Walthamstow Wetlands

A nice local trip down to Walthamstow Wetlands this morning delivered a couple of early ticks. First we had to sort out the early permit entry (8am with permit 9.30am without) with the Thames Water guys and then we had an hour or so searching for Firecrest around the car park and Engine house without joy. We decided to move on and walked down to Lockwood were we quickly found the Black Redstart feeding around the towers at the south end.

Black Redstart at Lockwood Reservoir

Lockwood Reservoir

The favoured Feeding location

Whilst here we bumped into a few locals Dave B, Lol B and Dominic M and had a good chat as we watched a Peregrine playing with the local crows.

What a beast and with a full crop too

Lockwood Peregrine

Playing with the Crows

Following this we marched back around to the Engine house where a couple of Bearded Tits were showing in the reed bed just across the bridge on reservoir three. Before we left we had one final search for the Firecrest and found it flitting about high up in the trees along the river from the car park boardwalk.

Distant shot of the pair of Bearded Tits

Grey Heron

A very pleasant mornings birding in beautiful weather at what is becoming a very smart venue.
Year list now 157