Trip reports
Mid-week Walk WWT Barnes - by Peter Hambrook
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
It took some effort to persuade the eight hardy members, who had braved the London traffic to get to Barnes, that they couldn't spend all day in the warm observatory, but eventually they were prised away from the radiators and led out into the wintry wonderland.
Even before leaving the car park two Egyptian geese and a common snipe had been noted flying into the reserve and a large flock of Canada geese were devouring the nearby football pitches. Most of the lakes were still well frozen but an area in front of Dulverton hide had open water as well as the eastern end of Reservoir Lake which runs nearly the full width of the reserve's northern boundary. These areas were packed with the common ducks, with a large number of teal being of particular note. The central area of marsh hosted numerous common snipe but a thorough search failed to reveal any jack snipe. The reserve in general was overrun with moorhens which appeared to be having some sort of convention, such were the numbers. A small bird way out in the middle of the marsh was possibly a rock pipit but another much closer to the hide was definitely a water pipit.
Reaching the viewpoint provided by the Peacock Tower, we were able to get a good view of most of the reserve and soon picked out common gulls, a lesser black-backed gull and two greater black-backed gulls along with the numerous black-headed gulls. A scan of the reeds in the distance by the Wildside hide produced a brief glimpse of a bittern which promptly disappeared back into the reeds before most could get onto it. Luckily however, a second bittern was noted a few hundred yards further on in the same area and this was much more obliging. Our attention was then diverted by the impressive sight of a pair of peregrines which appeared to be having great fun scaring the wits out of the numerous carrion crows, as well as putting up just about everything else. They eventually got bored, or had warmed up enough, and landed on one of the grassy islands in the marsh where the difference in size between the male and female was very apparent.
Other birds noted from this hide were good numbers of lapwing and fieldfare, the latter feeding on the grassy banks at the edge of the reserve. It was also interesting to see a couple of foxes rushing around on the ice, albeit without catching anything. After and hour or so we were starting to feel the cold so headed back to the centre for a warm up and lunch in the café. Suitably refreshed, we then headed for the Wildside hide hoping for better views of the two bitterns but by the time we got there they had vanished back into the reeds. However, after ten minutes or so one emerged to give fairly distant and brief views before walking out of sight behind bushes and was not seen again. The only other new birds seen on this side of the reserve were a single redwing and a couple of stock doves.
Although it was only just after 14:30, the light was fading fast and we made our way back to the cars to head home before the rush hour got under way. All in all an excellent day, despite the iced up lakes and dreary weather.
Peter Hambrook