counting coots

A brief visit to Brent Res on Saturday produced the goods that I had been hoping for in the shape of a small mainly brown bird.  On the way to the hide, there was a nice warbler frenzy and I managed to pick up a Lesser Whitethroat, juvenile Blackcap and Garden Warbler.  Once in the hide I set about finding the mainly brown bird, which took some time as it may have been sheltering from the recent showers.  However, once it was out, it stayed out.  It's name?  Wood Sandpiper - patch tick.  Nice.

While we are on the subject of Springwatch, I have to get something else of my chest. I may come across as some kind of Springwatch hater, but it is not intentional and I’m not. Blubells. Protected species yes? Illegal to uproot or offer for sale under the auspices of the Wildlife and Countryside act of 1981. So why, when trying to show how acidic the formic acid coming from an ant’s nest is, use a bluebell? And then ask why one would need litmus paper when you have bluebells? What kind of lunacy is this? What the presenters seem to forgetting is that there are a lot of children watching this programme (by design), and if children think that something is cool they will copy it. Getting bluebells to change colour over an ants nest is cool, but it would have made much more sense to use some bloody litmus paper and keep the bluebell info under the radar rather than having the possibility of loads of kids finding bluebells, pulling them up and then running around to find ants to wave them at. C’mon guys, it’s a great programme but do have a think about what you are broadcasting!

Because my telescope doesn't seem to be able do Scaup.  There is a female Scaup that has been at Brent Res for quite some time now.  But I haven't seen it, and it's not for want of trying.  It keeps popping up on the Londonbirders wiki, I keep seeing it in the log book in the hide.  I've even seen it on another blog. I just haven't been able to see it in the flesh, on the water, doing what Scaup do. 

It's getting a bit frustrating.  I think that today, I might go and look at some Coots instead as I know that I'll find them.  Meanwhile, have a picture from the hide at Brent Res, without a Scaup. 

The choice at the weekend was simple.  Drive like an eejit to tyneside to see a small greeny bird that was proper rare.  Or pop off to Staines to see a small brown bird that is proper rare, but I had seen already.  Or go to a patch.  Guess what won?

The patch of course!  What exactly did you expect?  Wasn't the longest visit, but it was worth it as there was a very showy Jack Snipe at Brent Res.  I say very showy but this is by Jack Snipe standards.  I explained to Mrs Thing that the normal view of a Jack Snipe is of one flying away from you.  This one however was so comfortable that it was even sleeping in the open.  Cracking little bird.  London tick.  There were also lots of ducks (Wigeon, Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard), a fair few Little Grebes and loads of Coots.  Bloody hundreds of the things.  Was hoping to hear a Cetti's Warbler that had been there earlier in the week but if it was there it kept very quiet, or more accurately - silent.

You would of course like a picture the Jack Snipe wouldn't you.  I didn't take one.  It would have so blurry and small as to make it pointless.  With hindsight that wouldn't have made much difference to the quality of the blog would it?

On Sunday, the ever vigilant Brent Birders recorded a record 1019 Coots.  Thats right kids one thousand and nineteen Coots.  Thats loads.  Coots, being argumentative little birds, are prone to the odd scuffle.  By the law of averages (well, the average that I am applying for the sake of this argument), with 1019 Coots in one place, there must be Coots having a scuffle with each other all the time.  So Brent Res has turned into a great big continual Coot fight!  Superb.

Not that many London birders care much for that kind of statistic when there is a Brown Shrike at Staines.  Get scared little bird.  Fly away.  Come to Fulham.  It's not far.  You'll like it here...

It is not unusual for the 'wild' spaces that we treasure to be multi functional, especially here in the big smoke. A place like the Brent Reservoir is not only used by birds and birders, but is home to lots of blue green algae and a sailing club. There is an unwritten rule (or perhaps it is written - I'm happy to be corrected) that says that the birds stay by the hides and the boats stay at the other end. Birds and boats don't mix kids!

