Hampstead Heath regulars?

[rubatroid]

Hello London birders!

How many of you out there have hampstead Heath as your local patch? It is my local patch although I don't go there nearly as often as I should, but I'm going to try and do it more regularly. If I can get into a good habit, I'd like to do a blog like the one Tony Duckett has for Regents Park - excellent blog, if you happen to read this, Tony. Only mine would be nowhere as near as good because I am not a wildlife officer for the heath and wouldn't have nearly as much time to see good birds.

I can't find any blogs out there for Hamsptead Heath, can anybody correct me? Any tips on good areas of the heath for birds?

Reuben

[delia todd]

Hi Reuben and welcome to Bird Forum from all the Staff and Moderators

Ooh that's taken me back to my London days but I wasn't a birdwatcher then, unfortunately.

There are a number of members here from the London area, but I don't think any of them 'do' Hampstead Heath. I'll look forward to reading your reports here.

Isn't that B.O's local patch though LOL

D

[rubatroid]

Yeah, I did hear that, never seen his springwatch programme though. I did have a search on google on the off chance that he did a blog but apart from one faker on MySpace pretending to be B.O., I couldn't find anything. He's probably far too busy to blog!

[robinm]

Hi Reuben, welcome to BirdForum :t:

[KayD]

Hi Reuben,

I'm not Bill's biggest fan but I really enjoyed reading his account of his adventures on the heath in a book called 'Birding with Bill Oddie". Might be some good pointers for you in there about the patch. I don't know if he still birds that area, I think he said there were about 3 other birders regularly working the patch. He saw a surprising amount of species there including a little bittern and a montagu's harrier.

Good luck :)

Kstar

[Ken Hall]

Hi Reuben
I've been to the Heath 3 times now, and enjoyed my visits there. You can read a few words about my latest visit in my blog, in the archive section, March 2006 (Southern Exposure). I hope to be back again this year.
Ken

[Chris Monk]

Yeah, I did hear that, never seen his springwatch programme though. I did have a search on google on the off chance that he did a blog but apart from one faker on MySpace pretending to be B.O., I couldn't find anything. He's probably far too busy to blog!

I recall hearing him say he doesn't have a computer so a BO blog is not possible.

[Joe Ray]

...including a little bittern...
I thought he said he dipped that?? Amazing what can turn up in a North London park!!

[rubatroid]

Hi Reuben
I've been to the Heath 3 times now, and enjoyed my visits there. You can read a few words about my latest visit in my blog, in the archive section, March 2006 (Southern Exposure). I hope to be back again this year.
Ken

Ken, well done, interesting to read your blog. You are obviously very dedicated, coming down from Aberdeen to London for a day trip!
The Heath is absolutely massive so its going to take me some time to cover it all. I have only started relatively recently and have been about 5 times in all, mainly with wife and baby so birdwatching time is restricted. The best birds I have seen so far are:

Alpine Swift (my first visit last year, which many people saw)
Peregrine (couple of times flying overhead)
Shoveler (6 of them on one of the Highgate Ponds last month)
Green and Greater Spotted Woodpeckers (almost every time I go, I love these birds)
Sparrowhawk (once, flying overhead)
Kestrel (the second time I went, a pair of kestrels near the Highgate ponds - this was special because the female flew down to within 3 metres of me to get an earthworm, not shy at all. I enjoyed this for about ten seconds until some ignorant passerby walked straight past me and up to the kestrel, causing her to fly off. He was just walking along the path; to him, the bird may as well have been a pebble, it was that irrelevant to his life!)

My full list so far is:

1. Mute Swan
2. Canada Goose
3. Mallard
4. Tufted Duck
5. Shoveler
6. Great Crested Grebe
7. Cormorant
8. Grey Heron
9. Sparrowhawk
10. Kestrel
11. Peregrine
12. Coot
13. Moorhen
14. Black-headed Gull
15. Common Gull
16. Herring Gull
17. Wood Pigeon
18. Collared Dove
19. Rose-ringed Parakeet
20. Swift
21. Alpine Swift
22. Green Woodpecker
23. Great Spotted Woodpecker
24. House Martin
25. Pied Wagtail
26. Wren
27. Dunnock
28. Robin
29. Blackbird
30. Song Thrush
31. Mistle Thrush
32. Great tit
33. Coal tit
34. Blue tit
35. Long-tailed tit
36. Jay
37. Magpie
38. Carrion Crow
39. Starling
40. House Sparrow
41. Goldfinch
42. Chaffinch
43. Greenfinch

As you can see, there is a lot of room for improvement, still quite a lot of common species that I haven't seen yet. And a lot of the park that I need to explore, I have only really been around the Highgate Ponds area which is closest to my house.

