June 29, 1996
On our first day in the British Isles, we took a bus tour through London, to orient ourselves to the sights. After finishing the tour near Buckingham Palace, we walked back to our hotel via St. James and Green parks, to look for birds along the way. Some of the first birds we encountered were familiar from back home: Mute Swans with cygnets, and Mallards, but of course, many others were new to me.
In St. James Park, I had several first sightings of British birds, including pretty Common Wood-pigeon, which are quite large, compared to the pigeons with which I’m familiar, and the first of many, many Eurasian Blackbirds I would see on this trip. I was interested to discover that these adorable little birds are not Icterids (as are all the birds we call “blackbirds” back home), but are thrushes! They are similar in shape to our American Robin, and presumably fill a similar niche as our robins. I was pleased to see Moorhens – a welcome sight after having seeing so many in Florida*, and then none since. I didn’t realize that the European Coots we saw here are different from our North American species until after I’d returned home and scoured both field guides. This is the also first place we saw Tufted Ducks, very pretty little ducks very similar to our Ring-necked Duck. We would subsequently see them just about everywhere we went in Britain.
The tricky thing about St. James Park is that in addition to the wild birds, there are a lot of exotic collection birds, and in some case it was a bit difficult to figure out whether or not a particular bird was countable. Here, I saw both eastern and western forms of Greylag Goose (with the eastern subspecies being certain collection birds). Due to the distribution of reintroduced populations of Greylags throughout Britain, I am going to consider the western birds countable. Introduced Canada Geese are found here, but are considered invasive pests here (much like starlings and House Sparrows are established pest species in North America). I saw Red-crested Pochard and Barnacle Goose today, although I don’t think either species is countable in this park (although they may have established breeding pairs).
Speaking of European Starling and House Sparrow, I saw both of these species in their native range for the first time.
*Since this time, the Florida birds have been split into a separate species: Gallinula galeata.
June 30, 1996
We spent most of the morning strolling through Hyde Park and the adjacent Kensington Park. The weather was beautiful for walking, and the parks were lovely and peaceful. We stopped at a Kiosk along the Serpentine and had breakfast, where we saw even more wonderful birds. While we ate, I had the opportunity to view a wonderful little Black-headed Gull at close range. The bird sat on a piling close by, and then flew a bit, so I was able to see it from all angles. A lovely gull, one with which we were to become very familiar with before the end of this trip. A family of Mute Swans swam near where we sat, and
Another highlight of the morning was a family of Great-crested Grebes – adults and juveniles – swimming out in the Serpentine. Grebes are such an attractive group of birds anyway, but these are particularly striking! Grey Herons are the equivalent to our Great Blue Herons, and we saw our first of these lovely birds sitting on some pilings near an island in the Serpentine. Good spotting on Kevin’s part – when these birds are sitting still, often they just blend into their surroundings! Another bird with similarity to a familiar North American bird is the Carrion Crow, which I enjoyed seeing throughout Britain, in some cases in large numbers.
After breakfast, we continued through Hyde Park, planning on finding the Peter Pan memorial statue, which I wanted to see. However, this plan was derailed in a rather delightful way. Our first obstacle was a Eurasian Magpie, a huge and absolutely gorgeous bird that I saw from about 15 feet away, in some bushes off the trail. Beautiful! Great Tit were the first new species of tit seen on this trip, along with Blue Tits. They’re all such gorgeous, adorable little birds – so tiny! – and I simply love them! The magpie, and the tits (who were simply too cute to be ignored), caused us to go down a different path so we could follow the birds, and we never made it back to see the statue! (It was a good trade-off). Other Hyde Park birds included Canada Goose, Eurasian Coot and Moorhen, House Sparrow, European Starling, and Eurasian Blackbird.
In addition to Common Wood-pigeon and Rock Dove, after studying LOTS of pigeons, I felt confident that I was able to identify at least a few native Stock Dove. And of course, even outside of the parks, Rock Dove were abundant.
We returned to the hotel through St. James and Green parks once again. St. James was rapidly becoming my favorite of the London parks. While not as big or famous as Hyde Park or Kew Gardens, St. James is lovely, with a lake surrounded small islands, and wonderful, wonderful birds. Although some of the waterfowl we saw were collection birds, there were many wild birds as well. Who would have guessed that some of the best birding on our trip would happen in the middle of London?
Though not as picturesque, Green Park is also interesting. Kevin and I made an interesting discovery: a large circle of 13 huge trees. They were planted in a way that was surely it was deliberate, but for what purpose? Of course my mind goes to pagan rituals, but an Internet search didn’t provide any certain answers . . . apparently, they are among the famous London Plane Trees planted decades ago, usually thought to be hybrids of the Oriental Plane (Platanus orientalis) and the American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis). The Green Park trees date to 1913 (which makes me wonder if that’s why there are 13), but there doesn’t seem to be a consensus about the reason these were planted here, in this particular configuration. It’s all right – I like a good mystery.
In St. James Park, native birds included several attractive Common Pochard, Tufted Duck, and a family of Mute Swan – possibly the same birds seen the previous day. Egyptian Goose are not native, but are considered naturalized, as are Red-breasted Goose who breed in the parks. I snapped a very poor photo of a bird I’m pretty sure is a female Bullfinch. I also saw most of the birds seen in Hyde Park, including Stock Dove, Common Wood-pigeon, Eurasian Blue Tit, Eurasian Coot, Eurasian Moorhen, House Sparrow, European Starling, and Eurasian Blackbird. Rock Dove and Mallard were also found in the park. I also have a notation of a Ruddy Shelduck, but I don’t remember this bird.
Birds that were almost certainly part of the collection included Barnacle Goose and a Snow Goose. Smew – tiny, beautiful mergansers well out of their breeding range – are probably my favorite waterfowl of the trip. Red-crested Pochard, originally collection birds, seem to be breeding in the park. The Chiloe Wigeon I spotted while it was swimming in the pond is a beautiful bird, and White-headed Duck, very similar to North American Ruddy Duck, were well away from their normal range. White Pelican were also part of the collection, but I’m not sure which species they area.
After we left the park, we did make one more crucial stop: a beautiful bookstore called Hatchards, where I purchased a copy of the Hamlyn Guide to “Birds of Britain and Europe.” This book would get a lot of use over the next couple of weeks.
Species List
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos platyrhynchos), Mute Swan (Cygnus olor), Greylag Goose (Anser anser anser), Eurasian Blackbird (Turdus merula), Common Wood-Pigeon (Columba palumbus), European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula), European Coot (Fulica atra), Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), Gray Heron (Ardea cinerea), Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica), Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus), Rock Dove (Columba livia f. domestica), Stock Dove (Columba oenas), Great Tit (Parus major), Eurasian Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), Carrion Crow (Corvus corone), Common Pochard (Aythya ferina), Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca), Red-breasted Goose (Branta ruficollis), London Plane (Platanus orientalis x occidentalis)
Let me know what you think!