A rare chance to do a little serious birding came up this morning. As I was to the east of London a trip up to Fishers Green in the Lea Valley Regional Park seemed in order.
As usual at this time of year there were common terns giving displays of aerobatics over the lakes in their typical noisy manner. While they are always a delight to watch, the sight of a hobby hunting over the reed beds was even more exciting. At one point I even saw her talons come down as she took a large insect in mid air.
On the lakes themselves were the usual selection of waterfowl: mallard, tufted duck, pochard, coot, moorhen, mute swans, great crested grebe and both canada and greylag geese. Curiously I saw no gadwall or shoveller nor, among the various chicks were any young grebe. I did see, however, ruddy duck at two locations on Seventy Acres Lake (t may have been the same individual and while crossing the footbridge at Hook Marsh one obligingly swam underwater. Also there were a pair of shelduck on a scrape across the Flood Relief Channel in Holyfield Farm.
The surprises were among the small birds. A quick glimpse of a whitethroat between the canal and Seventy Acres and by the Flood Relief Channel a wonderful concert delivered by a modest nightingale who stayed resolutely hidden in the scrub.
As usual at this time of year there were common terns giving displays of aerobatics over the lakes in their typical noisy manner. While they are always a delight to watch, the sight of a hobby hunting over the reed beds was even more exciting. At one point I even saw her talons come down as she took a large insect in mid air.
On the lakes themselves were the usual selection of waterfowl: mallard, tufted duck, pochard, coot, moorhen, mute swans, great crested grebe and both canada and greylag geese. Curiously I saw no gadwall or shoveller nor, among the various chicks were any young grebe. I did see, however, ruddy duck at two locations on Seventy Acres Lake (t may have been the same individual and while crossing the footbridge at Hook Marsh one obligingly swam underwater. Also there were a pair of shelduck on a scrape across the Flood Relief Channel in Holyfield Farm.
The surprises were among the small birds. A quick glimpse of a whitethroat between the canal and Seventy Acres and by the Flood Relief Channel a wonderful concert delivered by a modest nightingale who stayed resolutely hidden in the scrub.
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