Cheers

Reuben

[KayD]

I thought he said he dipped that?? Amazing what can turn up in a North London park!!

Yes Firecrest you're right - checked the book and he was out with his family for fathers day when the Little Bittern turned up....heard the anwerphone messages when he got home and was gutted :C

[rubatroid]

Went for a little walk on the Heath this morning, got there at sunrise (8:02am), let's see whether I can keep this up as the sunrise gets earlier!
Anyway, fantastically windy this morning, but still lots of people about, walking dogs, doing tai qi, talking on their mobile phone or just walking through. I started off at the Highgate ponds. Pretty quiet, all of the ring-necked parakeets must have been hiding in their holes away from the wind. Don't blame them.
There were a good number of shovelers on two of the ponds, maybe six to eight pairs. One pair of mandarins too, a first for me on the Heath, although I guess they are often there, just missed them up till now.
Following the ponds, I walked round towards the playing fields near Parliament Hill and examined the gulls, although I could barely hold my bins steady, the wind was so strong. Just hundreds of black-headed, plus one each of common, herring and lesser black-backed - weird. One of the heath officers, a Dubliner, asked what I was up to. I guess we birders do generally look rather suspicious, but he was reassured by my 'birdwatching' answer, and helpfully told me where I could see a sparrowhawk (too far away for me to walk today though).
Wandered up to the top of Parliament Hill to enjoy the view over London - the wind was even stronger up there, almost got blown off! Saw one of my kestrels again though, a male, came down to the path again to sit down for a while, strange habit really. Less windy down there I suppose.
Wandered down the hill again through a section I hadn't been through before and came across a flock of goldfinches and siskins feeding on beech mast - siskins another Heath first for me.
On the way out of the Heath, eventually discovered all of the parakeets, about thirty of them all sitting in two small trees looking pretty wet but still darn noisy.
Jumped back into my car to drive the 5 mins home before rushing off to work on my bicycle, but traffic made it 15mins - I'll cycle next time, just feeling lazy this morning!

So altogether, three new birds for my Heath list today -
Lesser black-backed gull
Siskin
Mandarin

That brings me up to 46.

Not bad, but looking forward to something more exciting soon - another in the alpine swift category of rarities would go down nicely!

Reuben

[delia todd]

Nice report Reuben, keep 'em coming

The Parakeets would be a Lifer for me - they weren't around when I lived in Hampstead.

D

[PYRTLE]

Hi Reuben,

I'm not Bill's biggest fan but I really enjoyed reading his account of his adventures on the heath in a book called 'Birding with Bill Oddie". Might be some good pointers for you in there about the patch. I don't know if he still birds that area, I think he said there were about 3 other birders regularly working the patch. He saw a surprising amount of species there including a little bittern and a montagu's harrier.

Good luck :)

Kstar
Have to confess that myself and a colleague from near Maidenhead were probably responsible for BO not seeing this bird, we managed to get to the correct Leg of Mutton pond by around 2230hrs. After avoiding a variety of greetings from "Village People" lookalikes or judges or befuddled MPs supposedly playing hide and seek amongst the mature trees, we found the small island and only just made out the silhouette of said bird... (a tick for me then). Not satisfied with the views I did something of which I'm not proud of, I lamped it with a Maglite....I know I'll be sent to the dungeons for bad behaviour. It then crept slowly up a stem of a willow or something, took flight whilst also croaking (still in the beam, fantastic!) and flew off out of sight, as far as I know, never to be seen again on HH despite the Goodie arriving predawn. We left the site (turning down various offerd of a drink by our assembled audience) at around 2320hrs satisfied.

Forgive me father, I should have known better......but.

[rubatroid]

leg of Mutton pond, eh? Interesting. Completely the other side of the heath from me. All I can say is its a good job BO hasn't got a computer and therefore will probably not find out about this, otherwise he might be chasing you with his maglite.

Thanks for your kind words, Delia. You aren't missing much with the parakeets, they are fun first time, but after that, the screeching gets on your nerves. I was just reading your local patch bit (just the first few posts)and it sounds pretty good. Brambling would be a lifer for me!!! I always miss 'em. :C

[delia todd]

leg of Mutton pond, eh? Interesting. Completely the other side of the heath from me. All I can say is its a good job BO hasn't got a computer and therefore will probably not find out about this, otherwise he might be chasing you with his maglite.

