Lucky chance to get to the Wetlands Centre for the first time on Sunday (13th) for a couple of hours meant I was able to catch up with quite a few birds, the highlights being 3 Jack Snipe and a Water Pipit from Peacock Tower overlooking the Grazing Marsh .

Quite a pleasant compact reserve. And it was sunny!

Down in London this weekend, so took the opportunity to have a look around this place. Not a huge amount around, but a cracking reserve, and a good day had nontheless.

At least 3 Cetti's warbler heard
5+ chiffchaff
Plenty of goldcrest and long-tailed tit
c50 carrion crow and c20 jackdaw
3 jay
1 green woodpecker
1 great spotted woodpecker
c40 wigeon
Good numbers of shoveler, teal, gadwall and tufted duck, and a handful of pochard
1 little grebe
1 great crested grebe
15 cormorant
30+ lapwing
1 snipe

PHIL GREENWOOD wrote:

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Belated report for Saturday, March 29th, during weekend family visit.

Crow 50+...yes, 50+ and not a Rook in sight. They also have large numbers on Clapham Common. Is this just a London phenomenon?
Ring-necked Parakeets.

Peregrine 2 flying around Hammersmith Hospital.

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re Crows - London is full of them and you will generally have to drive outside the M25 to see a Rook - or a Raven - although 1 or 2 have started encroaching from the Essex side. You are also more likely to see a Jay in Central London than a Jackdaw, although a couple of pairs have started preparing to nest in Hyde Park, just recently.

re the Peregrines, that'll be Charing Cross Hospital, which is in Hammersmith, while Hammersmith Hospital is in East Acton (Confusing eh?), several miles to the north. :)

I had to make a work-related trip to London and with a few hours to spare I decided to visit the London Wetland Centre. For those who have not been it is a big nature reserve run by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) in one of the biggest cities in the world. From Euston I got a tube to Green Park and then to Hammersmith. At Hammersmith I boarded a bus to the wetland centre. The journey takes less than an hour from Euston to the actual centre. I was tired so first stop was the café for a slice of Victoria sponge with a cappuccino.


There are two routes - the southerly route and the westerly route. I decided to head south first. I stepped outside of the visitor centre and was greeted by a sound which had always transported me to the age of 5 when I visited my parents birth country Pakistan for the first time and a cousin would take us out into the fields. It was the sound of Ring-necked Parakeets but quite loud. I thought it must have been a toy in the hands of a family nearby as it sounded very close. It was not until I looked up I saw something green, slim and long in the bare tree. I had never seen a Parakeet this close. Surprisingly, it allowed me to take photographs and was then joined by three other birds. After ten minutes they all flew off.


On the path out and into the main reserve I noticed a Green Woodpecker in a bush, eating berries? I had never seen one this close. It was aware of my presence but it did not appear alarmed. It was almost upside down, wings spread out and then the green and the red were lit up by the sun which had broken out of the miserable clouds. I had signalled a photographer to come over who I had spoken to earlier and by the time were ready to take photographs the bird flew onto the wall. It looked at us very bemused. I did wonder to myself why I bothered to signal the other guy when I could have taken a good photograph. It decided to fly away although I waited for fifteen minutes hoping it has found a good spot to return too but no luck.


The reserve attracts many nationalities and the staff and volunteers are quite diverse, reflecting London's diverse communities. It was my second visit to the reserve. I wanted to see it in autumn however, it was still quite green. The forecast was wrong. It was supposed to be a sunny and dry day but the reality was cloudy with some showers, one quite heavy.


There were a couple of Great Black Blacked Gulls around the reserve and a Bittern! I was directed to the Bittern but just about saw it. It was very hard to see Bitterns but to see one in the middle of London, well that was a treat! Bitterns wintered here quite regularly and could number to more than two. Conservation was working if a bitter decided to fly over London and spot the reserve and decide it was good enough for the winter. The reserve did attract a wife variety of species some very rare and unusual for an urban area.


Here is a list of birds which I saw within the few hours I was there:-




Bittern


Blackbird


Black-headed Gull


Coot

Coal Tit

Cetti's Warbler


Carrion Crow


Blue Tit


Canada Goose


Chaffinch


Collared Dove


Common Gull


Cormorant


Dunnock


Fieldfare


Gadwall


Goldfinch


Great Black-Backed Gull


Great Crested Grebe


Great Tit


Green Woodpecker


Greenfinch


Grey Heron


Herring Gull


House Sparrow


Jackdaw


Jay


Lapwing


Lesser Black-Backed Gull


Little grebe


Long-tailed Tit


Magpie


Mallard


Mandarin


Meadow Pipit


Moorhen


Mute Swan


Nuthatch


Pied Wagtail


Pintail


Redwing


Reed Bunting


Ring-necked Parakeet


Robin


Shoveler


Snipe


Song Thrush


Sparrowhawk


Starling


Teal


Tufted Duck


Wigeon


Wren


Woodpigeon


-- Edited by Sarfraz Hayat on Saturday 30th of November 2013 12:28:00 AM

After a very heavy week at work I didn't roll out of bed until nearly lunchtime and so I decided to visit the centre at Barnes as it is fairly local and it was about time I used my membership (It was my first visit for 12 months). Somehow I alway manage to visit when it is the school holidays and the place is swarming with families. :(

There was a Raptor Exhibition in the main building with Barn Owl, Buzzard, Kestrel, a pair of Peregrines and a Gyr Falcon. I can't remember having seen a Gyr in the flesh before and this one was huge - considerably larger than the female Peregrine. Very Impressive.

Out on the reserve I went off to the quieter end and thus missed a Bittern that was showing well at the newly re-opened Headley Hide. The Smew that had been present during the week appeared to have left and the local Peregrines didn't show up (too busy mating it seems - https://www.facebook.com/FaBPeregrines?fref=ts )

In terms of birds on the water it was a little disappointing
- c20 Canada Goose
- c10 Mute Swan
- 4 Pochard
- 55 Gadwall
- c60 Teal
- c40 Shoveler
- c40 Tufted Duck
- c30 Mallard
- 1 Little Grebe
- 75 Cormorant
- c12 Lapwing

Elsewhere
- 1 Green Woodpecker
- 1 Goldcrest
- 1 Cetti's Warbler
- small numbers of tits and Chaffinch on the feeders

Nice to see an Astronomy Exhibition though I didn't have time to visit it. Essex Wildlife Trust have also been putting on Astronomy evenings - mind you the skies are probably clearer over Essex than over West London.