Richmond Park
I didn’t have much time to do any bird watching apart from a quick visit to Pen Ponds. The weather was glorious and the waterfowl numbers on the ponds particularly Upper Pen Ponds are building up.
55 Gadwall and 62 Wigeon are the most numerous but Mallard, Tufted and Pochard numbers are also increasing.
At one stage the birds took to the air before soon returning to the water.
It is not often that pure bred Mallards are not accompanied by a mish mash of other Mallard crosses.
Comments
It has been a nice weekend in Bushy Park, I have been away and also struggling to get into the park with the shortened daylight hours and so I was happy to spend a few hours in there this weekend as it has been a long time!
There was a water rail in the Brewhouse field pond and a large number of redwing and blackbirds feeding along Longford.
LTT's, goldcrest, chaffinch (not that common here in my experience), greenfinch, starling & goldfinch (in large numbers) indicating some significant bird movement over the weekend.
One kestrel, another slight surprise as to my knowledge/observation they have been absent the last few winters in the park, not quite sure where they go or if I just don't tend to see them for some reason.
Sorry for the slow response. Being reasonably new to the park I am not familiar with the comings and goings of the parks regulars. The Kestrels behavior appears similar to that of to pairs in Regent's Park. They are scarce in the winter period before returning again towards the end of February. It would be interesting to know where they go as you would have thought there was more food in the parks than the nearby areas unless they travel greater distances.