Thursday Report

Peter Lambert wrote yesterday:

Not a good morning to go for a walk birdwatching. Dark and gloomy as I left my house and rain soon started. Only 'nuisance' level rain, but it made using binoculars hard . Could also have done with wind screen wipers on my glasses!

As I walked in from the east, a little egret flew north over WM East and from the East Bridge I could see some gadwall with the mallard, but the light was too poor to check how many. Walking down the side of the west channel I was surprised to flush a male gadwall from the vegetation just east of the path. Have disturbed mallards like this before, but never gadwall. A stock dove flew north over the east side of WM East, my first record for 2011. From the Green Bridge I saw seven teal in the channel and two shoveler (looked like an eclipse male and a female). Walking down the towpath to Stonebridge Lock I came across two egyptian geese on the towpath (Little and Large) and the other two (Droopy pair) were swimmming on the Lee Navigation near the Centre. It amazes me how territorial these geese are. They never seem to stray far from this little area, unlike the canada geese which come and go. Are they attracted to their reflections in the shiny metal thing for the barges? They often stand by it. Very strange. There werealso five more teal in the channel near the Lock, making a total of 12 for the morning.

Clendish Marsh still very quiet (where are our stonechats?) except for three redwings flying east calling and a greenfinch singing from the top of a conifer at the allotments. This is the first one I've heard singing in 2011.

At WM West, there was a grey wagtail in the channel from the Northumberland Park Bridge, and a green sandpiper in the channel from the Gas Bridge. From the Chalk Bridge I saw a little grebe on the Lee Navigation and seven gadwall in the channels east of the bridge. Walking down the towpath towards the Green Bridge I saw three gadwall on the Lee Navigation ( a male and two females), and wondered if this might have included the pair that bred there in 2010.

Home damp, but cheered up by a group of siskin feeding in alders near my house (the playground at Norfolk Road E17). There were here around Christmas and about 15 there today.

DMC