8th May

Bushy Park

I started the day in Bushy Park where one of my jobs was to set up a trail camera with the intention being to capture some clips of a Kingfisher. I didn’t have anytime to look for migrants, although there wasn’t any indications that there had been a fall of migrants overnight. I might have stumbled on a chats if I hadn’t had to confront several members of the public who blatantly refuse to obey the signs asking them to put their dogs on a lead in the Skylark Zone.

Around mid morning I headed over to Richmond Park to check on an Oak tree that has several groups of Oak Processionary Caterpillars. They seemed to be growing rapidly on their diet of Oak leaves. I then moved on to Pen Ponds to see how the Common Terns were behaving. I was annoyed that a Canada Goose had chosen to try and nest on one of the rafts. There was a pair of terns perched on the post by the reed bed. As I drove off I looked towards Lawn Fields and was gobsmacked to see at a height of 20ft or so a Red Kite circling over the bracken and less than 20 metres away. The light wasn’t great but my camera was packed away inside a rucksack and instead of my 1.5 converter had the 2x one on. I seldom use this but had been experimenting with it yesterday and hadn’t changed it over. By the time I had fumbled around getting it out the Kite had moved away, partly due to the close attention of a crow. I then had a stroke of luck, the bird came back towards me. I took a few snaps but they could have been so much better.

When I had finished work I popped over to the lake in Regent’s Park, I didn’t see the Scaup but I didn’t look everywhere that birds likes to hangout. The Great crested Grebe has only got two chicks and like yesterday the fish that the male brings in seem to be to big to swallow.

First a Crow, which is then joined by a squawkdron of parakeets

Those attending the Richmond Park Bird walk not only enjoyed the Kite they may have seen a nearby Cuckoo. I only heard it distantly and hadn’t the time to try and locate it.