The olympic legacy

I met up with Gary at the basin this morning, a clear and sunny day after the washout of yesterday, we both agreed that unless the Water Rail mentioned in my last post does not give itself up soon, that will be it until the first Little Ringed Plover turns up on March 17th (trust me). Gary had attended the last East India Dock Basin Users Forum meeting where he learned that the money earmarked for clearing the silt from the basin has been reallocated to "The Olympic Legacy". I still find it impossible to take on board that a month of running, jumping and swimming can have such a massive impact on people's lives; I remember a group of allotment holders being turfed off their plots, which were on land gifted to them "in perpetuity" by some philanthropic Victorian, simply because the ramshackle nature of the site didn't fit in with the "olympic vision", unbelievable. What this means is that East India Dock Basin will not be a water body in less than ten years time, Alder and Willow will seed in the sediment as the process of turning open water to reedbed then carr and finally dry land begins; when this happens will the area still be considered important for wildlife? I doubt it.

A washout

Heavy rain greeted me this morning as I opened the curtains, so the decision I faced was do I stay at home and stare fruitlessly at the window or do I head down to East India Dock Basin and stare fruitlessly at the western reedbed from the comparative comfort of a covered blind in the hope of finally connecting with Water Rail for my year list? I chose the latter option and spent over 90 minutes failing miserably, if it was a patch lifer I would be in despair (or more likely in permanent residence in the reeds), but as it's only a yeartick I'll just have to let it go, but probably not before I've put in several more hours trying to nail it. In any other walk of life it would be a truism to say that good things come to he who waits but in birding the opposite is often true. Needless to say not much else was noted, two Shelduck and the female Pintail on Bow Creek, 107 Common Teal throughout the site, 45 Tufted Duck on the basin and a female Reed Bunting feeding on the north shore of the basin.

February wader count

Today was the second instalment of the monthly wader count initiated by Dave Morrison, an attempt to count all the waders roosting along the Thames in the London area and to log all the roost sites; Bow Creek is the most westerly site and therefore the closest to central London; today it yielded 16 Redshank and three Common Sandpiper, not a great contribution, but I'm always amazed that any waders choose to use this site at all. High Tide at London Bridge was around 15: 30 today which made for an atmospheric last hour as plenty of wildfowl flighted into the basin including nine very noisy Canada Geese, a pair of Shelduck, 125 Common Teal, the overwintering female Pintail and a year record count of 56 Tufted Duck.

First Jay of the year

Today it rained all day, not optimum birding conditions, the only bonus being that Joe Public rarely ventures forth to disturb the non-existent birdlife during periods of precipitation. A flock of seven Chaffinch was feeding in the understorey at the eastern scrub and while I was going through them in the hope of something better a Jay flew in, my first year tick since the Mute Swan on January 23rd. A single Shelduck was on the basin along with 34 Tufted Duck whilst the majority of the 158 Common Teal were strung out along Bow Creek, other wildfowl included singles of Mute Swan and Canada Goose, both on the Thames. As it was low tide I only managed to find three Redshank, the rest of the day's notables were a Stock Dove flying strongly west, a skulking Song Thrush and three rather tame Goldfinches feeding on Silver Birch buds in the ecology park.

A brief visit on a falling tide

Shelduck at Bow Creek, February 2011

With the recent run of mild weather seemingly firmly established with no sign of a change visits to the patch before the spring migration kicks in are a triumph of hope over expectation, and today was no different except that I very rarely time a visit to coincide with a falling tide so I thought I'd give it a go. Two pairs of Shelduck were at Bow Creek along with around 160 Common Teal, most of these were paired up and numbers will steadily drop from now on as they head north to their breeding grounds, although a cold snap could produce one last big winter count; the only other wildfowl of note was a flock of 22 Tufted Duck on the basin. A few hundred gulls were feeding on the exposed mud at Bow Creek, mostly Black-headed Gulls, around 400 with smaller numbers of Common and Herring Gulls including a probable Scandinavian Herring Gull, darker mantled and with more white in the wings. Passerine interest was negligible with several of the commoner species in song including Dunnock, Wren and Blue Tit but oddly no thrushes.

The forgotten art of grebe sexing

It is becoming increasingly obvious that the request entitled " Freezing weather for southern England until the end of February" lies forgotten and unactioned in the bottom of the burgeoning in-tray of some apathetic weather god and this is clearly the reason for the stagnation of my fledgling yearlist; another ridiculously mild day with a suitably unimpressive cache of records to complement it as follows: two Shelduck, circa 180 Common Teal, 43 Tufted Duck, two Redshank and a Chaffinch. Finally I have provided for your instruction and at no extra cost two photographs culled from the Lea Valley Regional Park bird identification boards at East India Dock Basin; now at last I know that with such meticulous attention to detail the future of the Lower lea lies in safe hands and that's a thought even more depressing than the weather.

An ordinary day

Redshank and Common Sandpiper (far left)

in high tide roost, Bow Creek, February 2011

An afternoon visit timed to coincide with high tide produced nothing out of the ordinary, it was an extremely mild day for February, albeit with a robust south-west wind that played havoc with the queues on the Tufted Duck, 36 of which were present on the basin. Common Teal were fairly evenly scattered throughout the site with a total count of 225 but there was no sign of the wintering female Pintail. The high tide wader roost produced 12 Redshank and two Common Sandpiper, a low February count of the former not really surprising given the clement weather conditions. Four Pied Wagtails and a single Grey Wagtail were the only notable passerines along with a singing Song Thrush in the ecology park.