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