25/11/2021

Today I had the day off work, so was able to spend a lot of time at the park, and it did not disappoint! 

I've popped by a few times since my previous post, but only in quick visits in between other arrangements, and there wasn't a lot to report.

First off, the day was absolutely glorious, and it was slightly less busy from a people perspective and therefore a dog perspective, which made the conditions ideal.

I arrived and, to my delight, there were some gulls on ND1! I'd read about the gulls on deck from David's post, and I think he was just as elated as me when he had finally had some on the deck. Photos below (as proof!). I did have an interesting duck-type sound from ND1, which just confused me. I wasn't able to place it, probably because I'd never heard the sound at Nonsuch before. It wasn't a fly over, and there's no body of water from where the sound was coming from. I was too slow with my sound recorder. It's also possible it could have been a dog.

After a great start, I made my way over to P1 where there was very little activity, and it looks like there has been significant pruning/tree felling since my last visit. 

I then headed to TL4 as I'd recently had Redwing there. This was an incredibly productive spot today especially when the dog walkers had moved on. Lots of feeding was going on and I got many of my day ticks here. It was looking like a particularly good day for beating my day list. While looking at a Redwing which was deep in the bushes, I heard a bit of a commotion overhead but ignored it (happens plenty of times, and is usually just disturbance caused by humans and dogs). I just so happened to bring my binoculars down and saw a whopping great big, brown wingspan. It could only mean one thing - a Buzzard. At this point, I was really annoyed that I'd missed a Buzzard in flight possibly 2 metres in front of me. Makes you wonder what you miss while you're looking at everything else.

Of course, I followed this into the next field (Zone 4) and couldn't see it. After some scanning, I was able to locate a Common Buzzard perched in a tree, as close as you like. It then took off with lots of crows after it and flew into another part further away. Photo below.

After that excitement, I decided I'd try to make it to the other no dog zones to see if any more gulls were on deck. Unfortunately there weren't. I made my way back through the park, trying to get a few more ticks. On the way, I had a completely white bird fly over, which I assume must have been a Dove, as it wasn't an Egret species. I was back at TL4 again because there was just so much activity. I had a couple of Blackbirds with totally black beaks, and I also had a few passerines both overhead and flitting between the bushes that I just wasn't able to ID. I think one overhead may have been a Meadow Pipit, but I'm not familiar enough with their flight calls yet, so we'll save that for another day. Having now listened back to their call, I am convinced it was - but I'm not happy ticking it this way, just in case.

Other suspected ticks were Goldcrest and Long-Tailed Tit (which absolutely must have been on site), Mistle Thrush possibly heard, same with Green Woodpecker and Little Owl. I really wasn't able to tell because they just didn't call for long enough and I wasn't close enough to the source. I also had a wagtail species overhead, which, if Pied, would have been a patch tick.

I think with a few more birds of prey (which I am sure were on site), I would have comfortably improved my daily list, but I was very happy with today's haul.

Ending the day on 22 species, and my overall list for the park is now at 38 species.

The extremely rare, Unhappy Gull in the bottom left.

Buzzard chase

31/10/2021

After the worst of the stormy weather had passed earlier today, I went to Nonsuch to see if anything had weathered the storm, and who was playing out. I was pleased to get 15 species after ~24 hrs of gale-force winds and torrential rain.

Making my way around the Park following my usual route, I ended up at P1 (Round Pond), and heard the Little Owl calling. I was really excited about this, because I've only had it near there twice before. Annoyingly though, it was just teasing me, as I really wasn't able to locate it, and soon after it went quiet (so had possibly moved on).

Side note: if it weren't for dog activity, I am sure P1 would have regular Snipe numbers.

I had given up looking for the LO, and was disturbed by an eruption of Carrion Crows. I think I'd managed to pick out a Sparrowhawk in amongst them, but the trouble is that everything looks like a Bird of Prey in this weather.

Again there was a lot of gull movement, and, after some studious research this weekend, I was comfortable in ID-ing them as Herring Gulls (not sure what else I had expected them to be!)

I was also very pleased to see that the (usually) dried-up channel is in fact supposed to be a stream, and is now fully operational as a stream! Now the bridges make sense. You know the birdwatching is drying up when you get excited about a dried-up stream being...not dried-up.

I ended up in ND1 which is great for Corvidae. There was the usual Jackdaw and CC activity, of them flying into roost. I made it around 50 Jackdaw and at least 100 CC, and I also had at least 45 Parakeet.

Haven't had any Redwing yet, nor have I picked up any of the reported Siskins, and Teal from previous years on site. Hopefully I'll get a patch tick soon, otherwise there might be more dried-up content.

I had visited the Park on 27th because I had the afternoon off work. I was there for about 2 hours and the most interesting thing to report was a sighting of three Grey Heron all at once. I'd had the most exciting sighting on the way there (a Red Kite over Kingston Road). Entirely possible it had flown over Nonsuch, but I can't tick it unfortunately.

The patch watches might be even less regular now (if that's even possible) with losing the hour of light, but I'll see what I can do (and maybe even try a few early morning shifts 🤯 )

26/10/2021

Another brief visit before sundown.

The Green Woodpecker very vocal this evening and also seen quite a few times.

As I was leaving ND1 (just as I'd put everything away - typical), I heard the Little Owl. I've heard it there before, but haven't ever been able to pinpoint exactly where it is, but it must hold territory along some of the trees bordering ND1.

I was obviously seeing everything in 5s tonight - 5 Goldfinch, 5 Long-Tailed Tits, 5 Woodpigeons.

Lots and lots of gull movement - I counted over 50 and all were fly overs. A member of the public put something in the bin which attracted virtually all the crows in the area and two gulls. At one point I was certain they were going to land so I could finally get my first gull on the deck, get a picture, and hopefully ID it. It was about half a metre off the ground and then decided it would not bother.

There was also the usual late evening presence of thousands of Jackdaws returning to roost.