London Coots - 30th July 2019

Whilst in East Sussex last week, Jayne and I went up to London for the day to visit the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. After going there, we went for a walk around St James' Park, where, in amongst the "exotics", including a lovely female Hooded Merganser, we saw, and photographed, 10 darvic-ringed Coots.

Coot HHX

My nephew, Luke, has seen some of these before, so we knew that they'd been ringed by West London Birding. I sent details off, and heard back very quickly that 9 of the 10 birds had been ringed in St James' Park, between September 2016 and March 2019, with the exception of D67, who had been ringed in Regent's Park, 4km away. Not the most exciting movements, but interesting none the less, and, hopefully, as more data comes in the project will provide a good insight into these birds' lives.

Ringed Black-headed Gull and Ring-necked Parakeets

I've just been in London for a few days, and whilst there, I managed to "tick" 3 new species, get some new photos and spot a darvic-ringed Black-headed Gull.

First the gull. The bird in question was spotted on the banks of The Serpentine in Hyde Park, feeding with an estimated 100 - 200 other Black-headed Gulls, a couple of Herring Gulls, a dozen or so Common Gulls and 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Black-headed Gull -28P1

As you can see, it was wearing a darvic ring, 28P1, and, after a little bit of research, I managed to find out that it had been ringed in June 2015, by Reading and Berkshire Ringing Group, as a pullus at Hosehill Lake LNR, in Berkshire, 63km away. The bird had been seen there again until July 2015, and was then reported in Kensington Gardens on 8th October 2015, before moving to Hyde Park, on 6th December 2015, where it has been reported 3 times over the winter period, my record being the latest one so far.

As well as the gulls, I also managed to spot 3 new species for the year; Ring-necked Parakeet, Egyptian Goose and Cetti's Warbler. The geese were all over the park, as were the parakeets, and we were very lucky to have a couple of birds fly into a bush by the bridge, allowing me to get some nice close up photos.

Ring-necked Parakeet

Whilst watching the parakeets, we heard Cetti's Warbler calling from a small reedbed by the bridge, the same reedbed we heard them calling from in October 2015.

One final bird of note was a Black Swan that was also on The Serpentine. Not a bird to count, as it's not a British species, but interesting to see, none the less.

Black Swan

Year List update:

115 - Ring-necked Parakeet
116 - Egyptian Goose
117 - Cetti's Warbler

London Birds

I was in London with Jayne, for the weekend, and whilst there I managed to add a couple more birds to the Year List, namely Ring-necked Parakeet and Red-crested Pochard.

Ring-necked Parakeet

Red-crested Pochard

Both birds were seen and heard in Kensington Gardens and on The Serpentine. Along with these 2 species, we also heard Cetti's Warbler and Common Buzzard, both new species for me in London, along with Mallards, Tufted Duck, Canada, Egyptian and Greylag Geese, Little and Great-crested Grebes, Grey Heron, Black-headed, Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls, Cormorant, Grey Wagtail and Pochard.

Year List update:
169 - Ring-necked Parakeet
170 - Red-crested Pochard

London -January 1st 2012

Hello and welcome to 2012. This year's first blog comes from London, where I have just seen the new year in with my wife and daughter.

This year's first bird was seen at 00.01hours when several Feral Pigeons were disturbed by the firework display and flew overhead in Trafalgar Square. The next birds had to wait until first light when a Carrion Crow was spotted flying outside the hotel window. Other birds that quickly followed were Magpie and Woodpigeon.

After checking out of the hotel we took the underground to Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park where we had a short walk down to the Sepentine. The first bird we heard was a Ring-necked Parakeet, a common resident in south east England whose numbers have increased greatly to several thousand over the last few years.

Ring-necked Parakeet

A Blackbird was heard singing in the same area and Blue and Long-tailed Tits were also seen. Walking down to the water we soon spotted a pair of Great-crested Grebes, Mallards, Coots, Moorhens, Mute Swans, Canada, Greylag, Egyptian Goose and this strange looking hybrid; most likely a Canada/Greylag Goose mixture.

Greylag Goose (front bird) and hybrid

Egyptian Goose

There were several gull species around as well. The majority were Black-headed Gulls, with a couple of Common Gulls and Herring Gulls as well as a single Lesser Black-backed Gull.

The last bird of the day was a Grey Heron that was sat quietly by a small lake.

Grey Heron

A few years ago I started "year listing" which involves listing all birds seen within the space of a calendar year. I haven't done it for a while now as it can become quite frustrating, but I thought it would be interesting to note down all the new birds I see this year just in the course of my normal birding and ringing. Here goes:

1 - Feral Pigeon
2 - Carrion Crow
3 - Magpie
4 - Ring-necked Parakeet
5 - Blackbird
6 - Blue Tit
7 - Long-tailed Tit
8 - Great-crested Grebe
9 - Mallard
10 - Coot
11 - Moorhen
12 - Mute Swan
13 - Canada Goose
14 - Greylag Goose
15 - Egyptian Goose
16 - Black-headed Gull
17 - Common Gull
18 - Herring Gull
19 - Lesser Black-backed Gull
20 - Grey Heron

Not a bad start for just a few hours in the centre of a major city.