30 December 2008

I decided to make a detour by the Thames after running some errands. It was eerily quiet on the way there, apart from some whistling starlings. The tide was about half way, and the water almost like a mirror.

I saw:

• gadwall: 6, including a male chasing a female
  
• cormorant: 11
  
• mallard: 40
  
• parakeet: 2
  
• great black-backed gull: 1 adult, 1 first winter
  
• black-headed gull: at least 200
  
• common gull: 2 adults
  
• herring gull: 2 adults 'flirting'
  
• shelduck: 1 swimming against the tide, only the second time I see one here
  
• Canada goose: 2 (1 had a metal ring but I could only read half of it)
  
• sparrows tweeting in their bush
  
• lesser black-backed gull: 2 adults
  
• pied wagtail: 1 juvenile, then an adult and juvernile
  
• moorhen: 2, an adult and a young, swimming against the current and totally losing!

More photos in the Thames Path album (bottom of page and following).