Just a quick visit today. The grebelet from the nest at the west end of Greenland Dock is doing fine still, the parents seem to have given up making a new nest for the time being, and they have moved up to the middle of the dock.

There are tern chicks (at least two) at Canada Water!

No sign of reed warblers there yet though.

Just a quick update on the grebes at the Rotherhithe docks. More detail to come later.
The lone surviving chick at the west end of Greenland Dock is doing well, it is learning to dive and I saw it eating a crab yesterday! Although it was only the body and two legs, I was still amazed how easily it slipped down. Its parents are busy building a new nest, though the platform is very close to the edge. One of them was fending off ducks by swimming under them and launching itself up at them from underwater. They previously built a new nest and laid three eggs while the first chick was still quite young, but the platform came loose and the eggs were lost.
The east end grebe family is doing well, three chicks growing well and learning to dive, the next brood must be close to hatching, I saw the parents mating about a week after the first lot hatched.
At last, after much coming and going, there is a pair of grebes breeding at Canada Water.

I recently found out from the London Birders forum and various blogs about the breeding pair of tawny owls in Kensington Gardens. I finally got out to look for them in the last couple of weeks, and got good views of the adults and of the three owlets on a couple of occasions. They are amazingly well camouflaged, so I was grateful for help in spotting them from other visitors. The owlets were still quite fluffy and downy when I saw them, but I guess won’t be for long. I was also lucky to catch them before the leaves start coming out and obscuring the view.

I also got my first look at a treecreeper for this year, as well as a green woodpecker flying right in front of me.

I also noticed a couple of people feeding tits by hand, so on a later visit my girlfriend and her mother tried it with great success, attracting great tits, blue tits and robins. A few days later, we tried to get some photos, but only the great tits were interested:

I returned to South Norwood lake last week to see how the parakeets were doing that we saw mating a few weeks ago. I hung around their nest hole for a while with no sign of them, but then the male appeared and perched near the hole, before having a look inside. Then the female popped her head out for a look, before they flew off together.

I met a bloke who feeds the birds there every day (the ducks spotted him a long way off and ran out to him), and he was saying that parakeets roost near his house.

I also got a nice close view of a singing chaffinch, also a couple of wrens, a song thrush, a few goldfinches and I heard a nuthatch singing further off. All the shovelers seem to have left, but there is a pair of great crested grebes, plenty of tufted ducks, and several young cormorants, as well as the usual coots, mallards, moorhens, blackbirds, robins, pigeons.

We had a little outing to Down House (where Darwin lived and wrote The Origin of Species) on Sunday, and passed by Keston Ponds on the way back, so I could see the source of the Ravensbourne at Caesar’s Well, part of a little project of mine to follow all the little rivers that make up the Ravensbourne watershed.

There was a pair of mandarins and two other males, I have seen reports of more in the last few months. I wonder if they are breeding there, and whether the one I’ve seen at Ladywell has come downstream from Keston. There was also a lone male ringed teal, and three or four large fish swimming around very close together and frequently breaking the surface like a seamonster.

We spent the day at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Barnes reserve today, along with some people from the London Wetland Centre and London Flickr Meetups Flickr groups. It was good to meet Helen again, and to meet Laurence for the first time.

There were an amazing number of cormorants, many youngsters, and herons gathered together in the middle of the main lake, lots of teal, tufties, gadwall, shovelers, a few redshank and a couple of dunlin, 3 or 4 great crested grebe.

The highlight for me was to get some good close views of little grebes in pairs trilling to each other, I’ve never heard their song before. Also, I saw my first woodcock, thanks to a kind fellow birder who helped point my scope in the right direction.

The male mandarin is still there, still sticking close to a female mallard, yesterday, a few male mallards tried to get off with her, but she wasn’t having any of it.
There was a large flock of redwing again, I managed to count between 25 and 30 feeding on the ground, with possibly more in the trees.

By the river next to Catford Bridge station, I got a good look at a couple of chiffchaff (at least I assume that’s what they were, seems most likely), and one was singing. Also a couple of goldcrest, a wren and a pair of grey wagtail.

The mandarin duck is still there, still guarding his chosen female mallard.
There were lots of starlings around, making a lot of noise.
I am sure I heard a lesser spotted woodpecker drumming in the trees west of the river between the two railway lines. I tried to locate it, but it went quiet before I could get close. There was a female great spotted woodpecker, but the drumming I heard was quite different from GSWs, it lasted noticeably longer.

Back to Ladywell Fields to check on the progress of the mandarin duck soap opera. On the way there past Catford Bridge station, I thought I spotted a couple of goldcrests chasing each other around in the trees between the river and the gravel merchants, but closer inspection revealed they were slightly larger and more elongated, with duller, more brown colouring and a pale breast and eye stripe. I guess they were chiffchaffs. Once they moved on, I did see a couple of goldcrests, as well as a wren.

There was something singing next to the railway line at Westdown Road. I assumed it was a blackbird, though I didn’t see it, but the tune was slightly different from how I remember blackbird song, so I just checked the RSPB site and I think it might have been a mistle thrush.

The mandarin duck is still around the same place, as are the mallards. At first the male and female mallards seemed to be sticking together more closely, but later on, Mandy was back chasing Ms. Mallard and Mr. Mallard seemed to be out of the picture.

The mandarin duck was still on the river by Ladywell Fields on Thursday 26th Feb. It was paying very close attention to a female mallard, and chasing away a male mallard a few times. The female mallard didn’t seem too interested though.
There were 35-40 redwings and a couple of fieldfares feeding on the playing field by Catford Stadium and roosting in the trees by the river. There was also a small flock (~5) of glodfinches flitting about in the bushes by the river.
I also spotted a wren on the riverbank, and a blackbird with albino patches on its head by the south entrance.

Further downstream, there was a pair of greay wagtails by Elverson Road DLR station, and possibly another pair at Brookmill Park. I saw the kingfisher at Brookmill Park again, but only fleetingly. There was a song thrush singing somewhere on the east side of the river there, I couldn’t locate it precisely. Also, another flock of ~6 goldfinches bathing in the river, and three male, one female tuftie in the pond.

Up at Greenland Dock, I think I came upon a pair of great crested grebes immediately post-coital. This is in the old lock at the east end, the nest site looks precarious, hopefully they will cope.

Looks like there is still a pair at the west end, but no sign of nest-building yet. I couldn’t see any in South Dock, but they can easily hide among the boats.

No sign of the wood duck at Norway Dock, and still only a solitary grebe on Canada Water.