Regent's Park Birds

9th November

Yellow-legged Gull; primaries are still not all fully grown, creating a slightly short-winged appearance.

Mediterranean Gull: the 1st winter was feeding on the football pitches at 7.30 am, before moving to the lake by 8.30am.
Yellow-legged Gull: the adult bird was present on the lake again for most of the day.
Water Rail: two birds in area 2.
Fieldfare: two singles flew over.
Redwing: twenty five birds in one's and two's passed through.
Meadow Pipit: a single bird flew west.
Tree Creeper: one was in area 2 between 7.30am and 9.00am, with a tit flock.
Lesser Redpoll: a small flock landed in area 24 for a few minutes.
Siskin: two flew through.

7th November

Water Rail: two birds showing well in the rail ditch.
Mediterranean Gull: the first winter was around until 11.40am at least.
Skylark: one flew west.

6th November

A 1st winter Mediterranean Gull was on the lake this morning. This was only the second time a bird in this plumage had been seen in the park since 1982.

I thought the scaling of this Cormorants feathers was worth a quick snap.

Water Rail: 2 birds still showing in area 2.
Mediterranean Gull: a 1st winter bird was on the lake until at least 9.30am, but couldn't be found at mid-day.
Chiffchaff: one was by the Nature Study Centre, area 1 this morning.
Siskin: a dozen were feeding in Silver Birch trees in area 24.

5th November

Woodcock: one landed in the wildlife garden in area 10 at 6.15am.
Water Rail: two in area 2.
Redwing: twelve flew west.
Siskin: ten birds by the feeders in area 29.

4th November

Water Rail: only the two in the rail ditch seen today.
Grey Wagtail: two flew west.
Fieldfare: twenty four flew west in two flocks, with the odd Redwing accompanying them.
Redwing: thirty-six flew west in dribs and drabs.
Firecrest: a female was seen in trees near the stage door to the Open Air Theatre, area 13 at 11.00am.

3rd November

The Water Rails in area 2 are really enjoying life in and around the feeding station.

To see the latest Water Rail stand by the gate and view the area marked by the red dotted line in the photo below.

Here is a quick review of last weeks birds plus todays highlights.

19th
1000+ Woodpigeons.
2 Skylarks.
200 Redwings.

20th
2500 Woodpigeons.

21st
1 Rock Pipit
1 Skylark

22nd
300+ Redwings
20 Fieldfares

Today

Little Grebe: three birds on the lake.
Egyptian Goose: fifty seven birds were on the grass bordering the lake this afternoon.
Red crested Pochard: a fl0ck of forty-five birds were displaying on the main lake this morning.
Water Rail: two birds in area 2 and at last one in the Wetland, area 25.
Redwing: eleven birds stopped of briefly.
Tree creeper: one bird was seen in area 26, so hopefully both birds are still present.
Meally Redpoll: a bird that was probably this species flew west at 8.10am.

1st November

Well I am back from what was a fairly quiet time bird and weather wise down on the Lands End peninsular. The weather for the first two days was a brisk westerly that then veered south to south east. Which brought a few days with dense fog or low cloud for part of the day. This put pay to a planned day trip to the Isles of Scilly from the nearby airport, as flights were sometimes cancelled for the whole day.
There were very few eastern vagrants and none at all from America. Talking to the local birders, this has been the worst autumn ever for birds migrating in this corner of the UK. My highlights were single Cory's and Great Shearwater, Sabines Gull, Short-toed Lark, Red-throated Pipit, Raddes Warbler (lifer), Yellow-browed Warbler and Siberian Chiffchaff. There were large numbers of finches on the move most days, with Redwings turning up from mid-week onwards. Also from mid-week it seemed that Black Redstarts were on most beaches and also in areas away from the coast.

I took advantage of a sunny start to one of the days to grab a couple of shots of Purple Sandpipers in Sennen.

Lands End was my early morning patch before the tourists turned up. Good for sea birds and a few other species.

Shags

Giant Black Redstart

Stonechat

Pendeen Lighthose and the rocks just off shore that sea birds funnel between if the winds are in the right direction. I saw Arctic Skuas, Scoters, 1000's of auks, Gannets and Kittiwakes.