Jam

Only a short missive, but on the afternoon school run today, indeed barely 30 seconds into the school run, a Waxwing flew over the car at roof height as I approached the Tennis Courts on Blake Hall Road. Just the one, but that's all we need. T'was heading north. Hopefully many more to come, but it means that of four Waxwing sightings I've had on the patch, three of them have been either at home or a mere stone's throw. Highly jammy, the school run was only the second time I'd been outdoors the entire day, the first being the morning school run. For all I know there could have been a flock of Waxwings feeding in my garden the entire day, but I was busy valiantly earning a crust and thus glued to my screen looking at 13,286 records of equity forward contracts. Let me know if I'm boring you.....

Turaco alive and well

In Bush Wood again this morning, enjoying our weather and wondering what in the hell has befallen it I expect.....

Assault on Bush Wood

Mission Firecrest, 1500 hours.
Highly successful raid on Bush Wood in search of year ticks, with Firecrest picked up near on immediately on the west side of the main ride directly opposite Belgrave Heights and where the first path branches inwards, followed shortly after by definitely one, and probably two Nuthatches along the second path. Add to that Coal Tit at the southern end and about a trillion Great Tits, drumming Great Spot and a handful of Goldcrests, and this was a rather good 45 minutes that more than makes up for being entirely absent from the patch since the first of January. Easy does it.

Not much else to say, though in the week I've heard reports of Grey Wag along the Roding, Wigeon on Heronry, and Little Egret from the Old Sewage Works - presumably the river is a little lower now.

Not as bad as was feared

So we are off.  It was still dark when I arrived at Capel Point.  First text: Blackbird alarm call - not good enough for first spot as Jono and Tim had already heard Robin (probably from their beds).  And so it began.

Met up with Mr Bob by the Jub and soon after Mr L who had just managed to scare all the gulls off he Police Scrape.  while he eagerly went to notch up his first Coot of the year, and failed, Bob and I had a Snipe flushed over the boggy bit of the SSSI.  What am I saying, it's all boggy now - and looks fantastic, shame there are no birds enjoying it.  And so we stumbled on gathering Tim up in our relentless pursuit of all things avian.  Things were going quite well, we even got 4 Skylark after the first refreshment break of the day (coffee and baps from Costa), however the wheels took a decided wobble while looking for the Firecrest at Alex and by the time we'd left the flats for the park, we hadn't even found a Jay.  News from Barking was of patch ticks and the half century of birds. Unfortunately my inability to count meant it looked like we were behind.

The park was full of the one-day-a-yearers, their kids, their dogs, their mountain bikes, their noise. Things got harder.  Having lost Tim to his Cambodia expedition, we picked up Mr Davis.  This didn't help.  Ticked a few easy things but missed more.  No Firecrest, Nuthatch, Kingfisher, Water Rail, Little Egret, Teal, Grey Wag.  We tried the Old Sewage Works a second time, Jono only accompanying us, just in case he missed something.  He didn't.  Another dip on the rail and we gave up and parted company.

I wandered back across the flats hoping for a fly over Woodcock against the skyline, what I got was even better.  A dark round blob on the goal posts.  F*** me a Little Owl.

I was surprised to say the least.  It's nearly 2 years since the last sighting and we feared they had gone for good. I was surprised, the owl was surprised and flew to the top of a hawthorn.  I texted out the news and then called Jono. Ten minutes later I make out two dark shapes in the middle of the playing field.  I am hoping it's Jono and Bob and not some drunk eastern Europeans or Long Wood doggers.

Luckily the owl starts calling again from what sounds like the middle of the football pitches, and then from east copse. Have it!

Done

Went on a dry run (ha!) for the big day tomorrow. The consensus in the pub last night was that it won't be brilliant on the 1st, not as good as last year (as it will be tomorrow), with it being quiet'n'all. Having spent all yesterday recovering from exuberant imbibing, I was just happy to be able to walk and focus. Wind tossed gulls everywhere and those not being tossed around in the wind paddling and picking in the new pools on the footy pitches.  More Lessers and Herrings than Tim got on Sunday, but still nothing to get the heart racing.

Wandering through the SSSI I picked up a small goose hurtling down wind, dark with a big white bum, woo hoo a Brent! "Bullocks": was Mr Lethbridge's encouraging reply to my text.  Disney has obviously worn off.

The Firecrest was singing sub-song in the little woodland north of the Alex, and there could be 2 birds, which no doubt will be no birds tomorrow. Naff all else bar loads of Gadwall flying about: 15 over the Alex itself (with another 30 doing not a lot on the lake), and flocks of over 30 whizzing around the park, which really buggered up my count as they were probably the ones already included from the basin.

So 43 species on the flats and a pitiful 38 in the park for a combined total of 52.  Missing both Kestrel and Sparrowhawk, Little Egret, Kingfisher, Skylark, Redpoll, Collared Dove, Coal Tit and a few other possibles like Bullfinch and Linnet.  So with the extra eyes of Tim and Jono tomorrow and maybe a few others it could be dire or not so dire.  The slate is clean.

