Good Birding Weekend

Lindsey is in New York this weekend (and if the volcano in Iceland doesn't stop, she may never get back) which means I can go birding at leisure. On Saturday morning I went to the Barnes Wetland Centre and was treated to a good sighting of a sparrow hawk, my first green sandpiper and my first sand martins which were flying in and out of a bank that the wetlands centre have set up for sand martins. There were also a number of redshanks there which were great to see.

In the evening I went to my parents and witnessed their largest haul of mandarins so far this year at 12. There were 3 pairs and the rest males with one of them ringed. Having spoken to a local ringer during the week, Phil Belman, I was pleased to notice the ring and have also photographed a robin in my garden with a sky blue and probably illegal ring.

On Sunday morning, I went on a planned bird walk with Tony Duckett, the wildlife warden of Regent's Park and a group of other birders. With Tony knowing the bird song he was easily able to pick out a blackcap which we then saw and also a brief glimpse of a sedge warbler. On the walk we also saw a goldcrest, 2 sparrow hawks flying quite high and a chiffchaff.

This takes me to 85 UK birds for the year and 91 for the all time list.