Once in a while an invader from one side of the divide intrudes into the other side.



And sometimes they invade a little further than they intended. Or perhaps they really did intend to scare every bloody bird on the marsh - for a laugh. Or maybe they were rubbish at steering a boat.



This invasion did indeed freak out a lot of birds, and yes, the sight of a few hundred coots running across the water in an orc like charge was quite amusing.




But it did flush out the Little Egret. Which was nice. But I couldn't find the Black Necked Grebe afterwards. Which was not.

A Ruff doing feeding by some coots.

On Saturday afternoon, in the shadow of the temple of Bono, I was hopeful that I could connect with the record breaker I spoke about some days ago. And connect I did.

On Saturday there was a Little Egret at Brent Reservoir. It stayed overnight and was still there on Sunday. I understand that this is the first time that a Little Egret has been known to stay overnight, hence the title. Needless to say that it didn't hang around long enough on Sunday for me to see it. Which would have been nice. I did see a Kingfisher though, which is always welcome.

A Heron doing stretching or something.

What an amazing response guys! I can only thank every one that took part, it's your participation that makes these things worth it! So thanks again!



Without further ado lets get the results!



The phone lines are closed, the results have been independently checked and verified and I can declare that the winner of the Mystery Headless Bird Competition is.......



is.........







is..........





it's.......Des!



Remember kids, you've got to be in it to win it!

Bar-headed Goose - tick it if you dare...

The world infamous shopping trolley Coots. Taken at the end of last week. Although they have managed to find a large pink flower to replace the Nike trainer (houseproud obviously) they have manifestly been unable to raise the height of the nest despite the suitability of the site to do so. Indeed the bird seems to be even lower in the nest site than usual. A visit yesterday found no eggs and nothing sitting.

Exhibit B

Wandle mouth mentalist. This is a bird sitting on a nest that is exposed for no more than two hours a day. Yet it continues to leap on it once exposed, grab some materials to add and then sit tight, while it's mate attacks anything that comes close. Even if it is 10 times bigger than it. About 10 minutes after this photo was taken the tide was up to it's belly.




Brent Res Coot with a bloody skyscraper! Non-tidal water, with just a little bit of structure to hold on to, and the nest is proper high.

In conclusion, with the evidence supplied within, I have no option but to surmise that the Coots on the Wandle are retards.

Some of you may have wondered where this 'Brent Reservoir' place is. Some of you may not give a shit. You would be right in thinking that it is in London, but it is a big place don't you know.

On the way back towards the north circular, I saw a crow mobbing a large bird which I didn't think was a Heron. It could just have been the brief view or the light that made it not look like a Heron. Unfortunately as I was bombing down the Edgware Road in a ruddy great van, trying to change lanes at 40mph with a Beemer right up my arse, it wasn't the ideal time to keep looking up and left. Ho hum.

Behold the can.

On the way to the shop on Saturday morning, in a set of playing fields in Greenford, I thought it best to stop and check out the thrushes that were milling about, and found 39 Redwing, 12 Fieldfares, a Mistle Thrush and 3 Goldfinches on the ground too. Highest counts I've had round here by a long long way. My previous best for Redwing was 2 when I did a TTV on Ealing Common so this was a great find.

A visit to Brent Reservoir late in the day yesterday with the wife was nice - picking up some year ticks (Pochard, Shoveler but no Ruddy Ducks) and watching Swans waddling on the ice (as much of the water was still a large sheet - which in itself is good as it stops the boat people chuffing about before falling in and consuming large quantities of blue green algae while disturbing the important things, ie birds). Anyhow, this picture amused me as the inner city Coots utterly disobey the instructions from the London borough of Barnet.

I had hoped to pick up on recent reports of a Firecrest and a Cetti's that were knocking about, but to no avail (why is that not suprising?). The closest I got was a Goldcrest and a Cetti's singing on the Natural World program about Cuckoo's. Which was a top notch bit of research and film making - I even half tuned into the repeat!