So 2012: good, bad, indifferent? I think we are pretty much all in agreement that, while we didn't top 2011, we got some pretty decent birds, records were broken, we welcomed new members to the task, and a few additions to the burgeoning list.  Personally I had a pretty good year.  If I ignore the amount of time spent working the patch, it was my best year yet.  Close enough to the 150 that it would be nice to bag it next/this year.  My best bird this year, apart from today's Brent, has to be the Hawfinch, better still after getting some god-awful pictures of it. The Wryneck, of course deserves a mention, and finding not one but 5 Pied Flycatcher is pretty special.  The Marsh Harrier another contender, as was the day of 4 Kite. My Grey Plover in the fantastic cold snap, along with the Steve's Smew, and the Jack Snipe.  Yup a pretty good year and that's not even counting the Greenshank.

Jono will be happy with his Short-eared Owl, his Golden Plover call probably the loudest I've ever heard him, the Snipe, Smew and Mandarin.  Now he waits for Wheatear.

Bob, back into the game after a few year's sabbatical, was more than pleased with his new birds: Ring Ouzel, Waxwing and the others I forget.  Tony's prize the Wryneck, with a supporting cast of Wood Lark and Golden Plover. Tim in the right place at the right time for the Jack Snipe, has probably spent too much time with moths and should get out more, but judging by what he told us in the pub, he hasn't had much time to do anything editing this and that and chairing the WREN Group.

Stevey T, found a few good birds; the Smew, Mandarin and the year's first SOE, good job!.

New patcher Dan Hennessy, contributed a couple of the Pied Flys, the flyover Godwit and the Goldeneye  - so more of the same next year please.

Stu, now and infrequent visitor, still managed to pull some good-uns out of the hat, again! Rook, Cuckoo on our patch and the massive Melodious just down the road from his house. Congratulations too, on being E-Birds birder of the month, which isn't a sleazy centre spread award, apparently.

Of the irregulars, a big up to Barry Bishop and his understated "There's a Marsh Harrier". And to anyone else who's popped in to one of London's best birding sites - to you all thank you.

Bring it on.

A Christmas post

Since I will be looking after the folks in between eating too much, this will be the last hurrah before crimbo. Not much to tell: a lot of gulls today.  I mean a lot! A rough guess at around 2,000 at the various locations on the flats.  I only checked the police scrape cos I was late out again. Mostly Black-heads and Commoners, with a few big-uns thrown in.  As I slipped off park-ward via Costa, I gave the playing fields a once over.  White spots everywhere and more no doubt lingering by the lakeside at the Alex.

Gull pics on the off chance that one might be interesting, wrong again!  There were a few others there too

After faffing round Reservoir then Bush Wood (1 Nuthatch!), a detour via the basin (many Gadwall), I ended up in the Old Sewage Works as it was getting dark.  Did the same thing on Saturday, I am searching for Goosander you see.  The Ilford Golf Course has some nice new water hazards which are much to the liking of our Mallards.  If the Roding rises any further the golf club might seriously have to consider water sports.

As I stood watching darkness grip the land a Sparrowhawk flew towards me and had a pop at something which looked like a bat to me through the bins, a big one. However I thought I got some white on its wing, which would make it not a bat, but a bat shaped wader bird.  But it didn't fly like a wader and I could get any hint of a bill.  It gradually disappeared up the river.  So today I thought: might get a repeat.  I got 2 in the form of Pipistrelle, which just goes to show how warm it has been of late. As long as they can catch midges they'd be alright, though I did see some moths on the wing.

But mainly the OSW was about gulls.  Hundreds of them. I could see loads feeding or roosting towards the railway line and every now and then a big flock of several hundred would wheel past northwards. Most, I could make out, were Black-headed, with a few Common and here and there small parties of Herring Gull and some LBBGs.  Before it got too dark to see I estimated 1,300 BHGs had passed me.

I stood there a bit longer, because it was peaceful.  OK you've got the North Circular just a few hundred yards away, but no people, no dogs.  The nearest bit of Wanstead we've got to nearly countryside, apart from the woody bits of course.  I also was hoping for a Barn Owl, well you never know.  And thinking of owls made me decide it could be now or never with our Tawnies.  Not really wanting to go all the way to Bush Wood I dawdled, stood a bit and listened.  It was nearly an hour later when I got to the Shoulder of Mutton.  I could just make out the flashes of the Tufties on the lake - they like to roost here.  Then I heard my first London owl of the year calling from Reservoir Wood.  Job done.  Would be nice to have all the owls for London this year, but Little Owls are harder to come by than you think, so maybe next year when I go for the 200+ in London-pointless-year-listing-exercise-thing.

It also means that we don't have to have our annual drinks in Wanstead or The North Star (even with its delicious French bar staff) on the off chance of hearing owls en route.  It can be the Golden Fleece.  So if you fancy a pint Sunday the 30th is the date.

Happy xmas