Sutton, Greater London – 30 July 2008
My wife and I are in the UK for 15 days visiting family. I spent a good part of today, our first full day here, on a visit to the London Wetland Centre. Although I grew up and went to university in England I have spent all my working life so far in Africa, so this is the first birding I have ever done in the UK.
The London Wetlands Centre is in Barnes. This is an amazing place sitting next to the River Thames, surrounded by suburban office and residential blocks, with Fulham FC’s Craven Cottage stadium just across the river, and literally right beneath the Heathrow Airport flight path. It combines natural wetland (actually disused Victorian reservoirs) supporting wild waterfowl, artificial ponds with captive waterfowl from all over the world and some natural woodland areas. It has six bird hides, one of which, the Peacock Tower, is three stories high. Bird feeders are also placed at strategic points in the woodland to attract the resident species.
Some of the native species seen included Great Tit, Eurasian Blue Tit, European Greenfinch and Dunnock at bird feeders, Long-tailed Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Eurasian Magpie and Common Wood Pigeon in the woodland and Great Crested Grebe, Mute Swan, Northern Lapwing, Eurasian Wigeon, Tufted Duck, Eurasian Coot and Common Ringed Plover in the wetland areas.
At this time of year you can see dozens of Sand Martin swooping low over the wetland as there is an artificially created bank with rows of holes, the ends of short pipes, each ending in a nesting box. This site is now a well-established and important summer breeding site for the Sand Martin. Nor can you miss Rose-ringed Parakeet, an introduced species that now has a large and expanding feral population mainly in south-east England, originating it is thought from birds that escaped from aviaries around 1970.
Some of the other natural wildlife seen included Common Frog and the Comma butterfly, seen on Flowering Rush, which is quite common and widespread at the Wetland Centre.
As for the captive species I managed some photos of Yellow-billed Teal, Ruddy Duck and Greater White-fronted Goose.
