counting coots

Not having put much stuff into the London Bird Club wiki recently, I thought I'd better.  I scrolled down to put Friday's details in (as it wasn't a bad hour by the standards round here) and amazingly it was (almost) all in there already.  But not by me!  Someone else had been in my patch, and had seen the things I had seen and put them in the wiki!  What the...

The entry read thus...

Wandle Creek/Thames: 2 m Teal, 6 Gadwall (1 f), 1 Grey Wagtail, 1 Grey Heron, 1 G C Grebe (Thames), 2 Mute Swans, 2 Canada Geese, Tufted Duck, 1 Long-tailed Tit, 7 Goldfinch, 12 Magpie making a racket, pr Great Tit, 1 f Chaffinch, 9 Ring-necked Parakeet flying over Thames.

I have to say that I'm a bit posessive about this patch.  You see this isn't one of those designated birding areas (like Brent Res) where lots of people go, and you know that you will more than likely see another birder, this is a messy conglomerate of various habitats that I can get to in a certain amount of time.  I have met one birder in four years, and that just suits me fine.  I didn't choose this patch, it chose me.  So to have seen that another birder had been in the area got all sorts of selfish emotions running around, and a fair bit of satisfaction too.  This isn't a bad bit of London to spend half an hour if you want to see birds. 

However, there was something missing from the list.  Something that only a dedicated and hard working patch birder would have noticed.

These birds...

Coots.  He didn't count the Coots.  There are five here, but what is different about these birds is that they are on the Thames, and they are not fighting.  The resident birds stay in their territiories and fight.  These birds are visiting birds.  Patch invaders.


That's better.