Has spring finally come at The Scrubs?

Some of the activity over and on Wormwood Scrubs today.

 Some of the 800+ Black-headed Gulls (and Lesser Black-back) that flew over 

 Black-headed Gulls

 Starling

 Sparrowhawk being chased by Carrion Crow

 Cormorants

 Female Greenfinch

 Long-tailed Tit

Goldfinches

First day of summer - freezing at The Scrubs!

 Male Chaffinch

 Male Blackbird

 Female Blackbird

Canada Geese

Another cold spring day on the patch

It's so flaming cold! What gives?!?

Strolled around the patch today and despite the chilling northeasterly wind there were some signs of spring. Quite a few birds were in song although none of the expected Chiffchaffs or Blackcaps were either discovered or heard. They are decidedly late.

The surprise of the morning was an adult winter Kittiwake that swept low eastwards. I was too slow with the camera to snap it but it was our 4th record ever. Good bird.

 Meadow Pipit

 Northern Wheatear

 Grey Squirrel - with reddish bits

 Kestrel

 Fieldfare

Male Bullfinch

The other day at The Lodge - The RSPB's HQ

 Male Siskin

 Female Siskin

 Siskins and a female Brambling

Another female Siskin

Streatham Common Nature Trail opening

 TUB being introduced by 'trail blazer' Peter Newmark from The Friends of Streatham Common

 TUB taking the stage

 .......and cutting the ribbon

Looking up ....... even in the snow!

Bullying at The Scrubs - a moment in the life of a Kestrel in Wormwood Scrubs

White-winged Crow - new to science?

 A Carrion Crow - so it seemed....

But then it flew... 

 Exposing nice white wingbars

Birding this morning at The Scrubs produced the interesting sight of a Carrion Crow with white wingbars. When I first saw the bird it was heading low towards me above the grassland. The white on the wing initially startled me. It was only as it flew past me that I suddenly realised that I had a camera - so I started snapping.

In truth, over the years there have been a fair proportion of the crows at The Scrubs that displayed varying degrees of white in their plumage. There was even a ginger individual that frequented the area around the prison for a couple of years.

This was the first bird I had seen with a complete white wingbar and of course, this is no new species but a Carrion Crow with a plumage mutation. But why do crows develop this? And why do I only see these birds in dense urban populations and not in rural districts?