Parliament Latest

 

I can confirm that it is looking very good for the new nest site on Riverside Tower, after seeing them entering it in December, and seeing the egg scrape made on a visit later, further proof of acceptance came again in the shape of the Falcon visually entering the nestbox in January.

No doubt she was egg scraping again, other news is that last year's Juvenile - colour ringed ABB, now a 1st winter has made it into the New Year and is still present.

On my latest visit in January, I could hear them calling on Victoria Tower in semi darkness, hard to tell how many but it became apparent as soon as the light grew.

Eventually it revealed not just our pair on Westminster Abbey but also ABB, additionally prey had already been taken. It’s possible that it could have been cached prey taken during the nocturnal hours, something like a Woodcock, or just as well it could have been a Feral Pigeon ambushed leaving roost.
It also showed the commitment of a Falcon, once a mother always a mother, she was feeding the little male! I have seen it before, rather than release the prey to the little fella, she feeds him as well as herself.

The Tiercel as usual didn't get a look in, she finally cached what was left and then guarded it on the Abbey for a couple of hours, the Tiercel again forced to  hunt.

It remains now if the adult Tiercel will allow ABB to stay, it is unusual for previous years young to stay, it’s always males it seems, however as breeding fast approaches the adult Tiercel could well become aggressive towards his offspring.

I saw this at Battersea Power Station many years ago.

We will see.

                                                  Falcon feeding ABB, Tiercel looking on

 

 

 

New Project

A couple of weekends Paul and myself started another new venture, on various Farms, targeting Barn and Little Owls.

Some of the Farms already had existing Barn Owl boxes that just needed a bit of attention on them, but on some of the others we placed new boxes.

In total we positioned 2 new Barn Owl boxes, 1 new Little Owl box and also cleaned out, put new hatches in, with fresh substrate, on 3 other boxes already in situ.

The boxes that needed addressing had an accumulation of pellets and prey debris, some quite full up but very interesting/satisfying giving them a fresh overhaul and placing fresh substrate.

3 more additional boxes, already in situ, we could not access, so the plan will be to address these nearer Christmas when Barnie breeding is complete.

A very enjoyable day and thoughts now turn to the upcoming breeding season, if it all comes together, going to be a busy time with all the other boxes.

                                                                        Full up

                                                              Marking the hatch out

                                                                        New Hatch

                                                                   Little Owl Box

                                                                    Pretty full up

                                               

Beckton Sewage Works

 

January 11th



With sub zero temperatures, -5 no less showing in the car, I headed to the Sewage Works early a.m, hopefully to catch up with some cold weather movement.

Not surprisingly lots more activity, both Common Buzzards seen together and then a male and female Sparrowhawk seen independently.

Quite a surprise was seeing around 15 Chiffchaff, feeding on the round tanks, exactly the same as the Pied/Grey Wagtails do. No doubt the cold bringing this on, had a good look through them for a Sibe but nothing doing.

En route to the Thames provided another flock of Chiffchaff, another 15+ birds, around half a mile from the 1st flock so different birds. I again went through these for a good while, again negative but there was so much activity here and elsewhere, saying 30+ was very likely a good bit lower than the true figure.

                                                                     10 Chiffies!

It was high tide, Redshank were present, but most had gone to roost, 2 Common Sandpipers were seen and then nailed a Wigeon in amongst the hordes of Gadwall, Teal and Shoveler.

Wigeon for some reason are hard here so a good result, I was hoping for a Snipe, recalling the cold spell of 2012 when Snipe were everywhere, even a Jack.

Also recorded my 1st calling Oystercatcher down river, very early, the earliest I have had one before is the end of Feb so would presume this is cold weather movement.

Moving on I headed back, just before I came to the Nature Reserve gate, surprise of the day turned up, remarkably it turned out to be a wintering Common Whitethroat. I have never seen this before, or even heard about it at this time of year, as you can imagine a bit of a shock.

Tried to turn it into something else more exotic, as you do, but very happy with this little chap.

Moving back onto the Sewage works finally produced a Black Redstart, I know there are up to 3 on Beckton, just took a little while to find one.

A good morning.

2024 - Done and Dusted

Yet another year with us and already looking forward to another Raptor breeding season, beit Peregrines, Kestrels, Barn or Little Owls.

2024 marked the best breeding season so far, hopefully this can be surpassed in 2025 with more boxes, especially on the Barn Owl front.

More existing Barn Owl boxes have been adopted elsewhere in an exciting new project, so it is looking very promising.


In regard to the year lists at Ingrebourne Valley and Barking Outfall, I finished on 103 and 98 respectively, close to the 100 at Barking but no newbies were seen just before Christmas so just falling short.

Making the most of the fairly decent weather, although very cold, I was out with the Lark on the 2nd and the 3rd of Jan, the Valley on the 2nd with Barking on the 3rd.

I got both off to a nice start with 54 for the Valley and 46 for Barking, nothing earth shattering seen in terms of rarish birds but a few birds of note below.

Valley – Grey Wagtail, 26 Fieldfare, Wigeon and Barn Owl.

Barking – 36 Black Tailed Godwit, Common Sandpiper, Pair Common Buzzards and Rock Pipit.

I would suspect that with this cold spell there may be some movement, I will have a look over the weekend also.

Happy New Year!

                                    Grey Heron with an Eel that wrapped itself around its beak

                                                            Eventually it succumbed

                                                               Black Tailed Godwit