May 18th 2010

Aldersbrook, Empress Avenue:

• 5 Ring Necked Parakeets (over) (Sally Hammond)

Fairlop Waters:

• Mute Swan still on nest on the lagoon, mate nearby, (3 other Swans around)
• 4 Canada Goose Broods (10, 8, 5, and 5)
• 2 Greylag Goose Broods (9 and 1)
• pr Gadwall (Boating Lake), several Tufted Duck, male Shoveler (Scrape)
• Coot still nest building on the Scrape
• Coot brood on the Golf course pond (with 5 chicks)
• 3 Great Crested Grebes (2 Fishing Lake, 1 Boating Lake)
• 1 Grey Heron (over)
• 5 Stock Dove
• 40 Swift, 6 Swallow, 7 House Martin (most House Martin seen so far this year)
• 5 Skylark
• 5 Pheasant
• 2 Green Woodpecker
• 11 Whitethroat, 2+ Blackcap, 3 Willow Warbler, 5 Chiffchaff
• 2 Linnet, 2 Goldfinch, 3 Greenfinch, many singing Chaffinch
• party of 25+ Long Tailed Tits!
• family of Reed Buntings with 5 fledgelings (and rival Male present)

Ray Park:

• 2 Linnet (pair) - the male was a beauty with his crimson patches on chest and forehead
• 12 Goldfinch, 1 Greenfinch,
• 20+ starlings
• 2 Mistle Thrush, 2 Song thrush (1 heard outside James Leal Centre)
• Little Egret over JLC pm (TLachhar)

South Woodford:

• SAD NEWS - re: the Blue Tits of South Woodford. Only 1 is currently still alive. It seems as if the male has gone missing, perhaps the female is struggling to feed them all alone, or perhaps they have caught a disease? (PGordon)

South Park:

• 2 Mute Swan, c100 Canada Geese,
• Cormorant
• 2 Great Crested Grebe
• Mallards, Coots, Moorhen, c20 Tufted Duck
• c30 Starling,
• 15 Blackbird, 3 Mistle Thrush
• 2 Magpie, 2 Carrion Crow, 20 Wood Pigeon, 50 Feral Pigeon
• Robin?? It flew onto the railings outside the public convenience and sat for a couple of seconds with its back to me. I had just put the binoculars away as I was leaving the park. I assume it was a female, whatever it was, as it flew into the Ladies! (MSevoir)

Wanstead Flats:

• 2 Lapwing over (7am) (JLethbridge)
• Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker,
• Sparrowhawk, 2 Kestrel,
• loads of Mistle Thrushes,
• House Martin,
• Canada Goose (1 pair with 20 gossers in 'nursery'),
• c.12+ Long Tailed Tit family,
• Linnet, Reed Bunting etc.
• Coot update (pair with 6 new targets on Alex, and pair with 4 gull snacks on Jubilee),
• 5 Cormorant over,
• possible White Wagtail (small pond - JL not so convinced) other deffo Pied Wagtail (Nick Croft)

Wanstead Park:

• no sign (or sound) of Reed Warbler pm, but there was a Kingfisher up the Roding (THarris)

Valentines Park:

• 3 Grey Heron Chicks unguarded for at least 30 mins at 5pm
• singing Goldcrest (DEH)