love to find out......

 

 

The paint marker below was yellow three weeks ago, you can just see the remains of the original paint, but is now marked blue....

 

and this one below, was red.....

 

Having no success with the Peregrines I started walking back to the bus stop and saw a Buzzard flying over, a Muntjac feeding in one of the fenced off areas and a Fox in the same field. Unfortunately no photos of the deer or the Fox - both animals saw me before I had a chance to raise my camera and they scuttled off in to the scrub.

 

From Heathrow I headed over to Cranford Park. I wasn't expecting to see a lot today. It was very overcast with quite a chilly wind. However two Robins have taken up residence near the wood circle, so after sprinkling some cheese out for them I managed to get a couple of photos.....

 

 

I also saw more Goldcrests, heard another Coal Tit calling, had a Red Kite fly over, saw a distant Kestrel, heard the Skylarks but couldn't locate them, heard Redwings but couldn't locate them, and saw lots of paired up Marmite Parakeets.

The shot below is dreadful - I've had to lighten it considerably -

 

I spent the rest of my afternoon following Muntjac tracks. They really do have a large range. They've been seen all over the park, and the tracks I followed today took me from one side of Cranford Woods all the way through to the other side and round to the back of St Dunstans.

 

So not a lot to show for my wandering kind of day, but according to my 'Fitbit' I've walked over 13km today.

 

 

 

First signs of Spring at Cranford Park

It was a bit of a grey day today, not really ideal conditions for bird watching at Cranford Park, so I kept myself amused by looking out for signs of spring.

 

The Snowdrops in the church yard are just starting to go over.....

 

 

but there are still plenty of clumps in flower.....

 

Just after the bypass under the M4 but before the alley way that leads to Roseville Road, I found several good sized clumps of Lesser Celandine, my first of the year.....

 

 

Back in the church yard there was a clump of Anemone blanda, but as pretty as it is, it may not be a true wild flower (wild Anemone blanda flowers are generally blue) so may have self seeded from a shop brought plant that someone has planted on one of the graves....

 

 

In the alley way between CP and Roseville Road, I also found my first flowering Alkanets of the year....

 

 

It's been a very mild weekend so I knew I'd see some Honey Bees today.

The hive above the wall of the Secret Garden was active, as was the hive in the tree hollow in the woods.....

 

 

But the most Honey Bee action I saw today was in the church yard. The spread of flowering crocus in 'Hancocks corner' was attracting lots of Honey Bees. I spent over an hour watching and photographing their activities.....

 

Not far from the wild Honey Bee hive in the woods, I chanced across a log covered in Candlesnuff fungi. It was small enough for me to pick it up (after checking I wasn't disturbing any critters underneath it) and take it to my favourite 'perch' at CP - the wood circle.....

 

 

where I spent a very pleasing few minutes taking macro shots of the lovely fungi.....

 

I've left the log with the candlesnuff fungi at the wood circle in case any of the Cranford Park regulars would like to take a look at it.

 

As I had the macro lens on my camera today I had another go at photographing moss. May be boring to some, but I think they are quite beautiful.....

 

 

 

By the River Crane in the soft mud, I found Muntjac deer tracks....

 

 

and not far from them there were Fox tracks too....

(thank you Jonesy for the id confirmation)

 

On one of the flowering daisies, there was a small critter of some sort. I haven't yet been able to get an id on it, but it's another sign that spring is on it's way...

 

 

Whilst I had my nose to the ground today, my ears were picking up on various bird calls and I often followed them but didn't get any photos. The Long-tailed Tits were calling all of the time, and most of the sightings I had were of birds already paired up though there were still a few small sized flocks flitting about. Goldcrests were calling too, but spotting them was hard today. There was a Coal Tit calling near the wood circle. Both Blue and Great Tits were mainly seen in pairs today. There was a 'mewing' Common Buzzard that flew over by Cranford Lane. The male Kestrel was seen flying over the stable block. I heard drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers in three different locations around the woods. At least one Green Woodpecker was 'yaffling'. For the first time in ages at Cranford Park I heard the 'bubbling' call of a Nuthatch but couldn't pin point it's position. Saw several Chaffinches around the boundary paths. There are still several Redwings in the woods but not in huge numbers. Both Mistle and Song Thrush were distantly spotted. Lots of Blackbirds and Robins seen paired up. Several Wrens were heard singing.

But sadly no sign at all of the Little Grebes, Little Egrets or the Kingfishers.

 

 

Spring is on it's way.