I travelled up to the centre of London the other day and arrived at the station early. I don’t mind this as it allows me to birdwatch from the station. It has a wonderful open vista and you can see vast sky.
As I was sitting there I saw the usual local residents, Carrion Crow, Magpie, and Ring-necked Parakeets and heard a Robin and a Great Tit. Suddenly my attention was drawn to a Crow mobbing a Falcon high up in the sky. The Falcon was twisting and turning to avoid the Crow’s attention. I could not get a good look at it but presume it was a Kestrel (too early for Hobby, looked too small for Peregrine). It disappeared from view and above the crow I saw 2 raptors (birds of Prey) circling and could tell from the flight and the shape and what I could make out of the plumage that they were Common Buzzards. These have become more common in recent years around the edge of London and I have had up to 6 over my garden, especially during migration/dispersal times. Eventually, they drifted off to the northwest.
Time for the train was approaching when I noticed another raptor drifting west across the sky. At first, I thought that one of the Buzzards had drifted back, but there was something not quite right about it and further study, having retrieved my binoculars from my bag, showed it to be a Red Kite. Red Kites were once very rare and had become an endangered species in the UK with just a few individuals in West Wales. However, successful reintroduction programmes, first in the Cotswolds and then elsewhere in the country have led to them becoming increasingly common. There is now a population established in West Kent and it is only time before they become a familiar sight on the outskirts of Southeast London as they have already done so in West London. This is my second record on my patch, the first coming in the autumn of last year.
It shows you can see wildlife anywhere if only you look, but also the luck of being in the right place at the right time. Just think I could have caught a later train!
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I suspect it went largely unnoticed by the majority of Londoners?
We have a fair number of Red Kites around where I live, as it’s not far from a re-introduction area. What we don’t have are the ‘dreaded’ Ring necked Parakeets. We did have one briefly flitting about eating potatoes in the field out back – but we haven’t seen it since….. the field is now a housing estate so I don’t we are going to see them any time soon!
We have lots of Ring-necked Parakeets and they are not so bad. Bit on the noisy side sometimes but bring a flash of colour to a grey winters day.
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