This week on the Marshes
Pete Lambert wrote today:
Monday 13 December 2010
Monday 13 December 2010
Another Monday and another foggy day in London Town (and memories of Julie London for those who can remember back that far). So little seen overhead and lots just heard. A male pheasant (one with no white collar on its neck) was sitting high in the trees along the west side of the west channel at WM East – perhaps it roosted there overnight. Two redwings calling from the top of trees along the Lee Navigation near Stonebridge Lock and 2 egyptian geese (the droopy pair) by the Centre. A fox walked through WM West with something in its mouth, then from the Chalk Bridge I could see eleven gadwall in the channel that goes east. A cormorant that flew up from the Lee Navigation had a ‘silver’ head that I mostly only see at the start of the breeding season, hope they’re not going to start breeding again already. A nice looking male goosander was feeding in the channel just north of the Sandpiper Bridge.
Friday 17 December 2010
As a contrast, no fog but very cold and also cloudy so the light wasn’t very good for spotting birds. (What would birdwatchers do if they didn’t have the weather to complain about!) Same pair of egyptian geese at the Centre but nothing much else until I was near the Chalk Bridge when a single linnet flew south calling, from the trees right at the north of Wild Marsh West. Standing on the Chalk Bridge I could see fifteen gadwall feeding in the channel NE of the bridge. Finally, at the SE corner of WM East, waiting for a glimpse of a reed bunting I could hear calling, I then heard a bullfinch call from the trees several times. Hung around but no sight of either bird. Is the bullfinch the same one we saw earlier I wonder?
DMC
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