Spring '22: Whimbrel, Turtle Dove, and a Merlin too

Introduction

Spring 2022 (for the purpose of this summary, March, April, and May) saw 109 bird species recorded locally with March (77), April (a month record of 95), and May (88).

Highlights

One of the best birds of the Spring was only seen by a single lucky birder, Tim Harris: our third Turtle Dove in 12 years perched briefly near Alex before disappearing south on 1 May. Tim was also alerted by a call while inspecting his moth trap in his garden and watched a Whimbrel (our sixth sighting) fly over on 5 May.

A slightly wider audience were enthralled by a Merlin (our fifth record) on 23 April which flew low up over the Brooms, around Long Wood and then picked up pace and took out a small passerine over Centre Copse. A few more saw it again the following day.

Some other notable records:

• Jono found a Pheasant on 2 April; a long staying bird in the Brooms, last reported on on 26 April (only seventh on record).
  
• Nick had a Goosander west over Long Wood on 9 April.
  
• We got our hopes up when a male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker appeared at a location which will remain undisclosed on 13 April and stayed for several days.
  
• Jono found a singing Nightingale in Long Wood on 15 April.
  
• A poor start of the year for gulls meant that our first Caspian Gull for the year was seen on 7 May and our first Caspian Gull on 31 May; both second calendar year birds and both found by Tony B.
  
• Bob’s NocMig recording device picked up Oystercatcher (15 April) and then Dunlin and Little Ringed Plover (both on 1 May).

Spring passage migrants

The Spring migrant passage was kicked off, as it is so often, by the arrival of the first Wheatear; this year on 13 March. This was our second earliest on record (after 2017; 11 March) and six days earlier than our mean average first arrival. It was also the second Wheatear of the year for the London recording area. Richard found the male in the Brooms and Louis & Gosia won this year’s prestigious Wheatear sweepstake trophy; with Louis wearing black tie to collect the trophy a few days later.

The table on passage migrants should hopefully speak for itself and with a comparison in grey of spring last year to give some context. In terms of calendar days when a species is recorded, the most notable call-outs are: Sand Martin (down six); Yellow Wagtail and Willow Warbler (up four); and Wheatear (down four).

A single record of Tree Pipit this Spring was a notable improvement on the blank last year, but this year we got through Spring without a single record of Common Redstart (compared with four last year). 

Breeding birds: some selected comments

This was the second year we had the benefit of the Skylark fencing. An organised Skylark count in March revealed 11 birds on Wanstead Flats with 4-5 males regularly singing. There was evidence of successful breeding with at least one pair feeding young, although there was also sadly evidence of possible predation of one nest.

Meadow Pipit was last recorded on 29 April and whilst we still have healthy numbers through the winter, this is the second year in a row that this species has not stayed around to breed locally - I didn’t hear a single Meadow Pipit song this Spring.

Reed Warbler have popped up all over the place during the Spring, but the most reliable singing territory has been by Shoulder of Mutton pond again - although only one male this year. There have also been at least one regular singing Cetti’s Warbler on the Roding in the Old Sewage Works.

We had one or two wintering Chiffchaff but then numbers started to increase from around 9 March up to a peak count of 22 singing males in mid April. This followed a very similar pattern to the previous year. A similar story can be told about Blackcap - with one or two being reported in gardens through the winter and then numbers starting to build in March up to a peak count of 27 singing males on 14 April.

Our first Common Whitethroat arrived on 12 April this year (last year 14 April). I am not sure we have conducted a thorough survey of singing males this year but it will be at least approaching 20 territories. The first Lesser Whitethroat arrived on 15 April (26 April in 2021) this year and we had a peak count of 6 singing males with closer to 2-3 holding territory across the Spring.

Our Spring high count for Song Thrush was 17 birds across the Patch but this may have been swelled by local or wider movement and the number of regular birds holding territory is closer to half that number.

