Battersea Power Station - May

 

With all the trees now fully leafed, it has been much harder to locate nests visually, in particular Goldfinch nests, the Power Station Estate is alive with them. The various types of tree, some newly planted suits the colourful little Finch, last year’s nest total, revealed in Autumn 2022 amassed 11 nests, quite incredible.

Both Grey and Pied Wagtail have had successful broods, these both came from the River Wall, both species again are 2nd brooding with decent weather.

A Mallard brood of 11 were found trapped 6 floors up, thankfully rescued by James and his team of Gardner’s, a great result, l collected these and took these to the South Essex Wildlife Centre. As ever they do a fantastic job, the Ducklings will be released as soon as they are big enough to look after themselves.

With the ever-increasing new habitat, there were also 2 singing Common Whitethroats and a Chiffchaff gracing the Estate, some of the Roof Gardens also providing breeding habitat for even more Goldfinches, everywhere I go now around site, I can hear or see them twittering away.

A very elusive visitor recently was a male Sparrowhawk, no doubt lured in by the presence of the Goldfinches/Wagtails, a stunning looking bird that seemed to be quite conditioned to the presence of people nearby. Managed to get a few distant photos of this little chap before a Crow located him and moved him on.

The male Black Redstart has stopped singing it seems, usually a sign of young, just getting fleeting glimpses now, mostly in the Roof Gardens.

The Peregrines as ever continue to be highly visible, despite being unsuccessful this year on the breeding front, the nest box and ledge are used day in day out, indeed both are still displaying inside the box every day. Due to the Falcons age of 12+ and the number of single unattached birds in London and the Outer Counties now, I suspect it likely that she will be replaced before next years breeding season, just as she replaced the old female in 2012.