Saturday 6th: Went down to London to the Astrofest convention in Kennsington. Met up with Neil from Dawlish, Eddie, Dave and Brian. After looking around the stalls and spending a little money, I ventured that we go and to Hyde Park as it was a 5 minute walk up the road. This was my first visit for....about 30 years! In all that time, it's not really changed at all. As you can see from the image of the BT Tower, which looks closer than it really is, Euston is not that far away, 3 miles I think.
Anyway, I wanted to sample the bird life here and see what was about, unfortunately I had not fetched my binoculars, only the camera. There were plenty of Gulls, most Black-headed, though I did count 6 Common Gulls and I suspect that there were plenty more around the lake. It was perishingly cold and the breeze coming off the water didn't help!
What intrigued me was that while people were feeding the waterfowl, they were being surrounded not just by lots of Gulls and Mallards but Starlings and Feral Pigeons! Didn't see any House Sparrows though. The Starlings for instance, and there were very many of them and Pigeons were right at the waters' edge in an effort to get to the food before the Mallards etc! Walking back to the tube, I did catch a glimpse of what I was certain was a Peregrine, that familiar call and sleek flight are a give-a-way! A good day out combining Birding with Astronomy.
No comments:
Post a Comment