Autumn Bird Report: Summary and some phenology

Summary and highlights

Autumn 2019 on our Patch will not exactly go down as being a great vintage in the way that 2018 did (anyone remember Rustic Bunting, Red-backed Shrike and Barn Owl? You may not, however, remember the 'untwitchables' of: Gannet, Yellow-browed Warbler, Cattle Egret, and Merlin).

Despite being pretty pale in comparison with 2018, autumn 2019 has had some solid bird records which were patch ticks for several of us. Highlights included:

• Tony's Osprey over the Brooms on 28 September (a bird I sadly missed), followed just a week later by...
  
• A Marsh Harrier on 5 October, also flying east over the Brooms (spotted jointly by Jono and Tony).
  
• Also on 5 October Tony flushed our first Jack Snipe of the year by Heronry.
  
• A few mostly-annual birds (if you are part of a very small and elite sub-section of our most committed workers) fell in quick succession this autumn with Yellowhammer on 7 October, Rock Pipit and Woodlark (both latter birds I have yet to etch on to my patch list and were found by Bob), and Lapwing on 24 October, found by Nick.
  
• A Short-eared Owl was seen on both 22nd and 23rd October.
  
• It was a good autumn for Yellow-legged Gull, with at least two different individuals being seen on 8, 9 16, 19, 22, 24 and 29 September as well as 1, 6, and 10 October.
  
• Nick also had Goldeneye over the Park on 10 November, only the sixth occasion this species has been recorded on the patch in the last decade.
  
• The bird of the autumn for almost all of us, certainly in terms of how well viewed it was, must be the long-staying Greenshank on Heronry. First seen on 5 September (found by Simon Raper, although misidentified at first as he was in a rush taking his children to school) and staying 12 days (!) until 17th. This was the first time this species had been seen on this lake since it was drained over 20 years ago. Ludicrously, it wasn't even a patch year tick for Nick, but still his first on the deck.

Greenshank - James Heal

Jack Snipe - Tony Brown

The last of the summer breeding birds

Most of our breeding Swift had departed by early August, but the last passage bird was seen by Nick on 1 September (apparently, the last one seen in London this year was on 14 September).

Garden Warbler hasn't been a breeding species on Wanstead Flats since 2014, but I include it in this section more out of hope than expectation. Autumn birds appeared from 1 August with the last one being seen for the year on 14 September.

Willow Warbler also did not establish any breeding territories, sadly, and was also last seen for the year on 14 September. Aside from the departure of Garden Warbler and Willow Warbler, the 14th was also the last day we had Common Redstart and Yellow Wagtail on the Patch and saw the autumn arrivals of Stonechat and Reed Bunting, so a real point of transition. The weather was very fine over 14 and 15 September with top temperatures of 25 degrees, clear evenings and low winds so perhaps a good time for migration.

Hobby had a successful breeding year locally and they left us in swelled numbers for warmer climes on 23 September. According to London Bird Wiki, the last London sighting of Hobby occurred just up the road in Walthamstow on 8 October.

Hobby - Nick Croft

Our last Common Whitethroat seemed to depart on 30 September, only a day before the last London record of this species for 2019. Lesser Whitethroat followed shortly after, with our last bird being seen on 2 October and the London-last three days later on the 5th.

Nick also had the last Reed Warbler of the year on 2 October. This was a patch record latest and was also the London latest for the year. Reed Warbler seemed to have a good year on the Patch with territories on Shoulder of Mutton and on the Roding by the Old Sewage Works although no nests were seen.

Reed Warbler - Nick Croft

I stopped seeing our dwindling population of House Martin after 19 September, although the last record of a passage bird was on 8 October. This was three days later than the mean average and 9 days earlier than our record latest ever.

Swallow are no longer breeding birds, but they are also being included in this section. Our last sighting was on 16 October, pretty much spot-on as the average last day that we see them (although I am aware that the last London record for this species in 2019 was 3 November).

We occasionally have one or two over-wintering birds, although the last Blackcap we recorded this autumn was on 22 October.

The passage migrants

In the summer summary (here), I ran through the seven key species of regular passage migrants that began with a Wheatear on 8 August. We now have a full picture of the autumn migration window: it was exactly two months long ending on 8 October with the last Whinchat for the year.

