Parliament March 20th

 

Good news for Parliament, she has laid eggs and is incubating after visiting on Thursday March 20th.

With sunny and warm weather, it was an opportunity not to be missed arriving on the Thursday around 6.45a.m.

Throughout the morning, she was in and out of the nest box, the Tiercel was hunting and took a turn at incubating whilst she fed.

Also present still and possibly going to assist in breeding is ABB, one of last year’s males, he was not only hunting but also seeing off Crows, Herring and Lesser Black Backed Gulls.

Watching the 2 Tiercels together, no aggression is being shown by 'Dad' so it looks as if he doesn’t see his offspring as a threat, hopefully he will be a help and not a hindrance.

I have seen this before at Battersea Power Station in 2019, and it din’t end well, the 1st year bird clumsily ‘spiking’ 3 of the 4 chicks offspring assisting in the feeding.

                                                     Ist year offspring ABB - favours Big Ben

                                                                           Falcon

                                                                           Tiercel

                                                           What Cranes were made for

 

Battersea Power Station

Sunday March 16th



I visited last Sunday, fantastic bright weather but exceptionally cold at only 1 above, I certainly seem to feel it more these days.
However, arriving at 6.00a.m with a perfect sunrise shortly after, helped with the cold as I set about locating the Peregrines.

I immediately found the Falcon, she was already on prey feeding aloft, as I watched feathers from plucking started to drift down. Retrieving some of these showed the prey to be a Woodcock, these have been recorded as prey before at the Power Station, all have been taken nocturnally.

As the morning moved on, the Peregrines became very active clearing the Crows that invaded the Power Station airspace.

It is still the same female, at 14 now unable to lay an egg and breed, it will only be a matter of time before she is displaced….

                                                           Large Gulls also got treatment

                                                            Tiercel clearing the Crows

2 male Grey Wagtails were sub-singing along the River Wall in preparation for breeding, checking earlier showed that the winter roost, which held 12-14 birds, has dispersed it seems. Also on the river was a Common Sandpiper, quite distant upriver and I was unable to get a photo of this.

Visually checked some of the nest boxes, not much activity with the cold weather but it will come, hopefully more uptake this year. However, Goldfinches are starting to make themselves known with a couple of pairs nest site prospecting in the trees in the Northern Park.

The Power Station hotspot and my now go to place for the Black Redstarts continues to be the East Side Gardens aloft. I found 2 immediately together at the southern end, however looking at the male, it was a 1st year bird with a wing bar and not the full adult male seen previously.

Good to see, obviously it means that we have had 3 birds minimum at the Power Station recently, it's no surprise that they like this particular area, it gets the sun first, has warm blowers and abounds with insects, this is shown by the number of Garden Spiders present when it gets warmer.

The feeders held at least 6 Goldfinch, but I also again heard the male Blackcap sub singing, try as I might I only got fleeting views of it, very elusive in all the trees and shrubbery.

I finished the morning on 29 species, hope to go better in the coming months as summer migrants arrive.

 

Beckton Latest - March

The warm weather is just starting to kick in after the cold spell, its pushed the Kestrel pair towards the nest box more, both are now becoming very territorial around it.

As usual the Crows are a bit of a pain for the Kestrels, mob handed, the Crows I would suspect are all unpaired likely 1st winter birds.

The Kestrel male looks different to last year, no grey head as per last year’s male so possibly a younger bird.

The Common Buzzard pair continue to be fairly elusive, despite their size, like the Kestrels often attracting attention from the Corvid mob, however these just seem to go on about their business more or less ignoring them.

I have marked 2 big nests which I think they will use, it would be good to see them successful again.

No Blackcaps as yet but plenty of Chiffchaffs now calling, hopefully a Wheatear or a Sand Martin soon.

Abberton Reservoir

March 5th



A cold but very bright morning on Wednesday on our day out, as with most of this week, glorious sunshine from the word go.

In a 2-hour watch on both causeways I recorded a good number of species, most of the winter specialists like Gooseander and Goldeneye, I didn’t go further afield so would have likely added others that I knew were present.

Top of the show will undoubtedly go to the 2 Slavonian Grebes that are wintering, I have seen them in the past elsewhere but mostly fairly distant, these views were quite incredible.

I would presume a pair, both still in winter plumage, one of them was offering the other a piece of weed swimming around the other, no doubt the sun/growing warmth bringing on early breeding display.

Watched these for quite a while, also seen were Green Sandpiper, Great Egret, 3 Redshank and a distant Common Buzzard amongst many others.

No sign of any Spoonbills/Cattle Egrets as yet, but Grey Heron colony in full flow.

More Raptor Boxes

Last Sunday was quite epic in the fact that 5 of us installed 7 Raptor boxes, 3 Tawny Owl boxes,3 Kestrel boxes and a Barn Owl box.

It took most of the day as you can imagine, immensely satisfying installing them for us all on a project that began at least a month or 2 ago.

Massive credit has to go to the people organizing this, and also for a number of volunteers and those in charge for making the boxes.

All the boxes were made out of 9mm plastic sheeting, the big thing is that they will last come what may in terms of weather exposure.
Plastic is the way to go with them in terms of durability and longer lasting, so I could well head down that road myself for my boxes, if it becomes readily available.

All went very well on the day, all eyes now will be on uptake, they will be checked again in May.

A big thanks to those in charge also for allowing me to use the photos below.

                                                                        Tree Hugger!