UKC

I was in That London for 24 hours, so took a camera. 

Very recently hatched tufteds on a canal, with a preening moulting adult. 

Pair Egyptian geese, greylag and a bunch of up ended young mallard. 

And a fine perched adult grey heron. 

Near the heron, a preening cormorant

Moorhen

Coots. When they adult went to feed its mate, it stood up revealing some recently hatched chicks. 

This young heron was perched high up, and silhouetted, and it’s was gloomy, so went black and white. A right pre historic looker. 

Great crested grebe busy feeding its chick. There were two a good bit bigger, but they were not getting a look in any any food brought back. 

Wild flower meadow. 

Insects and flowers 

Little grebe and greylag. 

Interesting the range of wildlife that are in the likes of London.

I saw a Tufted female with eight ducklings to look after recently. Thought that as a lot but a google suggests 8 - 11 eggs is the norm.

Only seen one Red Admiral this year so far!  Saw my first of the year Dark Green Fritillary just last week. Definitely a poor year for butterflies.

Black tailed Godwits seem to have returned in reasonable numbers to the Forth I assume on the migratory return south.

Nice photos!

There’s a lot to be seen in the cities if you’re lucky - I rescued this Musk Beetle from a fairly crowded railway platform in the centre of Berlin yesterday:

Nice beetle. And an ID challenge for folks. 

Juvenile Spotted Flycatcher?

Nope, but I can see why you thought that. 

Juvenile Reed Warbler?

Was going to go with Sedge, then decided not enough eye stripe - definitely looks juvenile though

Nope, and an adult. 

Am I overthinking this? In which case fluffed up Meadow Pipit

It’s a Cockney Sparra 😀

Nope. Its plumage on the back is the give away. It’s a warbler. 

Ok, got that now, but aren't they meant to be heard for ages, then if lucky found on some distant bush that it then hops inside as soon as you start to approach.

What did you do, spring up to it or just got lucky because that's a really good close shot of one.

Heard it reeling but couldn’t locate it and walked right past it. Turned round and there it was. Think two pairs have bred near me, given I’ve heard birds reeling at least 500 metres away from each other so probs separate birds. 

One weekend morning we went searching London's Hyde Park for a tree with a Little Owl in it.

There are several pairs of Little Owls with established territories in Hyde Park. We were looking for a pair with a territory "in an oak tree just north of the Albert Memorial".

We watched one Little Owl for an hour. It was perched thirty foot up, as described, in a tennis court sized triangle of grassland between the tarmac paths where hundreds of people were walking, running and cycling.

Ralph Hancock has an birding blog for Hyde Park with Little Owl sightings:

https://kensingtongardensandhydeparkbirds.blogspot.com

Nice. Didn’t know about the little owl, but I’m off to The Proms next month, so will pack a camera and report back. 

Keep them coming, I enjoy your wildlife pics. Here's a shy little chap I met in the Queyras a few years back.

What a great blog - with some great back-stories...

• killer swans
• pigeon catching/eating gulls
• little owls popping up all over the place

All in the centre of London, and their total species list (even though it's for more than 100 years) is pretty impressive