19th NOVEMBER 2006.
JACK IS BACK !
We didn’t arrive at the centre until gone twelve o’clock today. We had spent the best part of the morning at Bushey Park. We got the wrong train from Teddington which made us even later than we should have been. There is no blame to be attached but I will be handling the travel arrangements in future!
JACK IS BACK !
We didn’t arrive at the centre until gone twelve o’clock today. We had spent the best part of the morning at Bushey Park. We got the wrong train from Teddington which made us even later than we should have been. There is no blame to be attached but I will be handling the travel arrangements in future!
IT WAS COLD AT BUSHEY PARK EARLIER!Photo: Reg Norman
We decided to stick to our usual plan and went to the Observatory to get kitted up and to have a quick look around the site. There were a good number of birds to be seen all around although I was a little disappointed not to see the Pintail, although they could have been on the ‘wrong’ side of any of the islands.
We moved on to the ‘Wildside’ hide, not going around the ‘Wildside’ area as we would normally do at this time of the year, purely because of the time. The hide was quite full as we arrived but the number of people there was diminishing rapidly, they were probably thinking about lunch! From this vantage point we could see that all areas of the site were very full with water, some much higher than I had ever seen in the time that we have been coming here. Not very good for waders, I thought that we might not be in luck with the Snipe this time around. Everywhere that we looked, birds were busy and many seemed to be just enjoying the warm, unseasonable, weather. The sun had come out earlier and it was very pleasant. It was, in fact, warm enough to entice many flying insects out including small ‘swarms’ of midge-like flies! Suddenly, many birds, Crows, Lapwings and Starlings were in the air. I strained my eyes to see what had startled them. I soon spotted the Sparrowhawk, every Crow had joined in the ‘mobbing’ and he was soon making good his getaway!
At the ‘Headley’ hide I finally got to see a Pintail (female). She was among many other waterfowl including a ‘raft’ of about thirty Shovellers.
We moved on to the ‘Wildside’ hide, not going around the ‘Wildside’ area as we would normally do at this time of the year, purely because of the time. The hide was quite full as we arrived but the number of people there was diminishing rapidly, they were probably thinking about lunch! From this vantage point we could see that all areas of the site were very full with water, some much higher than I had ever seen in the time that we have been coming here. Not very good for waders, I thought that we might not be in luck with the Snipe this time around. Everywhere that we looked, birds were busy and many seemed to be just enjoying the warm, unseasonable, weather. The sun had come out earlier and it was very pleasant. It was, in fact, warm enough to entice many flying insects out including small ‘swarms’ of midge-like flies! Suddenly, many birds, Crows, Lapwings and Starlings were in the air. I strained my eyes to see what had startled them. I soon spotted the Sparrowhawk, every Crow had joined in the ‘mobbing’ and he was soon making good his getaway!
At the ‘Headley’ hide I finally got to see a Pintail (female). She was among many other waterfowl including a ‘raft’ of about thirty Shovellers.
WATER LEVELS WERE HIGH !
Photo: Reg Norman
Our ‘lightning’ tour next took us to ‘Waterlife’ area. Passing through the Restaurant seating area we were amazed at the numbers of people all struggling to get served! There were crowds sat about outside, all this halfway through November! The pied Wagtails have learned that this is a good spot for food scraps and they could be seen darting among peoples legs!
All around us we could hear the sounds of small birds. Most of them seemed to be in the boundary hedges which meant that we could not see them because it meant looking into the low Autumn sun! At the feeder area though, all was different. Once again we were treated to a wonderful array of Finches and Tits. On the way we even thought that we had seen a Bearded Tit but did not note it as neither of us was absolutely positive! A large flock of Long Tailed Tits went past in riotous order, there were other small birds with them but we could not tell what they were!
The walk around the ‘Lagoon’ was very quiet, hardly any bird sightings at all! A large group of people had come towards us from this area so we thought that they might have sent everything into hiding as they were making a little noise.
The ‘Wader Scrape’ was now the ‘Wader Pool’, only there were no waders! There were many different Ducks and Geese though.
