9th August

Regent’s Park

Little Grebe: this has turned out to be the best year ever for this species. Four pairs have bred and a fifth pair may be nesting.

Great Crested Grebe: At the moment there have been no successful breeding attempts this year. In fact due to lack of suitable nest locations, due to the fact that the there was no time to for Dave to carryout arrange of jobs that we used to do. That is also why the Kestrel nest box on Primrose Hill was allowed to be taken over by squirrels a fait that has now befallen the box in the Wetland Pen.

Garden Warbler: three singles in area 31, 32, and 39.

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Not the best view of a Garden Warbler

Blackcap: nine birds in areas 31 and 32.

Willow Warbler: a minimum of eight birds present, though they became hard to find in the afternoon.

Chiffchaff: six birds present.

Richmond Park

Another spent removing OPM nests, but as the start of the day was sunny, well every where apart from Richmond Park that had mist over a large proportion of it, however it quickly burnt off. I decided to checked out Pen Ponds before meeting up with my removal team.

Little Grebe: a juvenile was present on the Upper Pen Ponds.

Great crested Grebe: one adult was also present here.

Common Tern: three birds were present, a pair and another adult, that was chased off every time it tried to fish the Upper Pen Ponds.

Common Sandpiper: one dropped in at 6.45am, but may have been on the breakfast menu of a Hobby that popped in.

Hobby: at 6.50am an adult caused alarm amongst the terns, at the same time the sandpiper was flying over the lake. I saw it jink behind the island as the Hobby stooped. I never saw it appear from behind island, so presumed it had been taken.

Raptor sp: a large raptor flew SE across the park at 11.50am, unfortunately I was driving and couldn’t pull off. It didn’t have the feel of a Buzzard.

Grey Wagtail: five birds were again in the stream on the north side of Pen Ponds Wood.

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Common Sandpiper

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The Mute Swan family moved to Lower Pen Ponds and got into a bit of a flap.

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This Coot has been watching the Common Tern, it is not often that you seen a Coot perching on the tip of a branch.

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Catching one fish at a time is normal, but the one below managed two at once, excuse the quality it was a very rushed shot.

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This tern dived straight into the water from this perch, catching a fish.

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It must have been something he ate.

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Grey Wagtail juvenile

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One of many Green Woodpecker juvenile present in the park.

Comments

birdman_euston said…
10 Aug:

Beautiful summer morning, with ground mist at dawn.

Garden Warbler 3 (two, at least one of them immature, in Cricket Pen, area 31 at 08:15, one fresh-plumaged adult by Leaf Yard Wood, area 41 at 09:05).

Willow Warbler 5 (four in Cricket Pen and one at S end of Queen Mary's Gardens, area 17).

Chiffchaff 5 (three in Cricket Pen and two in area 17).

Little Grebe 10 (including one fully-grown youngster, to add to the nine seen yesterday),

Great Crested Grebe 2.

115 Black-Headed Gull (four imm).

2 Common Tern (adult feeding juvenile off Holme Green, area 9).

15 Swift.

20 House Martin (most of them feeding high above the lake).

(A fox passed underneath the SE end of Longbridge before entering the grounds of The Holme at 06:30 - the first time I've seen one anywhere other than area 41.)