3rd August

Regent’s Park

It appears that area 31 and vicinity is the place to look for migrants again this year. It never fails to deliver, just be patient and spend a little time searching.

Garden Warbler: 2 in area 31.

Blackcap: 3 in area 31.

Willow Warbler: 2 in area 31.

Chiffchaff: 3 birds present again.

Bushy Park

Not much difference to yesterday, so here is a few photos from today.

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Juvenile Sparrowhawk scaring the passerine by Dukes Head Passage.

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These Blackcaps were next to the gate to Dukes Head Passage

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Willow Warbler

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The Diana Fountain

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Comments

birdman_euston said…
Tony, I forgot to ask you a couple of questions when we crossed paths this morning:

1) What are the little silvery fish the Little Grebes (see below) are feeding their young in the Longbridge sanctuary? They could be sticklebacks but they look slightly longer and more silvery, to me.

2) How do you distinguish adult and juvenile Garden Warblers at this time of year (if at all)?

4 Aug:

Cloudy and muggy with fresh S breeze again at dawn after overnight showers; clearing at 07:00. Potential migrants are currently staying put.

Little Grebe 6 (pair feeding two week-old young off viewing platform, area 34/35 at 07:10).
The young were having trouble subduing the fish they were being fed, so the parents were preparing each one by shaking it senseless. They are probably the same pair I saw off Bandstand Island, area 7 last weekend - although half an hour later, I did see another pair without chicks in the latter area.

Herring Gull 25 (15 adults, 10 second-year and 5 juveniles feeding at N end of cricket squares, area 37 at 06:00).

Black-headed Gull 25 (all adults, feeding on rugby pitch near area 41 at 06:10).

Lesser Black-backed Gull 3 (adult being harried for food by three-quarter-grown youngster swimming behind, with another adult nearby on fencepost off Heron Island, area 8 at 06:40).

Swift 6.
Hi Birdman,
The fish that the grebes and the terns are likely to be either Stickleback or Perch fry. The way that the Terns swoop down and pick them off the surface makes me think that these are more likely to be Perch. The Grebes however are more likely to be eating both.

In the opinion of some birders the Garden Warbler is a dull plain warbler. Well in my view when the juveniles pass through the park they look fresh and brighter than the adults who may not have or if the have started will not have completed their moults yet. It is a bird to enjoy rather than worrying about ageing.
birdman_euston said…
Thanks for your views on the fish, Tony - whatever they are, the baby grebes are doing well! As for the warblers, part of my first-ever 'job' in was ageing and sexing passerines at Long Point Bird Observatory on Lake Erie in Ontario; old habits die hard...