4th February 2012 - London Wetland Centre

After not having been to the Wetland Centre in a month, we were there two weeks in a row!  It was World Wetlands Day on the 2nd of February so the Wetland Centre had a weekend of events to celebrate.  We got there for our customary fry up in the morning and took so long eating it we only had 45 mins before the first talk.  Excellent 45 minutes though - on the way back to the theatre for the talk we had a lifer.  A Lesser Redpoll was perching on the top of a tree and made us late for the talk, but definitely worth it, it was adorable!  The talk was given by Rebecca Lee of Slimbridge WWT on saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper and was brilliant.  I do have to admit that it had me in tears throughout though, I am a bit of a wuss.  Did you know that the Spoon-billed Sandpiper is actually born with the distinctive bill?  Amazing!  We had an interlude to buy some binoculars, then popped back to the theatre for the next talk, by Dominic Couzens, about the top ten European places for birding.  These were all extremely interested and have gone down in our ever extending list of places to visit.  Then it was back out into the cold for a few more hours of bird watching - highlights included a scampering Water Rail and 5 Snipe coming for a wander right up to the hide.  A slightly more unusual sight was a Grey Heron devouring what we think was an adult Teal - it was having some difficulty swallowing it can be imagined and was being rather hilariously stalked by two other Grey Herons. 

If you squint, you can see the Teal in the mouth of the right hand bird...


1) Starling
2) Coot
3) Mute Swan
4) Robin
5) Parakeet
6) Magpie
7) Black-headed Gull
8) Blue Tit
9) Goldfinch
10) Chaffinch
11) Mallard
12) Teal
13) Great Tit
14) Crow
15) Redwing
16) Cormorant
17) Blackbird
18) Canada Goose
19) Green Woodpecker
20) Moorhen
21) Pintail
22) Shoveler
23) Lesser Redpoll - NEW FOR LIFE LIST!
24) Water Rail
25) Wigeon
26) Snipe
27) Egyptian Goose
28) Grey Heron

My year list for 2012 comes to 88.

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