Beckton March

 

All looking good with the Kestrels in the nest box, first used in 2018, this will be their 6th breeding season using the box, it’s getting a bit covered in guano from use so it will be cleaned in the Autumn.
The Sewage Works is a large site, I know there is another pair of Kestrels on the western edge of the site, as yet I haven’t pinned them down as to where they are nesting.

The resident Common Buzzards are around as usual, I have marked out some old Corvid nests before they disappear in the foliage, hopefully they will again breed. Quite remarkably, I have seen one of them sitting on a lamp post on the roundabout of the A13/North Circular nearby, it shows the species adaptability in a pretty urban environment. Good to see there fortunes change and a Raptor on the increase, you pretty much see them everywhere you go now.

The Sparrowhawk pair are elusive as ever, occasional flashes of the male, I am trying to catch them going aloft if we ever get any decent weather!

The Ravens are coming and going, I would expect lured in by McGraths Refuse on the Creek, it’s a big magnet for the Crows and large Gulls, so no doubt it will provide a food source for the big Corvid as well.

Remarkably I watched a pair of Oystercatchers nest site prospecting around the Tanks, one of them, no doubt the male was watching from the edge of the tank whilst she walked round at the base continually searching and dropping down forming a ‘scrape’. She did this in several positions looking to create a nest depression. They do nest in the craziest of places, they get predated on the Thames a lot so perhaps looking ‘inland’ for a new position.

Winter Thrushes are still on site, the pretty regular flock of Fieldfares is still with us on site, I would expect these to be making the trip back next month.