Lee Valley (16th December 2012).

The middle part of the day was spent at the ‘Chingford Reservoirs’ (the monthly WeBS cout day had come around again!), where the drake Long-tailed Duck was still present. Unfortunately the Long-tailed Duck stayed right out in the middle of the widest part of the reservoir, which is where it has tended to prefer to be, because today I had actually taken my camera along with me.

Black-necked Grebes, although present in lower numbers than we have become used to at this time of year, are usually closer in, tending to prefer to stay near to the reservoir banks, and I did manage to get a couple of shots of them. 

Black-necked Grebe (top) and it's larger cousin the Great Crested Grebe - both in winter plumage and photographed on the William Girling Reservoir

 In winter plumage Black-necked Grebes are similar to Slavonian Grebe in appearance, but differ structurally with a higher forehead, and an upturned appearance to the bill. The cheeks are also darker, with the black cap extending down below the eye.

 As is expected by December, the numbers of wintering duck species like Goldeneye and Goosander had now increased to typical numbers. Generally neither species is especially numerous here, but up to 50 Goldeneye and 10-20 Goosander are fairly typical mid winter counts – today we saw a total of 40 Goldeneye and 17 Goosander, with most of the latter feeding in the channels at the sides of the reservoirs. Numbers of other waterbirds had built up considerable, especially on the KGV Reservoir, where there were 544 Coots, and 436 Tufted Duck, along with a good selection of other species, including Shoveler and Gadwall (which winter in the Lee Valley in internationally important numbers), and a few Wigeon

On the reservoir banks were the usual Pied & Grey Wagtails and Meadow Pipits which can be expected at this time of year. 

Grey Wagtail - quite colourful, although the name doesn't suggest this!

After several hours at the reservoirs Dave and I spent a while at the end of the day in the Bittern Information Point hide in the River Lee Country Park further up the Lee Valley – which is often a good place to spend the evening. A Bittern was on show, skulking at the back of the small reedbed immediately in front of the hide, and giving good views to everyone present - once they ‘got their eye in’ and were able to pick it out from the brown reeds! The best feature to look for tends to be the black markings on the head, the cap and moustachial stripes, although it can be difficult to pick out the bird at all until you see movement. True to form, Water Rails also showed well as the evening began to draw in, and Reed Buntings dropped into the reedbed a few at a time to roost, announching their arrival with thin “Tse-eeeep” calls.

Bittern

Water Rail

A walk through the Lee Valley (9th July 2012).

Leaving my car at the garage for a service and MOT gave me a good reason reason to visit some sites in the Lee Valley which I don't regularly get to...

In a year when I have heard many people speculating that it has been a poor breeding season for many species because of the wet weather, it was nice to see a lot of family groups, of tits and warblers including many with very recently fledged young. Other adults were still obviously feeding young in the nest, and I had to move away from where I was watching from on a couple of occasions because a Common Whitethroat and then a Chiffchaff were reluctant to take food to their nest because they had decided I was too close, and potentially a threat!

Passing the King George V Reservoir I found that very large numbers of Common Swifts had gathered to feed. I estimated that at least 300 were present over the northern end of the reservoir, along with smaller numbers of House Martins, Sand Martins, and Swallows, and more could be seen further back. In this case it seemed likely that the majority of the Swifts were adults because the young don't tend to fledge until around mid month, and I certainly couldn't see any obvious juveniles among them - but close views are usually needed to see the scaly plumage and more extensive white faces that identify the young ones.

Pyramidal Orchids, and Common Spotted Orchids were in bloom at a nearby site, along with a lot of Tufted Vetch, and I managed to find a few spikes of Bee Orchid flowers, but the later were well passed their best now.

Pyramidal Orchid

Bee Orchid (past its best).

Tufted Vetch - growing far more prominently than the orchids!

Further up the valley, a Cuckoo flew across in front of me, near the White Water Centre at Waltham Cross - where spectator stands for the Olympics were rapidly being put together, and at another sport orientated site a Common Tern posed on a buoy in Cheshunt Gravel Pit, which is the site of the Herts Young Mariners Base, so is used by for sailing, canoeing, and other outdoor pursuits.

Common Tern.

Not the best of photos, but taken by holding the camera on my mobile phone to the eyepiece of my binoculars - so it shows that you don't always need to carry cameras with big, heavy lens to photograph birds!

Dragonflies in the Lee Valley (1st July 2012).

I had been asked to lead a walk for the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, which was intended to look at some of the wildlife at Cornmill Meadows - concentrating on the dragonflies in particular. Unfortunately, as can be the case during a typical British summer, the weather wasn't ideal for dragonflies, with largely overcast weather, with only brief sunny periods, and a cooler temperature plus little more wind than is desirable. Nether the less, around a dozen people turned up for the walk so we set off to see what we could find.

We did struggle to find any of the larger dragonfly species, but a good variety of their smaller relatives, the damselflies, were found including the Banded Demoiselles (one of our largest damselflies), and White-legged Damselfly (a scarce species locally). The people who attended the walk were thankfully not only interested in the dragonflies and damselflies, so I was able also able to show them a variety of other species, mostly relatively common, but interesting enough for a short local walk.

