Guess Who's Back? Back Again...

After the coastal jaunt yesterday, today I stayed a lot closer to home and did the rounds on the patch for the first time for a week. The council is doing a bit of refurb to the lake at Burgess Park at the moment, and although there's no access to get close to the birds, there are quite a few gulls congregating including a few large. Amongst the smalls though, I came across a familiar figure - the adult Med Gull (that I'd found as a 2nd-winter in late 2008) was back for another winter session. Really good to see it again, as I'd been getting a little worried...

Mediterranean Gull Burgess Park (picture taken January 2010)

I had a trudge around Russia Dock Woodland, in the hope of a Firecrest or an interesting Chiffchaff, but to no avail. A couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers and busy Long-tailed Tit flocks were the best of a quiet visit. We've had pretty mild weather so the water bodies were void of any aythya action while a check of the river had the usual suspects but nowt else.

Summer in Rotherhithe

A beautiful day, if not a little quiet on the birding front. Although Black-headed Gulls are now back in town, after the usual few weeks of near-absence - over 200 on the Thames this evening, though no juveniles just yet.

Rotherhithe is the only site in Inner London where Common Terns breed, and they usually settle down a little later than less urban locations. Therefore, it was good to see the first of the year's chicks at Surrey Water yesterday - at least one pair also is still incubating.

Vocal Common Tern

Inner London's first Common Tern chick of 2011

A visit to Burgess Park also produced a pair of Egyptian Geese protecting their nest - it was none other than these two vocal birds, that I photographed in Southwark Park in March, that had settled down and were still just as loud and territorial today as they were three months ago. Although you can't see it on the top photo, the gander bears a metal ring on its right leg.


Egyptian Geese in Southwark Park, March 2011



Egyptian Geese nesting in Burgess Park, June 2011