counting coots

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 Little Egret doing a bit spooked.

Well that didn’t last long did it? Spring sprung and then pissed off again. Strong cold winds, dull skies, chilly hands etc, but now there are no gulls to while away the time on the river bank with. I ventured out first thing anyway, cursing to myself about the lack of avifauna – but the reality was that in a short 20 minute spell I did manage to pick up 18 species (including a pair of Gadwall on the river), and a singing Dunnock shortly after that. So it’s not really as bad as all that I guess.

Here is a new photo from this morning of the attenuation ponds by the new build on the saaarf side. I have pics of this area through it’s development and intend to have a full and detailed post/report on the said ponds (new habitat! Wahey!) which will be stunningly exciting, and possibly free of anglo-saxon invective.

And the big blokes in the boat? They are in some race down the Thames next month, in which they, or the other team, will win. Again.