5th December

Bushy Park

Little Egret: what is probably last year bird was on the river by Roaring Arch yesterday.

Red Kite: one drifted south-east at 12.30pm mobbed by Jackdaws.

Fieldfare: one flew east over the Water Gardens.

Redwing: several single birds flew over.

Siskin: fourteen were in the woodland gardens.

Lesser Redpoll: two flew along the Longford River towards the Water Gardens.

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We had a light dusting of snow between 6.30am and 7.30am.

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My third Red Kite of the year in the park

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A pair of fully-winged Red crested Pochards were with several pinioned birds on Heron Pond. A pair of Shovelers were also present.

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Two of the horses from the paddock share a joke

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Comments

Marc Heath said…
Great shots Tony,a nice quality selection.
Cheers Marc, it is not always easy to come up with interesting photos at this time of year, especially in London
birdman_euston said…
6 Dec:
♂ (escaped?) Wood Duck (roosting at NE tip of Heron Island, area 8), ♂&♀ Wigeon (area 34/35 viewing platform at 11:15, drake calling and flighty but winged duck unusually reluctant to flush), 19 Gadwall, ♂ Teal (roosting on E shore of Heron Island), 58 Shoveler (half of which were seen at noon tightly rafting together in 'pinwheel' formation, the first time I've seen them use this feeding technique on the lake this autumn), 1 Great Crested Grebe, 20 Common Gull (one missing a foot), ♂ Sparrohawk (hunting in Cricket Pen, area 31 at 08:05), 6 Goldcrest, 2 Lesser Redpoll (area 34).
The Wood Duck is a fully-winged bird. It has turned up for the past couple of winters. You say that one of the wigeon was reluctant to fly.In Richmond Park there are quite a few wild ones and these can be fairly approachable.
birdman_euston said…
Thanks for the info, Tony. Presumably the Wood Duck moved here after its regular haunt began to freeze over. (In its native North America, this species can inhabit surprisingly small, isolated woodland ponds, so long as there are suitably large trees to nest in nearby.)