London WWT

Great to be out on the weekend.  Great to be able to get on the bike and head out to the wetlands.  Great to walk around this urban reserve and not remotely feel like I'm just a few miles from the centre of the nations capital city.

It was a thoroughly decent day and at last, my first summer migrants of the year.  I had arrived early but began scanning the skies where a group of five Sand Martin were seen flying around the Peacock Hide.  Later, a single flew through followed by another small group of three birds.

There was decent variety to be seen today with six species of wader and six species of Gull.

On the Grazing Marsh, a single Black-tailed Godwit was actively feeding close to the bund between the Wildside hide and the sluice.  A Jack Snipe was seen scampering into cover with around four Common Snipe roosting on the marsh and a couple more on the wader scrape.  Three Redshank were scattered around the marsh and the wader scrape.

Then at midday, a Little Ringed Plover was found that was best seen from the Wildside Hide.  Always great to see these lovely returning waders.

Of the Gulls, a second calender year Iceland Gull flew onto the main lake, best seen from the WWT hide.  There were at least 29 Common Gull present on the islands including a few sparkling adults.

There were still a decent number of wildfowl with minimum counts of 45 Shoveler, 48 Wigeon, two Shelduck, pair of Pintail, and an aythya Tufted Duck x Common Pochard hybrid.

aythya hybrid with Tufted Duck

At least two Cetti's Warbler were exploding from the scrub, and three Chiffchaff in full song.  This male Blackcap was in sub-song within the woodland.

A Red Kite drifted through.