The shallow wader scrapes had a number of Lapwings on them, and a Hobby was hunting over the meadows - perhaps as disappointed as us by the lack of dragonflies! Butterflies were also not particularly active, but walking through areas with longer grass disturbed Meadow Browns, Large Skippers and Ringlets, and Peacocks, Red Admirals, and a few 'whites' were also seen. Field Grasshoppers and Roesel's Bush Crickets were also found in the meadows.

Stumped by a duck! (25th May 2012).

On what was a nice sunny day, I spent the afternoon at two of the sites at the northern end of the Lee Valley Regional park - the RSPB reserve at Rye Meads, and the Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust Reserve at Amwell Quarry.

I had made the decision to concentrate on invertebrates, and had only taken a macro lens with me, rather than my usual photographic kit which includes a 500mm telephoto lens, so naturally when I made what was intended to be a brief visit to the first hide at Rye Meads, I found something I really needed a telephoto lens for!

 

In front of the hide (but still fairly distant) was the hybrid duck that had been reported occasionally during the previous winter, and which had recently returned to the reserve following a period of absence. The above photos are heavily cropped, but still show the duck very well. It is always very difficult to be certain about the parentage of suspected hybrids, and this one had me stumped when I first saw photos of it (though this was the first time i had actually seen it 'in the flesh'). Crosses between quite a few duck species can produce the yellow facial patches which give a resemblance to Baikal Teal, but in this case the consensus is that one of the parents is a Baikal Teal - it is thought to be a Baikal Teal x Chestnut Teal cross, which would mean that it definitely has captive origins. Never-the-less, a very interesting bird, and certainly something that you don't see everyday.

More usual duck species were also present, including the Shoveler, Gadwall, and Tufted Ducks which can be seen with the hybrid in this shot:

It was good to see several school groups being shown around the reserve, and making use of the pond dipping areas, even if their use of the bird hides did cause some slight disturbance to other visitors on the reserve. I helped to point out a few of the birds that were present in one of the hides, which I thought might show that I didn't mind the 'intrusion', but was still given an apology by the teacher/helper with the group for "having my day disturbed" when they left (there was no need - the more children are involved with wildlife, the more likely they are to want to protect it in the future!).

Most of the birds present on the reserve today were the sort of thing that can be found in any similar habitat in the area, but Pochards, Common Terns, Great-crested Grebes, and Cormorants were more than enough to keep the school groups happy - especially when they could identify them themselves using the pictures they had been given.

A Male Pochard that came close to one of the hides.

Birds that the school groups probably overlooked included Reed & Sedge Warblers, Chiffchaff, and Hobby.

I didn't manage to find much use for my macro lens on this reserve, although there were quite a few damselflies visible around the pond dipping pools, and a Hairy Dragonfly was hawking along one of the paths, but this thistle looked like it would be a good picture:

I didn't go as far as the Kingfisher Hide (where the first Kingfisher had apparently fledged) - no need to tempt fate, there was sure to be a Kingfisher motionless on the nearest perch if I visited without a telephoto lens!

Slightly futher north, at Amwell Quarry Nature Reserve, damselflies were very easy to find, and this time I was able to get close enough for some photos.

Blue-tailed Damselflies, Common Blue Damselflies, and Azure Damselflies were the most numerous, with many maturing individuals found along the fence line and in vegetation a short distance from water.

Female Blue-tailed Damselfly

Immature male Common Blue Damselfly

Mature male Azure Damselfly

A fair few Large Red Damselflies were also to be found, mainly mature males holding territories at the waters edge, and there were a few Red-eyed Damselflies on water lily leaves in one of the pits. At least two Hairy Dragonflies were also around.

Male Large Red Damselfly

Common Buzzard, Little Egret, Hobby, and a pair of Oystercatchers with three part grown young were the highlights among the birds present, and other wildlife included a Red-headed Cardinal Beetle.

Cheshunt Gravel Pits (17th March 2012).

I was due to lead a walk around part of the River Lee Country Park for the London Natural History Society and, despite overcast conditions and showery rain, seven people turned up at the meeting point to join me. Mid March can be a bit of an 'in between' time, with many winter visitors already beginning to depart for their breeding grounds, and the bulk of the summer migrants yet to arrive
We did manage to find a mix of winter and summer birds, with Common Chiffchaffs singing almost everywhere we went, and a few winter migrants like Goldeneye, and Redwing giving good views. Most of the chiffchaffs will have been newly arrived migrants as few have been present in the area this winter.

Resident species added to the birds seen during the day, and included two Cetti's Warblers, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Egyptian Geese and Water Rails, the later giving some very good views to most of the attendees. Other wildlife included Muntjac Deer (Reeve's Muntjac), and various species of bumblebee, as well as some of the early spring flowers such as Lesser Celandine.

No camera with me today, so here's one I took earlier!

This Water Rail could potentially even have been one of the ones that we did see, 
as it was photographed from the same hide!