Regent’s Park
I popped into the park for a couple of short spells between 6.45am and 9.30am, popping home briefly to drop off the papers and have a quick breakfast.
Mute Swan: three cygnets thought about landing on the lake but took the best decision to carry on east. If not they would have been terrorised by the resident adult birds.
Common Teal: a female probably was sleeping by the banks of area 8. It was probably the bird that Birdman-Euston had seen flying out of the Longbridge Sanctuary earlier, but didn’t have the chance to sex.
Shoveler: ten birds looked to have dropped down on to the lake at 9.00am.
Jack Snipe: one was perched on some temporary fencing on the cricket tables at 6.55am. It unfortunately saw me before I saw him. It dropped to the floor and walked out of sight behind the fencing, before suddenly taking off heading north before banking and heading off in the direction of Brent Reservoir.
Common Gull: an adult was on the open spaces at 7.00am, until flushed by a dog walker.
Meadow Pipit: around forty birds headed in a mainly northerly direction in small flocks.
Yellow Wagtail: three singles flew north.
Grey Wagtail: two birds flew high SW.
Pied/White Wagtail:four singles flew north-east.
Barn Swallow: sixty-five flew high NE in three flocks.
House Martin: forty-five fed over the lake.
Fieldfare: one flew NW at 7.10am.
Spotted Flycatcher: one was again in area 39.
Chiffchaff: at least fourteen were around the park.
Blackcap: eight birds in area 39 and 41.
You are correct these photos weren’t taken today, I took them yesterday but as the week ahead is looking a bit gloomy I thought I would post these. The light was superb and though common birds and ones that I wouldn’t normally do not take a second look. They looked fine to practice on.
Comments
2 Nuthatch (together E end Cricket Pen, area 31 at 11:10), 15 Chiffchaff, 4 Swallow, 1 House Martin, 2 Shoveler, 1 imm Sparrowhawk.
One of the nuthatches flew out of the Cricket Pen into the ash tree next to the park bench on which I was sitting, where it repeated its "tsirrup" call (like that of a Long-Tailed Tit but louder, throatier and without the high-pitched introductory note). It then flew over the elm thicket back into the Pen to join another nuthatch perched near the top of a 12m-high alder tree. There they remained for a few minutes, eyeing me warily, before one chased the other downwards into cover. Unfortunately for breeding purposes, neither bird appeared to be a male as there were no chestnut feathers evident on the flanks or uppertail coverts. One looked a washed-out version of the other, with a charcoal-grey rather than black eyestripe, so my guess is the calling bird was an adult female and the one being chased was an immature female.
(I looked hard for Blackcaps in areas 31, 39 and 41 but the strong SW wind seems to have blown them all away.)