London Wetland

Unusually there was Sunday birdwatching this week as I was very kindly taken, by my birding mentor and his family, to the London Wetland Centre.

This was a day full of delights from start to finish with the sight and sound of the Ring-Necked Parakeet to start with and beautiful views of all kinds of birds both captive and wild from an assortment of well-designed hides and viewing areas including one, unusually several stories high.

As well as enjoying unusually close views of some of my favourite ducks, geese and herons I also saw my first Water Rail of the year, my second Snipe and many other things from Egyptian Geese and American Black Ducks to Foxes and a sadly now rare Water Vole. There were smaller birds competing with the fat Grey Squirrels and the pushy Parakeets around the feeders and these included Stonechat and Long-tailed Tits in addition to the usual Bluetit, Great Tit, Robin etc.

I was able eat my lunch (of rather splendid cold roast beef and horseradish jam sandwiches, fruit and tea) while watching Little Grebes just in front of me having their own meal of rather stubborn sticklebacks.

The venue has been cleverly constructed to give natural views of genuinely wild birds along with artificial versions of various types of habitat with an idea of the type of wildlife to be expected there. In addition there is a very useful shop for birding books, binoculars and 'scopes unfortunately a bit out of my league, and a warm indoor observation area complete with 'scopes available for the use of anybody.

It was a splendid way to spend a Sunday and I'm still enjoying it as I run over the sights and sounds in my mind today.

Dungeness and Dragonflies

Yesterday I was kindly taken to Dungeness again by my birding mentor and his wife.

We arranged to meet a couple of other friends there, which was lucky as they had a spare pair of binoculars with them and I had spent half the journey feeling very fed up and angry with myself for forgetting to put my own in the bag.

There were one or two particular targets of interest for the day - Penduline Tits had been seen and Dotterels. In the end, despite two visits to the ARC pool and a great deal of vigilance we didn't see either of these but it was a beautiful, if slightly chilly, day and we saw many other species so we had a glorious day and went home very happy via some excellent fish and chips.

Among the species we did spot were Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Marsh Harrier above and Gadwall, Widgeon, Pintail, Tufted Duck, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Little Egret, Dunlin, Redshank and Little Stint on or near the water and Stonechat, Meadow Pipit, Green Woodpecker and Great Tit in the trees and shrubs.

Two of the more memorable images are that of a fox being "stalked" by a group of ducks and a Moorhen feeding off the ground on part of a bird feeder. The fox was at times very close to the ducks which would have made an amazing photograph. For some reason the fox did not seem interested in the group of ducks that swam slowly along beside her, nor did the ducks seem scared. At one point the fox trudged through some very shallow water incredibly close to the swimming ducks. Eventually foxy disappeared into some undergrowth but the image of the fox changing direction to walk back and all the ducks doing the same will stay with me.

There were also a lot of insects about, sadly mostly midges but including one or two Red Admirals and a large beautiful dragonfly who hovered around for some time. There were also a number of unidentified creatures on whose species opinion was divided my birding mentor offered Caddis Fly but others thought them moths. At any rate they were not shy and one is pictured sitting on a friendly hand.

It's a pity "Dunge" is such a lengthy drive from here because it is always a wonderful day out with lots to see.

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Jeff (although for all I know he might be a vixen) sunning himself in the garden this afternoon. Usually I only see him trotting through in the early hours.

Jeff spots me opening the window for a better shot

No rest for the wicked