December 22, 2010

December 22nd 2010

Hainault Forest:
  • Three different birds of prey in 5 minutes today...
  • Firstly a Kestrel sitting on top of a lampost when I passed. About an hour later when I came back it was still there. T
  • hen a Buzzard sitting with a Magpie in a small tree opposite Hainault golf course (along with about 20 redwings).
  • About 3 minutes later I saw a sparrowhawk going over the gardens! Great views of the Buzzard. (Peter Gordon)
Hainault Lodge Nature Reserve:
  • 4 Goldcrest, 6 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Nuthatch, Greater spotted woodpecker, 20+ Long tailed tit, Great tit, Blue tit, Redwing, Kestrel. (Bob Abel)
South Woodford:
  • Garden today - 1 Great spotted woodpecker, 6 woodpigeon, 1 Dunnock fighting with a Robin, 3 Blue tit, 2 Great tit, 4 Starling, female blackbird chasing away a male, 2 Magpies and various gulls and crows over. Pied wagtail out the front of the house. (PGordon)

Wanstead Flats:

  • c100 White-fronted Goose north-east 14:55 (just as I had given up, cold, wet, bored and longing for a cuppa and having decided not go and flush Snipe from Reservoir Wood, as I stepped on to the flats on the way home ... awesome, bloody magical: so much so I stayed out for another hour and got wet, cold and bored again!), 4 Greylag Geese, 5 Tufted Duck, pr Pochard, 14 Shoveler, Goldcrest, Sparrowhawk and 8 Goldfinch (NC/Birdguides).

Wanstead Park:

  • 50+ Lesser Black-backed Gull moving up the Roding valley in small groups all afternoon, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Teal, Gadwall, Egyptian Goose, Canada Goose, Little Grebe, 50+ Siskin, 10 Linnet (old sewage works), 6+ Goldcrest (NC)

Well done to Nick Croft - White Fronted Goose is the 159th species seen in the borough this year, equalling our tally for 2009... with 9 days left to beat it!

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