Since my move to the UK I've been trying to get around to the local green areas/Parks and Reserves as much as possible. Despite being relatively close to the city, with its traffic and airports, the wildlife has been surprisingly abundant and diverse!
One of my first outings of the year produced a Lifer for me, a wild Smew over-wintering at Bedfont Lakes.
The Bedfont Lakes area consists of several different habitats from parkland and woodland to meadow and the waterways of the lakes themselves.
The other local parks are Bushy Park, and a little further away, Richmond Park. Both have waterways, woodland and scrub. Richmond produced a great year tick in the form of a Dartford Warbler, only ever seen (by me) in Spain before this.
A couple of visits to the Wildfowl/Wetland Centre at Barnes in London have previously produced Siskin, Pintail, Greylag and Snipe but a trip during the recent frosty weather turned out to be an astounding trip.
Having heard news of Bittern being seen there myself and Rachelle headed out in earnest early one morning. No sooner had we arrived (at the Wildside Hide) than we picked out a Bittern, distant, sunning itself at the edge of the reeds. I was very excited, Bittern has long been a bird that has escaped my eye and I was delighted to see one. Waiting in this hide, in the hope of getting a slightly better look and hopefully a picture of the Bittern, we were treated to stunning views of a Cetti's warbler out in the open as well as a Water Rail making it's way around on the frozen lake edge. As happens on lucky occasions the Bittern obliged us with fly-bys as it briefly relocated in an attempt to find food around the thawing reeds.
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