Battersea February 25th

 

Hi, some very welcome sunshine at last when I visited on Wednesday, makes you feel so much better which reflected on the birds, lots of activity around the Power Station with some already paired and looking for nest sites.

At 16 years of age at least, our female Peregrine is still with us, she took a Feral Pigeon from the Refuse Centre hunting from the north east chimney. She fed on this, had a brief fly around and then settled down to rest, a big meal, unless provoked by Crows she will likely stay there for 5+ hours.

In regard to Crows, one did push its luck too far, going up and mobbing her aloft before she set about it and went after it. A mobbing challenge like this, is possibly down to the fact that she no longer has the male, one of his many responsibilities was to keep Crows away from the territory. Crows are very intelligent birds and will know that the male is not around anymore so will try it on.

The Power Stations other Schedule 1 species were also on show in the sunshine, not only the regular pair in Phase 3/4 but another male singing aloft.
So 3 Black Redstarts on site, fairly early but does show how well all the green roofs are working as well. The male in Phase 3/4 was alarm calling, so no doubt the warmer sunny weather was bringing on early breeding behaviour.

As I have said previously, there are very few places that you can go in London, even the UK, that have both Schedule 1 species together, the Power Station in this is unique, it has been this way since I arrived in 2000.

Both Grey and Pied Wagtails were both also showing breeding behaviour, there are new nest boxes in situ for these, as well as the Black Redstarts, as we know both species breed annually at the Power Station, the nest boxes should give them all a helping hand.

I counted no less than 16 Goldfinches aloft in the Silver Birches, the Feeders as well as the Green Roofs are all playing their part, it is a good sized flock.
Due to having a reliable winter food source, most will stay and breed in the now abundant small trees.

On a couple of the close up Goldfinches, check out the length of the toe nails - impressive!

Unusual bird(s) of the morning will go to Little Egret, outside of London its more common but a bit of a rarity at the Power Station. I got onto 2 together rather late heading down river and then a single heading towards Battersea Park.

A good morning all round, I finished the morning on 28 species, just 2 more species needed to reach 100 for the Life List, hopefully this year!

                                                                  Enough is enough

                                            Will she survive another Spring from challengers?