28 February 2009

I was expecting delivery of my first mealworm order this year this morning so I decided to go and check my patch early. I left home at about 6:30, before a lot of the birds woke up it seems as it was pretty quiet to start with... Apart from a singing dunnock at the corner of Margravine Cemetery by the West Lodge. The sparrows on Winslow Road were silent on my first pass, but very much aloud on my way back. I was trying to count them when something spooked them, and they all scattered, but 5 on the same roof is the most I have had there at once for a while. The first 2 I saw were mating, spring is definitely in the air! I also saw and heard a few sparrows on Distillery Road and by Crabtree Wharf.

Tide was going down when I got to Hammersmith Bridge, and there did not seem to be many birds. Still, I saw:

• grey wagtail
  
• black-headed gull: 38 at HB, 51+ at the River Cafe. Definitely a feeling that there are less of them than 2 weeks ago. Also a lot more black heads to be seen.
  
• mallard: 19
  
• teal: 68
  
• gadwall: 28
  
• common gull: 1
  
• lesser black-backed gull:: 4 adults with various degrees of streakiness
  
• greater black-backed gull: the usual pair on the pontoon
  
• coot: 3, amazing considering I only saw 1 the whole of last year...
  
• moorhen: 2
  
• pied wagtail
  
• cormorant: 1 fishing, and 9 on the pontoon
  
• starlings
  
• crows
  
• parakeets
  

And as I was leaving the path, 4 mute swans were flying over coming from central London.
No tufted ducks.

I was home in time to receive the mealworms thankfully.