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?

Londinium

Female Brewer's Blackbird

Alas my American adventure is over and I am now sitting here in west London jetlagged and freezing cold filled with memories of a very eventful past few weeks.

For those of you who are interested I have compiled the list of species that I saw in the US. Watch out for the stories that came from my trip within some of my future articles.

Great Northern Diver

Red-throated Diver

Pied-billed Grebe

Western Grebe

Black-necked Grebe

Slavonian Grebe

Northern Gannet

Double-crested Cormorant

Brandt’s Cormorant

Pelagic Cormorant

Brown Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Black-crowned Night Heron

Tundra Swan

Mute Swan

Greater White-fronted Goose

Pale-bellied Brent Goose

Canada Goose

Cackling Goose

Wood Duck

Mallard

American Black Duck

Gadwall

Green-winged Teal

American Wigeon

Northern Pintail

Northern Shoveler

Blue-winged Teal

Cinnamon Teal

Redhead

Canvasback

Ring-necked Duck

Lesser Scaup

Long-tailed Duck

Surf Scoter

Black Scoter

Goldeneye

Bufflehead

Hooded Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Goosander

Ruddy Duck

Turkey Vulture

Black Vulture

Osprey

White-tailed Kite

Bald Eagle

Northern Harrier

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Cooper’s Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel

Peregrine

Merlin

Prairie Falcon

Gambel’s Quail

Wild Turkey

Sora

Clapper Rail

Common Gallinule

American Coot

Grey Plover

American Golden Plover

Killdeer

Semipalmated Plover

American Oystercatcher

Black Oystercatcher

Black-necked Stilt

American Avocet

Willet

Greater Yellowlegs

Solitary Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

Ruddy Turnstone

Black Turnstone

Sanderling

Western Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Dunlin

Surfbird

Hudsonian Whimbrel

Long-billed Curlew

Marbled Godwit

Short-billed Dowitcher

Long-billed Dowitcher

Bonaparte’s Gull

Mew Gull

Heermann’s Gull

Ring-billed Gull

California Gull

American Herring Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Lesser Black-back

Western Gull

Great Black-back

Forster’s Tern

Caspian Tern

Royal Tern

Razorbill

Band-tailed Pigeon

Feral Pigeon

Eurasian Collared Dove

Mourning Dove

Greater Roadrunner

Northern Saw-whet Owl

Eastern Screech Owl

Long-eared Owl

White-throated Swift

Broad-billed Hummingbird

Costa’s Hummingbird

Anna’s Hummingbird

Allen’s Hummingbird

Belted Kingfisher

Acorn Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Gila Woodpecker

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Gilded Flicker

Horned Lark

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Tree Swallow

American Pipit

Rock Wren

Cactus Wren

Bewick’s Wren

Carolina Wren

Marsh Wren

Pacific Wren

Cedar Waxwing

Phainopepla

Northern Beardless Tyrannulet

Say’s Phoebe

Black Phoebe

Vermilion Flycatcher

Tropical Kingbird

Eastern Bluebird

Hermit Thrush

American Robin

Varied Thrush

Northern Mockingbird

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Curve-billed Thrasher

Bridled Tit

Tufted Tit

Oak Tit

Carolina Chickadee

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Black-capped Chickadee

Verdin

Bush Tit

White-breasted Nuthatch

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Pygmy Nuthatch

Brown Creeper

Blue Jay

Steller’s Jay

Western Scrub Jay

Mexican Jay

American Crow

Common Raven

Common Starling

House Sparrow

Spotted Towhee

California Towhee

Abert’s Towhee

Rufous-winged Sparrow

Black-throated Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Lincoln’s Sparrow

American Tree Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Fox Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Yellow-eyed Junco

Northern Cardinal

Pyrrhuloxia

Red-winged Blackbird

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Brewer’s Blackbird

Common Grackle

Boat-tailed Grackle

Great-tailed Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

House Finch

Red Crossbill (type 3)

American Goldfinch

Lesser Goldfinch

Mealy Redpoll

Hoary (Arctic) Redpoll

Pine Siskin

Evening Grosbeak

Snow Bunting

Orange-crowned Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Townsend’s Warbler

Palm Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

209 species

29 lifers

Golden Gate Birding

 Black-necked Stilt

 California Ground Squirrel

 American Avocet

 Grey Plover

 Yellow-rumped Warbler

 Male Varied Thrush

 Another male Varied Thrush 

 Mew Gull

 Great Horned Owl - adult with owlet

TUB with Golden Gate Audubon's Eddie Bartly & Noreen Weeden 

White-crowned Sparrow

Catching the Clap(pers) in the Bay Area, California

 Clapper Rail - obsoletus race from the San Francisco Bay Area

 Long-billed Curlew

 Clapper Rail - obsoletus race

 Turkey Vulture

 California Towhee

 Goldeneye

 Horned (Slavonian) Grebe

 Lesser Scaup

White-crowned Sparrow 

 Forster's Tern

 Least Sandpiper

Sleeping drake Northern Pintail with a pair of dozing Green-winged Teal