Thanks for your kind words, Delia. You aren't missing much with the parakeets, they are fun first time, but after that, the screeching gets on your nerves. I was just reading your local patch bit (just the first few posts)and it sounds pretty good. Brambling would be a lifer for me!!! I always miss 'em. :C

Thanks Reuben for your comments on my reports. Bramblings though? where are they this winter - I haven't seen one yet. :C

D

[rubatroid]

Thanks Reuben for your comments on my reports. Bramblings though? where are they this winter - I haven't seen one yet. :C

D
I'm curious - what do the numbers at the bottom of your posts mean, i.e. 2006 63, 2007 10?

[delia todd]

I'm curious - what do the numbers at the bottom of your posts mean, i.e. 2006 63, 2007 10?

LOL wondered if anyone would spot it ;)

63 was my patch list for 2006 and 10 is what I've seen so far this year. Just thought it was a handy place to keep the running totals.

D

[rubatroid]

Thats a great idea, I'm going to do the same, not for competition you understand, but just for fun.

On another subject, I've just discovered that the RSPB are running a "Aren't Birds Brilliant" event right on my local patch (the Highgate Ponds on the Heath) this Saturday and Sunday, 13th and 14th of Jan. I think I'll go along to see how they get on - maybe they can point out something that I haven't seen yet! Anybody else want to come?

[rubatroid]

OK, let's see whether this works. My life and 2007 patch list should now show up as my signature. |8)|

[Joe Ray]

Bramblings though? where are they this winter - I haven't seen one yet. :C

DGood point D. None down here that I've seen, and have been looking all winter! But now it's spring in my little corner of Devon. Snowdrops and daisies all over the place! No doubt you're snowed in! ;)

[rubatroid]

So I went down to the RSPB 'Birds are Brilliant' event at Hampstead Heath on Saturday. Can't say that it was very popular. They had managed to collar a few passers-by and were trying to convince them of the joys of birdwatching, and at the same time, the joys of being an RSPB member.
Maybe if it had been a sunny day, there would have been hordes of people to sell it to but rather unlikely in the middle of January.
Anyway, there were a couple of new birds there for my list - Pochard and Little Grebe. Not uncommon at the Heath, I'm sure, but still firsts for me there.
Just need another two for my half century! Come on England! :-O

[rubatroid]

How horrible to see my local patch thread dropping slowly down the list and finally off the first page as the time since my last visit gets longer and longer :storm:
I've been meaning to get down there for a few days now but everything is going against me.
I got a parking ticket outside my own house at half past midnight while temporarily unloading stuff. Then my clutch breaks and the car is in the garage with a large bill awaiting me. I've got toothache and a large dentist's bill awaits me. I booked a flight to Berlin yesterday only to find I'd booked the wrong date - and when I tried to cancel immediately afterwards, Easyjet make me wait on the phone for ages building up a massive phone bill and then charge me £35 for the cancellation.
I know these things don't seem to have much to do with not going to my patch but they are all using up my precious time! excuses, excuses..

Just when I thought I was going to be regular with this local patch thing, everything goes pear shaped.
Isn't that always the way!!!

Anybody out there who can give me a bit of encouragement? :-C

[Larry Wheatland]

My mate Paul used to regularly go up the Heath birding but he's slackened off lately judging by his emails. I'll give him an ass-kicking email and try and chivvy him up there !

[John o'Sullivan]

The other rarity which was seen over the heath was a lesser kestrel. I think this was seen by one of the birdwatching magazine publishing team. There is a mention of this bird on the London birders website which has a short article re hampstead heath. Also read Bill Oddies stories regarding the heath they might inspire you to visit more regularly. Good luck john O'

[larusargentatus]

