Regent’s Park
Sad news from the Wetland Pen, two of the Kestrel young left the box this morning. That normally goes without a hitch but not today. They were both still not old enough and may have accidently toppled off the rim of the box. One was seen in branches just below the box and a short time later another had dropped down near to him/her. Dave phoned to ask what I had done when this had happened before. Well back then we had our own cherry picker and were able to put the bird back or if not back in the box, close to it. Dave went off to collect a ladder and wasn’t gone for more than 15 to 20 minutes. However when he returned, one must have taken a leap of faith and had come to ground, unfortunately the resident Fox must have been watching and had killed and partially buried it. Not a very pleasant event at all. Dave managed to retrieve the other bird and put it in a box nearby where the male sometimes caches food. By this afternoon the stupid bird had left the safety of the box and had managed by clambering or a series of short clumsy flights gain some height. There was another slightly odd episode to this tragedy, the female hadn’t been seen all day. Normally she greets the male when he arrives with prey today there was no sign of her. That was until 3.30pm when she suddenly appeared not to far from the juvenile. She must have seen him but didn’t go very close to him, we will call it a him as they normally fledge first. Fingers crossed things will work out, though I am not that confident.
Bushy Park
Nothing out of the ordinary to report. There have been fairly large concentrations of Swifts over the west side of the park, normally early morning involving over 200 birds. 2 pairs of Reed Warblers are breeding in the reed beds in the Brew House fields. Skylark numbers seem to be about the same as last year with at least 11 singing males. Meadow Pipits on the other hand seem down in numbers, 5 singing males. This could be the result of the cold winter. Common Shelducks are still present though down to 2 pairs. A Common Tern flew over yesterday.
If you are not sure of this juveniles identity you soon will be.
It looks like this bird has been decapitated a fait that a mega rarity White-throated Needletail unfortunately met with on the Western Isles. Well it wasn’t actually decapitated but it did meet its death by flying into a wind turbine.
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