Ring Ouzel in Greenwich

Ring Ouzel, Greenwich Peninsula, 7/5/2012

Oystercatcher, Greenwich Peninsula, 7/5/2012

I tend to get a little bit anal about my lower Lea yearlist, especially if, as is usually the case, other people have seen more that me, so every now and then I like to take excursions to see other birds, Across the Thames from the basin and about a mile downstream is Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park, a Trust for Urban Ecology (TRUE) reserve, since April 28th it has hosted a female Ring Ouzel, so I decided to go and have a look at it. It's been a few years since I ventured onto the Greenwich peninsula, plenty of development has been taking place including the soon to be opened cable car across the Thames, a totally pointless project that has restricted access to the Thames path where the cable cars dock, a detour inland around the hangerlike structure of Soccerworld (formerly the David Beckham football academy)  is required; The Jubilee Line from Canning Town to North Greenwich performs the same function, presumably at a fraction of the price. The Millennium Village is now the size of a small town with pretentious street names like Mudlarks Boulevard and expensive coffee shops conveniently sited next to mortgage brokers should you fancy a mug of skinny latte. The one constant in this world of change is the ecology park, Joanne is still the warden and Tony is still the assistant warden; it's a cracking place with breeding Little Grebe and Common Tern and enough variety of habitat to ensure that interesting species turn up with some regularity; I had the place virtually to myself and I found the Ring Ouzel feeding on the northern bank of the reserve within seconds of entering the east hide; it showed well but just out of camera range, so the record shot above is the best I could do. It's been here nine days now, a very long stay for a spring migrant which just goes to show how bad the weather has been to keep it here this long. The reserve was alive with warbler song including a Sedge Warbler, at least three Reed Warblers, a Blackcap and two Common Whitethroats; an Oystercatcher was feeding on the rising tide and a single Swallow flew north.

Hirundines at last

It was absolutely freezing this morning, a nasty northerly cutting right through me as I had optimistically dressed for an early May morning, I should really  have known better, it was a bank holiday weekend after all. As soon as I arrived at the basin I was greeted by a heartily singing Lesser Whitethroat, a very welcome yeartick as it can be a difficult spring species here and is by no means guaranteed in autumn. I decided to give the Thames half an hour and almost immediately picked up four Swallows heading east low over the water, yeartick two, things were looking up despite the weather. I then headed for the ecology park where John had scored a very good local double of Sedge and Garden Warblers yesterday, I could find neither but another Lesser Whitethroat was singing there. Gary turned up with the news that he'd had both Swift and Sand Martin at the basin, while we were comparing notes another Sand Martin flew over north, yeartick three. We both heard a brief snatch of acro song that might or might not have been Sedge Warbler, but it refused to play ball so we had to leave it. Back at the basin Gary picked up another Swift, yeartick four and then I got on to a flock of four, a massive count here, all were heading roughly north. Other notables included three Shelduck, a Kestrel, two Common Sandpiper, a Common Tern, five singing Blackcaps and a singing Common Whitethroat.

Common Whitethroat new for the year

May already and still no Sand Martin at the basin, other people have noticed the non-appearance of this species so something is clearly going on. A few birds were moving around in the copse this morning so I decided to employ a tactic I like to call "wait and see", basically you just wait and see what (if anything) turns up, does what it says on the tin. After about 20 minutes I got on to a warbler feeding high in a Sycamore, a male Common Whitethroat, strangely silent given the sunny weather but a welcome yeartick nonetheless, this species is also a little late and winters in roughly the same area of trans-Saharan Africa as Sand Martin, could there be a connection here? I seem to remember that there was a massive Whitethroat crash a few years back and Sand Martin numbers suffered too, time will tell. Another Common Whitethroat was in the ecology park, singing this time, albeit quietly and furtively, as was the only Reed Warbler I could find but at least five Blackcaps were in good voice throughout the site. Other notables today included a female Northern Wheatear along the promenade at Bow Creek, possibly the photogenic bird from yesterday; four Common Sandpipers in the high tide roost, seven Shelduck and two Common Terns at the basin and a vocal Oystercatcher, heard but not seen at Bow Creek. I spent a couple of hours at Gallions Reach in the afternoon and added Mute Swan, Sandwich Tern and Lesser Whitethroat to my site list other notables were a Lapwing flying east along the Thames, three Common Sandpipers feeding on the foreshore, four Common Terns, six Swallows flying north, two Common Whitethroats and a Skylark.