One Last Lifer

With my days in London numbered, I wanted to see if I could add at least one lifer before I left. A Little Bunting had been seen for over a month, but I'd been too busy to see it before. Time for a twitch. 

I took the DLR and tube from my place in Greenwich and arrived apparently over an hour before the Wathamstow Wetlands was supposed to open, as I was duly informed by a groundskeeper there. Apparently, you need a pass to access before 9 am. "Have you heard of the pursuit of birding?" I asked, trying to emphasize that time was of the essence. "I'm afraid you'll just have to wait, I wouldn't want to get in trouble with my boss." "Ok, I'll wait here." 

Then, he unexpectedly said "I'm just going to go over there and take a long bathroom break..." Haha, my chance! 

After 30 minutes I noticed a high-pitched call similar to what I'd heard described as the bunting. Sure enough, it appeared up in a tree for a few seconds for good views. Little Bunting is a vagrant, breeding in Scandinavia and taking a more easterly route in migration. One had not been seen in the London area in over 10 years. 

Little Bunting

At the nearby feeders (where the Little Bunting was supposed to be) I saw it's cousin, the Reed Bunting. Also easy on the eye! 

Other notables were a peregrine and another lifer which I did not expect, Stock Pigeons! 

I wanted to see if I could add a third lifer to my day, so I gave some local birders a list of what I thought could be lifers and asked them which were feasible. The possibilities were Smew (take a train to a lake further north), Bullfinch (out in north-west London by tube although very uncertain chances) and Great Bittern (seen all week at London City Marsh). I opted for the third (I went for the Bullfinch with Ramata the following weekend - which turned out to be a miserably cold and unsuccessful search). My point is that I usually only write about highlights here, which can mask the fact that many outings are unsuccessful/birding is not always easy!). 

Anyway, I got to the marsh which was surprisingly really close to Ramata's house. Too bad it costs a tenner to get in, but at my age a tenner for a lifer is pretty good value. The Bittern, visible from a hide, was putting on a spectacular show baithing, hunting, doing the reed camouflage thing, attempting to stab passing coots, creeping around and even swimming. What a cracking bird!! Normally a very difficult bird to observe but in this case, a show-off! The real cryptic experts were the Jack Snipes. Can you find them in the photo? 

How many Jack snipes can you find?