Thursday 14 February 2019

14/02/2019 London WWT for Bitterns and Jack Snipe

Thursday 14 February 2019
London WWT Centre

My second outing with Sara this year - this time we spent a few hours at the London WWT Centre, expecting to see Ring-necked Parakeets and hoping to see Bitterns and/or a Jack Snipe.  The weather was absolutely fabulous with bright sunshine, clear skies and no wind.

  • We didn't even get out of the car park before seeing the Ring-necked Parakeets.  Sara took a lovely picture (using her phone) of a pair enjoying Valentines Day high in the trees above us just inside the entrance.

Valentines Day
courtesy of Sara Harris
 Within 5 minutes of arriving at the Peacock tower hide we saw a Jack Snipe and our first Bittern! 
  • The Jack Snipe was showing really well on one of the islands ahead of us.  Thankfully it was bobbing up and down - just what we were hoping for.
  • The Bittern was showing well in the distant reeds just east of the Wildside hide.
  • By way of a bonus, there was also a Water Pipit on the same island as the Jack Snipe.

Although we were on a pretty tight schedule, things had gone so well that we had time to head round to the Wildside hide, hoping to get a photograph of the Bittern.
  • By the time we got there, the Bittern had disappeared, a fellow birder had seen it fly to the opposite side of the water and out of our sight.
  • There was a second Bittern around however but it was not showing when we arrived.  A short time later it re-appeared - still too far away to get a good picture.

courtesy of Sara Harris

While we were waiting for the Bittern to re-appear Sara took the opportunity to try my digiscoping attachment and came up with these pictures.

Black-headed Gulls
courtesy of Sara Harris





Grey Heron
courtesy of Sara Harris
 
 
 
A smashing day out, birding with my daughter!

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