Parliament

 

November 21st 2025



Sunny mornings are getting hard to come by, not surprisingly as its winter, but with a good morning forecast I opted for the Friday.

Arriving at dawn, it was 7.10a.m before I connected with the male landing at the Riverside Tower Nest site in the early morning gloom. Calling persistently, to attract the female, it was obvious that she was nearby on Central Spire as I could hear her as well.

Eventually she showed and headed off South with the male disappearing northwest.

The female quickly reappeared, arriving heavily laden down with a fresh Feral Pigeon over Victoria Gardens Park.
It’s now fairly common knowledge that Peregrines hunt nocturnally, but many Peregrines often select a perch in low light near Feral Pigeon roosts before dawn.

Around 8.10a.m she exited Victoria Tower, quite obviously well stuffed and commenced flying around Victoria Tower looking for a cache spot, eventually stashing the prey remains.

As if by magic, he then appeared and then started to search around looking for it, totally normal but in this case unable to find it.
Presently he then headed off north and that was that, she was resting up and despite giving it another hour, he did not return.


Remarkably another breeding season is now fast approaching, February 1st, 2026, will again see the start of the breeding process.
As yet, no news of this year’s single juvenile female ABZ, or indeed ABB, the long staying juvenile male from 2024, if you recall he was stealing prey from the four 2025 chicks before he was driven off by the adults.

I finished the morning on 21 species seen in or over the Park, good to catch up with a couple of winter thrushes, Fieldfare and Redwing together.



In terms of the life list, the Fieldfare was the 62nd species for Victoria Gardens/Parliament.

 

Beckton Sewage Works

November 20th



With good weather and sunshine promised, albeit absolutely freezing at dawn, (-1) I headed straight down to the Barrier on arrival.

Checking out the mudflats showed the first wintering Redshank flock present, 18 birds, no doubt colder weather has pushed them upriver to the Barrier for the winter.
No Black Tailed Godwit present anywhere, but 2 Curlew were on the mudflats, Duck numbers have also increased no end with the cold stuff.

Elsewhere wintering Chiffchaff numbers are building with double figures present now, the sewage works as we know a major wintering ground for this species.

In regard to Raptors, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard and Kestrel were all seen, just a fleeting glance of Sparrowhawk which is usually the norm of this ambush hunter, unless aloft.
I managed to get a relatively close view of the Common Buzzard hunting from a bush, certainly one of the best views I have had at the Sewage Works, they are usually unapproachable.

The male Kestrel was hunting the Pied Wagtails also on the Sewage Works, however no sign of the female.

I finished the morning on 46 species, the year list stands at 95 so just 5 more needed to reach the annual target.

Battersea Power Station

 

November 15th




With the Jo Malone Ice Rink now up and running in the Northern Park, it has obviously taken up a large footprint in regard to available site bird habitat, it will be interesting to see comparisons in bird numbers.

My thinking was that it will likely bring numbers down, but on the other hand, with all the Sedum/Green roofs now available + the extra habitat of Phases 3/4, this would likely compensate.

First up at just after dawn, was the female Peregrine, still with us and now in her 15th+ year. I watched her off and on for much of the morning, she wasn't doing much, cleared the Crows and eventually fed on cached prey in her usual spot.
Still on her own, it may be that at her age she cannot attract a new male, even then if she does, age would then still make her incapable of breeding, time will tell.

Checking out the Coaling Jetty showed just a single Pied and Grey Wagtail but a Mute Swan moving upriver caught the attention. In flight the neck was bent unnaturally in flight, I would suspect through an old injury.

However, she was doing a good job flying, even though aerodynamically it likely hindered her.

Switch House East showed the pair of Black Redstarts, the usual full adult male instead of the 1st year male, I watched these for a while and noted them flying to the new blocks as well.No doubt the rooftop greenery on the various sedum roofs, is offering an additional food source also, interesting to note also that they operate as a pair still rather than singularly.

In most winters they leave and return around the start of April, with increased foraging it looks like they are now wintering.

Moving on I headed to Phase 3/4, as I suspected a good number of birds were in this area, including the pair of Black Redstarts which had followed me down.

Grey/Pied Wagtail, Robin, Wren, Dunnock, Blue and Great Tit were all present along with a few Starlings.

I finished the morning on 26 species, so not that far below the usual monthly number, see below.

September- 32
October - 25

Good to see both Schedule 1 species, Peregrine and Black Redstart again on the Power Station, the Peregrine is more or less nailed on, but with the Black Redstarts now apparently wintering, there are very few sites in London, where you can see both alongside each other.

The uptake on the nest boxes is increasing, one of the open fronted boxes, has again been used by a Wren this year and last, it shows the value of hiding them in cover. Out in the open they will just get ignored due to easy predation etc.

                                                              Female Black Redstart

                                                                Male Black Redstart

                                                             Mute Swan - kinked neck

                                                                         Wren nest