The table below attempts to give a picture of what our patch autumn migration looked like with first and last dates for each of the key species (I left out Ring Ouzel as they are just a bit too scarce and Willow Warbler was missed off as it was a recent breeding bird on the patch). The number of 'bird days' refers to the number of days each species was recorded on the patch, not the length of 'window' between first and last. And, 'high count' is hopefully obvious as the peak number of individual birds seen of each species on any particular day.

Northern Wheatear - James Heal

To pick out a few key observations (otherwise I shall let the data table speak for itself):

• To borrow Nick's lingo, the autumn was a bit 'meh!' for Wheatear. The 28 bird days were, interestingly, split exactly between August and September with the mean average number of birds seen slightly weighted in favour of September.
  
• Whinchat not only had the widest migration window (53 days) but also the highest number of bird days (40). In September Whinchat was seen on 19 days in total.
  
• Common Redstart numbers reached their peak at the end of August and beginning of September with an average of five birds a day between 29 August and 2 September.
  
• It wasn't exactly a bumper year for Spotted Flycatcher, although a total of 33 bird days through the autumn and 15 days in September is not bad. There were rarely high number of them, and so 12 birds on 13 September was a bit of an anomaly as the second highest count was 6 birds (and that was the day before).
  
• Pied Flycatcher had the lowest number of bird days of the group, but this was still a record breaking autumn for this species on the Patch, although only three of the 13 bird days were in September.
  
• As I mentioned in the last summary, it was a very poor autumn for passage Yellow Wagtails although the high count of 11 birds was recorded on the first day of September.
  

Spotted Flycatcher - Nick Croft

	Autumn arrival	Autumn depart	Bird days	High count
N Wheatear	8 August	22 September	28	12
Whinchat	16 August	8 October	40	10
C Redstart	12 August	14 September	23	7
Spotted Flycatcher	11 August	2 October	33	12
Pied Flycatcher	11 August	21 September	13	6
Tree Pipit	11 August	17 September	22	6
Yellow Wagtail	13 August	14 September	15	11

Ring Ouzel was an October bird this autumn with a total of four sightings in the fortnight between 7th and 21st October.

Autumn/Winter arrivals

The first Linnet of the autumn appeared on 10 September and since then we have had our usual flock often congregating around Jubilee Pond, Police Scrape and in the Broom Fields. On 18 November, Tony counted 39 of them (although apparently there used to be c50 in our Linnet flock(s).

The first autumn Stonechat was recorded on 14 September (actually three birds) and they have been almost a constant feature since then in both the Brooms and SSSI with up to five birds being seen on any given day.

Stonechat - Tony Brown

The first Redpoll of the autumn was seen on 15 October, but there have been very few records since. Rather more frequently recorded on the Flats this autumn has been Woodcock. Bob scored the first of the season on 31 October and there have been regular sightings of up to two birds since, although still evading yours truly for my list despite one flying over my head whilst I was carrying morning coffees back to my patch workers. I'm not bitter.

Of winter thrushes, the less said the better. The first Redwing of the autumn flew over on 2 October, but numbers haven't exactly been epic since then; reflecting what has felt like pretty poor visible migration to me more generally. Fieldfare was first recorded on the patch on 7 October this year. I didn't think I could top the embarrassment of blanking Yellow Wagtail on the Patch this year, but it is now looking increasingly likely that I will go the whole year without ticking off Fieldfare (I saw literally hundreds last year).

Whilst on the topic of visible migration, there have been good numbers of locally gathering Greenfinch (tens), Goldfinch (high tens), and Parakeet (700+), with some impressive counts of flyover Jackdaw (hundreds), Woodpigeon (many hundreds), and even the odd murmuration of Starling (1000+), although Chaffinch, Brambling, and other finch numbers seem to be down on average, and you can forget about Hawfinch.

Here are some more pics:

Sparrowhawk - Nick Croft

Lapwing - Nick Croft

Kingfisher - Nick Croft

Teal - Nick Croft