counting coots

Many of you may have bought the latest issue of 'Birdwatch' - the one with the egret on the front. It seems to have inadvertently become a tribute to Patch Birding. Which is good. The Punkbirder column is all about the importance of patch birding (the essence being 'who do you think finds the rarities in the daft places then?') and a chap called Rich Bonser has the first of two articles on 'Fringe Birding' which also leans towards birding in the less well trodden path (good it is too). Regular reader(s) will know that I am essentially a patch birder and will remain so, although I have been on twitches planned and otherwise, they are essentially unsatisfactory. With all this in mind I have dedicated this week as National Patch Birding Week. I'm sure you have to apply to some Quango to get these things verified, but sod it - it's not like anyone is going to read this...

So what will NPBW entail? Not much beyond the scope of this blog I reckon, but I will try to impart some of the magic of patch birding to the masses. I will update you on what is going on in my local patch, show how rewarding the local park can be, and introduce you to my first patch - Surlingham Church Marsh. I may even yack on about some important patch birders from history and maybe point out a few of the recent birds that have popped up in unlikely places (from memory, I'm not going to trawl through the interweb records to work it out). So there is plenty to er, look forward to dear reader. Hell, I might even go and see how the mentalist coots are doing on the shopping trolley.

So let's start with Fulham shall we? Although there was a misidentified gull last week (no bloody surprise there), which was reckoned to be a Yellow-legged Gull, it didn't reappear. However, the bird from the previous week (and I reckon the bird that was here for most of last Autumn) is still knocking about and being very yellow legged. These pictures were taken on Thursday, and the bird was also in the area on Friday.

A Yellow Legged Gull doing posing for the camera

A Yellow Legged Gull doing walking.

That's enough from me for now, there was a Purple Heron at the Wetland Centre over the weekend, I'd better go and see if it has decided that Fulham is a little nicer than Barnes...