Friday, May 21, 2010
As every recent overflying
Buteo has morphed under focussing to a juvenile Herring Gull, so every recent flypast Common Tern has unseasonally morphed under focussing to an adult Black-headed Gull (
see winter birds on previous post).
Until yesterday.
I had only the briefest of visits yesterday but the flypast Common Tern
remained a Common Tern. Bravo! Year tick 61 in the bag. Only three more (House Martin, Sandpiper
spp, and Goldcrest are the likeliest) and I'll beat the 2009 list - and there is still another 7 months of patch drudgery to go! Hurrah!
A Med Gull doing blimey I havent seen one of those for ages.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
A Common Tern flying past an attenuation pond.
Yes kids, this blog is moth free. Through the month of June many of my peers have resorted to watching, catching, photographing and even posting about moths because there are no birds.
There are birds. No need for moths.
Yesterday I found three House Martins. Have you any idea how rare this is in Fulham? Despite the mud, water houses and enough insects to keep a small group of swifts happy there are no resident hirundines, so yesterdays finding was a cracker.
There have been plenty of other birds to see here - no need for moths.
Gulls.
A heron.
Um, a Cormorant.
Lets see, errr - a Dunnock!
Oh yeah, Wood Pigeons.
Blackbird.
Er, Mallard
Wren anyone?
Monday, May 11, 2009
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.
This picture taken from the hide may help you place it into a wider socio-geographic location.
However, if you don't know what that big shopping basket thingy is, and you still want to know where it is - look it up on the web or something yeah? There's a link down on the right somewhere.
Note that I said 'from the hide'. I have joined an exclusive club as I now have a key for the hide and spent some time there on Sunday afternoon. Mrs Thing was none to impressed by the size and volume of the spider webs in the ceiling, but as hides go - this one is quite luxurious. There was nothing to really shout about while we were there, but that is not the point. I did see many species of birds 'getting jiggy wid it' including Lapwing and Common Tern. I don't know specifically if this particular bird was involved in this behaviour but here is a pic anyway.
There are loads of Grebes on the water (but many more coots of course). Here is a picture of one of them.
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.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Due to internal physical reasons, which I will not distress you with here dear reader, I was up with the Crested Lark this morning, and spend my time wisely by shuffling about on the river bank, watching not much happen. The wetland centre has had Hobby in the last few days, so I was secretly hoping for one of those little belters. Of course, they didn’t appear.
After an hour or so things started to pick up. The Blackcap started singing again, an Egyptian Goose flew about for a bit and then I picked up a Swallow going about it’s business on the other side of the river. Patch year tick! After a short while I returned to the Blackcap, in the hope that I could find a female and I was alerted by an unfamiliar call over the river. Eyyyyyyyyes left! Bingo! Common Tern flying down river. Shmokin! Patch year tick! That brings it up to 53 for the year and more still to come.
Swan anyone?