We had almost dismissed the possibility of seeing Snipe or Water Rails as the water level was so high. Although we saw no Rails I did get a lovely site of a Jack Snipe on one of the islands on the Main Lake. I had been alerted to its’ presence by one of the regulars. As I raised my glasses it crossed between to clumps of sedge, stopped to stretch its’ wings and vanished. It never showed for me again. “It’s been doing that all morning!” said my regular friend.
There was a very large number of Gulls on the Main Lake and its’ islands. Once again we looked forward to the ‘Identifying Gulls’ talk that we were going to next week. We spent some time watching the birds, perhaps hoping for some inspiration?
We had hoped to bump into Terry and Liz again this week but as time went by we realised that because we had arrived so late, and I SHALL be organizing the travel arrangements in future, we had most probably have missed them.
We were very tired by now and decided that it was probably best to go and sit down for a while. This we did in the ‘office’ and had a few ‘relaxers’ whilst we mulled over everything we had seen throughout the day!
BIRDS SEEN: Pied Wagtail, Shoveller, Magpie, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Coot, Cormorant, Lapwing, Carrion Crow, Moorhen, Starling, Green Woodpecker, Ruddy Duck, Pochard, Wood Pigeon, Feral Pigeon, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Heron, Black Headed Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Wigeon, Gadwall, Sparrowhawk, Canada Goose, Redwing, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Greenfinch, Mute Swan, Herring Gull, Teal, Goldfinch, Common Gull, Greylag Goose, Stonechat, Pintail, Long Tailed Tit, Fieldfare, Great Tit, Dunnock, Ring Necked Parakeet, Robin, Jack Snipe, Coal Tit.
All around us we could hear the sounds of small birds. Most of them seemed to be in the boundary hedges which meant that we could not see them because it meant looking into the low Autumn sun! At the feeder area though, all was different. Once again we were treated to a wonderful array of Finches and Tits. On the way we even thought that we had seen a Bearded Tit but did not note it as neither of us was absolutely positive! A large flock of Long Tailed Tits went past in riotous order, there were other small birds with them but we could not tell what they were!
The walk around the ‘Lagoon’ was very quiet, hardly any bird sightings at all! A large group of people had come towards us from this area so we thought that they might have sent everything into hiding as they were making a little noise.
The ‘Wader Scrape’ was now the ‘Wader Pool’, only there were no waders! There were many different Ducks and Geese though.
We had almost dismissed the possibility of seeing Snipe or Water Rails as the water level was so high. Although we saw no Rails I did get a lovely site of a Jack Snipe on one of the islands on the Main Lake. I had been alerted to its’ presence by one of the regulars. As I raised my glasses it crossed between to clumps of sedge, stopped to stretch its’ wings and vanished. It never showed for me again. “It’s been doing that all morning!” said my regular friend.
There was a very large number of Gulls on the Main Lake and its’ islands. Once again we looked forward to the ‘Identifying Gulls’ talk that we were going to next week. We spent some time watching the birds, perhaps hoping for some inspiration?
We had hoped to bump into Terry and Liz again this week but as time went by we realised that because we had arrived so late, and I SHALL be organizing the travel arrangements in future, we had most probably have missed them.
We were very tired by now and decided that it was probably best to go and sit down for a while. This we did in the ‘office’ and had a few ‘relaxers’ whilst we mulled over everything we had seen throughout the day!
BIRDS SEEN: Pied Wagtail, Shoveller, Magpie, Tufted Duck, Mallard, Coot, Cormorant, Lapwing, Carrion Crow, Moorhen, Starling, Green Woodpecker, Ruddy Duck, Pochard, Wood Pigeon, Feral Pigeon, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Heron, Black Headed Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Wigeon, Gadwall, Sparrowhawk, Canada Goose, Redwing, Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Greenfinch, Mute Swan, Herring Gull, Teal, Goldfinch, Common Gull, Greylag Goose, Stonechat, Pintail, Long Tailed Tit, Fieldfare, Great Tit, Dunnock, Ring Necked Parakeet, Robin, Jack Snipe, Coal Tit.
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