England – miscellaneous, June 2009

Sutton, 28 Jun 2009

The remainder of my birding this trip was undertaken during family days out – the family have got used to me suddenly stopping to take bird photos. Three areas accounted for most of these sightings, Weardale in County Durham around Stanhope, Rookhope, Westgate and South Hanging Wells, Leeds Castle near Maidstone in Kent, and Richmond Park, largest of London’s royal parks.

First of these was Richmond Park where the lake at the Isabella Plantation hosts the introduced Mandarin Duck and a surprise in Common Shelduck as I had thought this to be more of a coastal lagoon and wetland bird. One tends to dismiss the common species as not being worthy of a photo, so I added Western Jackdaw and Common Wood Pigeon just to make sure that I do have some photos of them.

The following day we headed to Leeds Castle, which boasts many exotic waterbirds on the ponds and dams in the grounds, including Black Swan, Whooper Swan and Emperor Goose as well as the native Tufted Duck. Indian Peafowl roam the grounds, including one spectacular albinistic male. There is even a small aviary where we saw Bearded Barbet and Crested Pigeon, but the highlight, and the main reason for choosing this particular day for our visit was a raptor flying display. Stars of the show were a Eurasian Eagle-Owl and an Augur Buzzard.

Weardale the following week provided a very different environment and all the birds were native species including the three gamebirds of the area, Common Pheasant, Grey Partridge and Red Grouse. Also seen were Northern Lapwing, Eurasian Curlew, European Golden Plover, Common Snipe, White Wagtail and Common Starling, as well as one of the non-avian residents, a cute little European Rabbit.