Beckton Latest - February

The Kestrels on the Sewage Works are going well, and all the signs are that they will breed again, if they can deal with the sheer number of Crows.

The large presence of a number of Crows, is solely due to McGraths Refuse Centre on the Creek.
With a massive food source, the Crows have increased to vast numbers over the winter, the Sewage Works is overrun with them.

Hopefully the Kestrels will outlast them and the bond to the nest box will remain as strong as ever, however it does make you think, just how much mobbing they can take. Everywhere they go they are harassed by up to 6 Crows, sometimes more at a time on the Sewage Works, it no doubt effects there hunting efficiency which is not good when feeding young.

At the Outfall itself, Oystercatchers have arrived back to breed, they are already pairing up and displaying in the run up to breeding, I can remember when these did not arrive upriver to breed until mid-March, a sign of the times I suspect with global warming.

I haven’t heard a Blackcap as yet but plenty of Chiffchaff around, the Sewage Works, presumably like other Sewage Works, is a major wintering area for them with numbers often exceeding 25 birds in some winters.

One bird that has been missing for the last 3 years, which I used to see on every visit is Green Woodpecker, not sure if part of a decline elsewhere but possibly linked additionally to something else.

It could possibly be down to the sheer number of Crows but along with this, I wonder if it could be since the arrival of the more aggressive Ring-Necked Parakeets.

2-3 pairs of the Parakeets now breed on site, winter numbers are up to 30, especially when fresh buds appear on the trees.

It’s a possibility that the feisty Parakeets could have out muscled them, both for old nest holes and new ones.