Finally, the nice weather seems to have arrived.
This morning the garden was quite active as the nesting birds went about their task of feeding and caring for their young. There are still a couple of Common Swifts in the area around the patch and it’s to be hoped that they will find somewhere to nest this year.
In the afternoon I decided to go to the Greenwich Peninsula. I stopped off on the way at the western end of the Tarn. The Greylag Geese, still with their six young, were present, along with some Mallard and Tufted Duck.
On arriving at the Greenwich Peninsula, my first port of call was some derelict land which has become overgrown with wildflowers and weeds. I had hoped that this might be a profitable site for some butterflies but in fact contained only Small Whites. Moving on towards the Ecology Park I did find one Holly Blue butterfly.
In the channel that surrounds the Ecology Park, I recorded my first dragonflies of the year – some common blue damselfly and some red eyed damselfly. They also saw the first of what was to be a number of brimstone butterflies present in the Park.
The park itself was dominated by a large party of young starlings, whose noise made it very difficult to hear any other bird song.
I did hear one singing reed warbler and later saw another in a different part of the park.
There are three common Tern nests on the provided rafts and the total of four birds were present during my visit.
It was also nice to see a family of little Grebe with two youngsters.
Greylag Goose [sp] (Anser anser)
Canada Goose [sp] (Branta canadensis)
Mallard [sp] (Anas platyrhynchos)
Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula)
Little Grebe [sp] (Tachybaptus ruficollis)
Grey Heron [sp] (Ardea cinerea)
Common Moorhen [sp] (Gallinula chloropus)
Eurasian Coot [sp] (Fulica atra)
European Herring Gull [sp] (Larus argentatus)
Lesser Black-backed Gull [sp] (Larus fuscus)
Common Tern [sp] (Sterna hirundo)
Common Pigeon [sp] (Columba livia)
Common Wood Pigeon [sp] (Columba palumbus)
Common Swift [sp] (Apus apus)
Eurasian Magpie [sp] (Pica pica)
Western Jackdaw [sp] (Coloeus monedula)
Carrion Crow [sp] (Corvus corone)
Eurasian Blue Tit [sp] (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Eurasian Reed Warbler [sp] (Acrocephalus scirpaceus)
Common Starling [sp] (Sturnus vulgaris)
Common Blackbird [sp] (Turdus merula)
European Robin [sp] (Erithacus rubecula)
Dunnock [sp] (Prunella modularis)
Common Chaffinch [sp] (Fringilla coelebs)
European Greenfinch [sp] (Carduelis chloris)
European Goldfinch [sp] (Carduelis carduelis)
Small White (Artogeia rapae)
Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni)
Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus)
Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
Red-eyed Damselfly (Erythromma najas)
Pete's Favourite Things 