Belligerent Peregrines in border dispute

Common Teal and Tufted Duck numbers were up on yesterday, 151 and 41 respectively and a single Mute Swan on the Thames was new for the year; the only other wildfowl of note were two Canada geese flying high west and five Shelduck. Two male Peregrines provided some excitement mid morning as they indulged in some low-level dogfighting over the ecology park, screaming at each other in rage and predictably putting everything else to flight; one of them eventually landed on a pylon still calling agitatedly whilst the other circled, gained height, drifted off south and was seen to land on the Millennium Dome. The second year tick of the day was a nice adult Yellow-legged Gull on the Millennium flats along with a mixed bag of around 600 gulls of the five common species. The only passerines of note were two singing Song Thrushes and a silent Chiffchaff in the copse at the basin. A brief return late afternoon produced 12 Redshank and three Common Sandpipers in the high tide roost.

A slight recovery in Common Teal numbers

After the recent plummet in Common Teal numbers from over 400 to just eight birds it is good to see that a recovery is underway with at least 118 present throughout the site this morning; Tufted Duck numbers were also up with 34 on the basin and one on Bow Creek; other notable wildfowl included the female Pintail on Bow Creek before being flushed by members of the Thames 21 clean-up team and two Shelduck. Apart from that it was fairly quiet in the mild conditions, three Redshank and a Common Sandpiper were at Bow Creek, a Stock Dove flew north and a pair of Pied Wagtails were foraging on the Bow Creek foreshore on the falling tide.

Greenfinch roost re-established

A marked contrast in the weather compared to yesterday, after a morning of continuous drizzle the afternoon was still overcast but the quality of the light was very good and the nagging southerly wind had abated. Common Teal numbers were up on yesterday but still very low, I found a total of 29 throughout the site with only three on the basin; other wildfowl included three Canada Geese, the first of the year, three Shelduck, the female Pintail on the basin at dusk and 22 Tufted Duck; two Redshank were on the creek and a solitary Stock Dove flew purposefully north. A Song Thrush was singing in the ecology park with phrases that included a car alarm and an incredibly good Ring-necked Parakeet flight call which had me searching the sky in vain a couple of times; as dusk approached around 50 Greenfinch came in to roost in the trees behind the Esso garage, the first time I've seen them since last January; the only other passerines of note were six Reed Buntings commuting between the pylon and linear reedbeds and feeding acrobatically on the phragmites seedheads.

A massive exodus of Common Teal

I arrived at the basin on a falling tide, it was mid afternoon but the light was almost crepuscular, omnious scudding clouds threatening, but not delivering rain, and a nagging southerly wind, but exceptionally mild for the time of year. The big shock was that I found only eight Common Teal on the basin and absolutely no more throughout the site, this has to be an all-time January low count, even before the silting-up of the basin, birds could usually be found on the creek at low tide, very puzzling. This visit has to be the least productive I have ever made to the patch, the only other notables were a rise in the Tufted Duck flock to 19 and two Chiffchaffs in the copse, both silent and both looking like normal collybita to me.

An interesting Chiffchaff and a record count of Gadwall

I spent several hours on the patch today, mainly trying to nail the identity of a Chiffchaff I found in the copse that was calling like the Siberian form tristis; the bird was incredibly skulking and I could get no plumage details as it kept to deep cover before moving into the inaccessible gardens on the west side of the copse; I returned at regular intervals throughout the day until dusk but had no further sight or sound of the bird. As dusk approached I noticed that a lot of Common Teal were flighting into the basin on a rising tide, the reason for this was a flotilla of narrow boats moving up the Lea and spooking the birds into flight, they didn't, however, bother the Mallards other than to make them swim out into the middle of the creek giving me a good opportunity to count them, halfway through the count I came across six Gadwall, a record site count and perhaps the spillover of birds from the large concentration further upstream mentioned in a previous post; the Mallard count totalled 108 with other duck numbers as follows: seven Shelduck, female Pintail and 16 Tufted Duck; six duck species in all, anything over three is a good day on the Lower Lea. An adult female Peregrine was on the dome and a Scandinavian type Herring Gull was at Bow Creek. Passerines included a good local count of 18 Linnet, one of them singing, a Grey Wagtail and a singing Song Thrush in the ecology park.

A small movement of Redwing

Pintail at Bow Creek, January 2011

Shortly after arriving at East India Dock Basin this morning I got on to a flock of 30 Redwing heading south-west followed by another flock of 13 moving in the same direction five minutes later, these were the first of three year ticks the other two being Greenfinch and a single Stock Dove which came in from the east, circled the copse and headed north. There seemed to be above average numbers of gulls around so I decided to do a comprehensive count with the following result: c390 Black-headed Gull, 17 Common Gull, four Lesser Black-backed Gull, five Herring Gull and nine Great Black-backed Gull; most of the larids were feeding in Bow Creek at low tide. The female Pintail is still favouring Bow Creek where all of the Common Teal were today, albeit in low numbers for the time of year with around 150 counted; other wildfowl include seven widely scattered Shelduck and 13 Tufted Duck. A Peregrine was roosting on the dome with the only notable passerines two Song Thrush, including one singing and a Chaffinch calling from the copse.

An increase in Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck at East India Dock Basin, January 2011

The Tufted Duck flock, which numbered nine on the 1st has risen to 15 today, consisting of ten adult drakes, a 1st-winter drake and four females; these birds are probably the fallout from the large flocks at Millwall and Greenland docks and could conceivably carry one of the four Scaup which are wintering at the docks, or failing that a Pochard would do. There were no Shelduck on the basin early morning but one flew over the eco park late afternoon and five flew into the basin at dusk. The Pintail was feeding at Bow Creek early morning and was roosting with Mallard on the eastern side of the eco park late afternoon, Common Teal numbers were slightly up with c275 noted throughout the site. Two Peregrines were roosting on the Millennium Dome and a trilling Little Grebe was at Bow Creek late afternoon. The only notable passerines were three Robins having a face-off in the copse and a small flock of Long-tailed Tits moving through the gardens on the west side of the basin.

New Year off to a quiet start

Herring Gull at Bow Creek, January 2011

I arrived at East India Dock Basin just after dawn on a rising tide, conditions were very mild and my low expectations were almost entirely realised. A dozen Shelduck were feeding on the basin silt with another at Bow Creek, a comprehensive count of Common Teal totalled 258 and the female Pintail was on the basin late morning; the only other wildfowl of note were nine Tufted Duck. No raptors were encountered and the only waders were four Redshank and a Common Sandpiper in the roost. There was a small passage of Woodpigeon with flocks of 23 and eight noted moving north mid-morning. A Song Thrush was singing in the eco park at dawn but most other passerines were keeping a low profile, a Chiffchaff in the eastern scrub was giving a very unusual contact call, which made me look at it a little more closely, but it turned out to be a textbook collybita. The only other bird of note was a female Reed Bunting calling from the western reed bed at the basin. A day total of 35 species to get the year started was a little below average, with the usual New Years Day bankers like Greenfinch, Mute Swan and Canada Goose strangely absent.