A Long Weekend Of Volunteering - Hampstead Heath and Totteridge Valley - 25th - 26th February 201726/2/2017 Saturday started where the rest of the week left off with 2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a Starling, and 3 Stock Dove on the bird feeders in the Garden. Some Redwing have also been present on and off too although mainly in the trees along the back of the garden in the late afternoon. Above: Great Spotted Woodpecker Below: Starling With GSW bottom Right. Saturday marked another day volunteering for Heath Hands on the wildlife bike. This time the theme of the session was water birds and just general bird watching, or otherwise know as my cup of tea. We set out from the volunteering hub and headed to Bird Sanctuary Pond, with Long-tailed Tits calling from the bushes and Starlings and Black Headed Gulls squabbling from the fields. Before we set up, at the Bird Sanctuary Pond, we had a look around to find that there were not any birds bar a few Mallards on the pond and there were not many people to talk to so we headed back to Highgate pond 1. Here I was given the job of setting up the telescopes for us to use during the session. As I did this a group of Ring-necked Parakeets flew into the Willow above us and so did some Stock Dove. 3 to be precise and they stuck around for the rest of the afternoon being seen on and off. After I had set up I snuck a quick scan at the pond. At first glance it was obvious that the main birds would be Tufted Ducks, Mute Swans, Mallards, and Coots. A couple of Shovelers were out in the middle of the pond and on the platforms there were 2 Cormorants and a Grey Heron. Now the next bit gets interesting because as I was scanning the Black headed Gulls on the platforms I came across a bird with a fading black patch on its head and a small stubby yellow beak. A Kittiwake I thought, however the odd thing is that I never managed to pick it up again in the scope to get a photo of. This means that it must have flown of in the commotion caused by some people feeding the ducks. Oh well. The Session as a whole didn't get much better than that, because it was cold and windy and there were not many people to talk to so after an hour and a half we called it a day and headed back to the volunteer hut, however whilst picking up a kestrel did come over being mobbed by a crow. We managed in total, I recon, to get 80 people to stop and talk to us and to be honest you would be surprised how many people are actually willing to learn and do the activities even if they don't have kids... Above: Tufted Duck Below: Shoveler Above: Cormorant, Grey Heron, and Black Headed Gulls Below: Mute Swan Above: Tufted Ducks, Coots, Mallards, Farm Yard Mallard (White Duck on the left). Below: I think 2nd Winter Black Headed Gull. Below: Stock Dove After the session I walked back through the park to get to the bus. This must have been the worst decision in the world because it started to pour with rain. I checked the playing fields around the band stand for Redwings and got luck with a flock of at least 67 feeding on worms before heading off to Scandinavia in the near future. Robins and Magpies lurked in the gloom around every corner. A flock of at least 10 Goldfinch flew over head as I neared the pond where we were earlier. I had a quick scan to see if the kittiwake had reappeared but with no luck so I moved on. Above: Redwing Below: Black Headed Gull Above and Below: Black Headed Gulls Below: Tufted Duck As I moved away from the pond after about 2 steps a female Kestrel shot into the tree less than a metre away from me, and I thought the Rainham Kestrels showed well. It then hoped onto the ground, and here is the strange part, it started to eat worms off the ground. I have never seen this sort of behavior from a Kestrel before and I am wondering if it is quite abnormal!? Above and Below: Female Kestrel Above and Below: Female Kestrel Above and Below: Female Kestrel I Then moved on expecting not to see anything much however as I got to the Men's bathing pools a Great Crested Grebe was fishing along one edge and then I noticed an absolutely magnificent Kingfisher doing the same thing. I watched them both using their different techniques of fishing for a good 20 minutes in the pouring rain. Kingfishers are my most favourite birds and up until 02/09/14 I hadn't seen a single one. This one on Hampstead Heath is my 16th one with majority being last year at either Rainham or the Dollis Brook. Above: Kingfisher Below: Great Crested Grebe Below: Kingfisher I then had a brief look at the other ponds bringing up the total of all previously mentioned Duck species and also adding Canada Geese, Herring Gull, Green Woodpecker and another Great Crested Grebe (this time on the model boating pond) to my day list before trudging up hill to take the nice warm, dry bus home. Above: Green Woodpecker Below: Herring Gulls Above: Canada Geese with Coots Below: Great Crested Grebe Above: Great Crested Grebe Below: Tufted Ducks in the dismal rain. The next day I headed out bright and early to the farm. Here I had the pleasure of working with the week old Lambs and also some of the day old chicks as well as the usual animals. (Sorry for the poor quality. These are all taken on my phone and it is bad!)
Bird wise at the farm it wasn't the best. 100+ Crows and around 200+ Jackdaw were feeding in one of the fields and mixed in with them were 2 Grey Heron which I couldn't understand. This was odd because unusually the fields are basically dry meaning that they wouldn't necessarily find what they are looking for. Perhaps they were just sheltering from the wind. Another field held around 100+ Redwing and a Red-legged Partridge and 3 Stock Dove appeared near to the now only 5 strong flock of Canada Geese. A Rabbit was seen near the wooded area of the farm and some long-tailed tits called loudly above. Robins and Dunnocks kept me company whilst I worked and sheep wash pond held 2 Mallards, 2 Canada Geese, 2 Coots, and 2 Moorhens. All in all a good weekend especially given the weather conditions and although my life list remains at 157 for Britain and my Kingfisher list moves up to 16. Next weekend calls for a special trip to one of my patches...
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February 2017
AuthorI have been a birder since i was 8 however only really started to be able to go out to places by myself in Summer 2016 (Blame the parents) My blogs will be from all over the place, but mainly from RSPB Rainham Marshes and Totteridge Valley! Photography done by Samuel Levy aged 16. ArchivesCategories |