London Wetland Centre (19 December 2022)

Back in the mists of time before Christmas we paid a visit to Barnes. It was a grey, damp day but 20 people were still happy to put their festive preparations on hold and spend a happy morning at the LWC. Personally, I was glad of the excuse!

The highlight had to be the Bittern seen in the reedbed right outside the window of the Observatory. It felt as if you could stretch out and touch it but you could certainly take a decent photo on a mobile phone and see its tongue! Those of us who had a walk around the South Route after lunch even saw it doing the equivalent of licking its lips. Its tongue was long, very thin, orange and pointed! Later it flew to the adjacent island, giving further fantastic views, before flying out of sight into the left hand reedbed.

I’d struggle to remember much else from the trip without consulting my Bird Track records and the excellent Facebook posts but see that we had 45 species. These included the returning, winter, female Goldeneye which was constantly diving, as Goldeneye do, and a lone Golden Plover which was only around on that day and the previous day. Brenda’s sharp eyes spotted it on the bund next to the Wader Scrape. Other interesting birds included a pair of Stonechat, Snipe, 2 Shelduck, Redwing, Greenfinches on the feeders, Meadow Pipits, a pair of Pintail and a good variety of other ducks including Gadwall, Wigeon, Pochard, Teal, Tufted and Mallard. One lucky person reported a Water Pipit on the Grazing Marsh and Debbie saw Fieldfare by the sheep on the way in, Reed Bunting from the Observatory and a fleeting Water Rail with the Bittern. Some of us also spent a while on our Gull ID picking out Common Gulls from Black- headed Gulls and looking carefully at Lesser Black-backed Gulls. I know Gull watching is a bit like Marmite but if you want to brush up on your skills then the WWF hide when it’s high tide on the Thames is a good place to do it!

by Rebecca Dunne