Regent’s Park
This afternoon I had an hour to kill before I had to collect my wife from work so chose to spend it skywatching. It looked promising for seeing a raptor or two apart from the fact that the clouds were circling the park. I had the misfortune of looking at clear blue skies, not ideal. There were birds moving but they were gulls, ferals and a handful of House Martins.
At 2.34 I picked up 2 very high large raptors. It was obvious that they were buzzards but not the same species. One had level, straighter longer looking wings, unlike the other bird which was soaring with wings in bowl shaped and angled upwards, which is typical of Common Buzzard. They then moved away from each other, so I watched what I believed was a Honey. The other bird briefly came in to view and above them and much higher, even though these birds were high was a skua. I thought I would keep an eye on the Honey and try and contact Dave. Looking through the scope, trying to find his number was difficult. The bird was over the park but in the clear blue sky. His phone rang and rang but I he didn’t answer (I just found out it didn’t ring at his end). While doing this I lost the bird for about 30 seconds but luckily latched on to it again. In the clear sky I was able to see that it was a dark juvenile. This is the first time that I have skywatched in the park since my position in The Royal Parks changed.
Honey Buzzard: a juvenile flew east at 2.35pm.
Common Buzzard: one drifted north at 2.35pm.
Skua sp: a very high bird was seen briefly at 2.40pm
Whinchat: one flew over the Open Spaces at 2.55pm.
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