Hiya Reuben,
Just like last year, I've got Hampstead Heath down as a local patch in the 2007 London Local Patch competition [as well as Walthamstow Res. and East India Dock Basin... For details go to the www.londonbirders.com wiki-type site].
Also like last year, I expect one of the Rainham dudes to win by an extensive margin.
Returning to the subject of the Heath, London Natural History Society has an ongoing study of the area and it is likely that somebody involved in this would be able to pass on more detailed info than I!!!
Personally my favourite areas are the two sets of ponds [Hampstead and Highgate], Parliament Hill [especially for viz mig.] and the hedges that run parallel to Parliament Hill down to Highgate Ponds [good for migrants]. The slopes beteen the hedges are a pretty good bet for Wheatear during passage.
If you look at a map of the Heath, you'll see that this is only a small part of it, but I've found it to be the most productive area as well as being a manageable size to cover in a relatively short space of time.
When the Alpine Swift put in an appearance last year it became apparent how much goes through unnoticed as the increased coverage produced an impressive list of other birds not normally associated with London with raptors being prominent [Red Kite, Osprey, Peregrine and Buzzard!!].
Maybe I'll bump into you one day, although I've just moved to Bow and my infrequent visits are even more infrequent than they were beforehand......
What I would suggest is an early pre-dawn start when joggers, dog-walkers and aimless wanderers are at a minimum.
I'd also suggest steering clear of East Heath towards dusk unless you are [ahem]of a certain sexual orientation ;)
I can't help you with blogs of the site, but look forward to seeing yours up and running.
Good luck!
Paul White
Hello London birders!

How many of you out there have hampstead Heath as your local patch? It is my local patch although I don't go there nearly as often as I should, but I'm going to try and do it more regularly. If I can get into a good habit, I'd like to do a blog like the one Tony Duckett has for Regents Park - excellent blog, if you happen to read this, Tony. Only mine would be nowhere as near as good because I am not a wildlife officer for the heath and wouldn't have nearly as much time to see good birds.

I can't find any blogs out there for Hamsptead Heath, can anybody correct me? Any tips on good areas of the heath for birds?

Reuben

[KayD]

Hi Reuben sorry to hear you've had such a bad week :(

I don't want to trivialise your problems but all I can say is that even a couple of hours out with the birds and fresh air can be incredibly relaxing. Whenever I've felt low or had problems and I've managed to get out birding it has always made my problems seem a long way away.

Get yourself back up the Heath when you can and don't forget to let us all know how you get on :t:

Kstar


How horrible to see my local patch thread dropping slowly down the list and finally off the first page as the time since my last visit gets longer and longer :storm:
I've been meaning to get down there for a few days now but everything is going against me.
I got a parking ticket outside my own house at half past midnight while temporarily unloading stuff. Then my clutch breaks and the car is in the garage with a large bill awaiting me. I've got toothache and a large dentist's bill awaits me. I booked a flight to Berlin yesterday only to find I'd booked the wrong date - and when I tried to cancel immediately afterwards, Easyjet make me wait on the phone for ages building up a massive phone bill and then charge me £35 for the cancellation.
I know these things don't seem to have much to do with not going to my patch but they are all using up my precious time! excuses, excuses..

Just when I thought I was going to be regular with this local patch thing, everything goes pear shaped.
Isn't that always the way!!!

Anybody out there who can give me a bit of encouragement? :-C

[hughredcanary]

I must admit Iv neglected Hampstead Heath as a local patch being only 30min by car in good traffic it must be at lest 10 years since Iv been to the Heath, instead spending much of the time at Regents, and Hyde Park when not at the Ills of sheppey, must pay the heath another visit, ha reuben let me know if you visit the heath on a week day maybe met up, anybody, it needs to be a weekday for me
Hugh

[rubatroid]

wow, thanks everybody for all the replies! Especially kstar, thanks for the encouragement, much appreciated. My bad week is over, I've paid my bills and just have to be a bit careful with my dosh for the rest of the month!

Thanks Larry for kicking Paul's ass and thanks Paul for responding. Why herring gull, by the way? Interesting to note the areas which you think are most productive - these are the main areas that I frequent. I live in Tufnell Park so I come up to the Heath from the East side and park on Millfield Lane above the model boating pond. Its a good place to start from. I will pay special attention to the hedges too though, thanks for the wheatear tip.

Hugh, yeah, sounds good, I am trying to be there regularly on a tuesday from 7am although I am still not very reliable. If you tell me you'll be there, though, I'd make a special effort, especially for a fellow irishman. OK, well I'm not really Irish, but I was born there and love the place.

I went down to the heath yesterday (8am, couldn't get out of bed - pre-dawn is not my favourite time, I'm not a morning person, maybe I should have picked a different hobby!) and it was packed with joggers and dog walkers as usual. I took my scope down there, it sometimes comes in useful even though it's a pain to have to carry it everywhere. Quite a few of the dogwalkers asked me what I was looking at, they all seem fascinated by the parakeets.

Anyway, I picked up three new birds:
Stock Dove, Kingfisher and Nuthatch.

The Kingfisher was sitting at the far North end of the Bird Sanctuary pool on a post sticking out of the water. It was a good job I had my scope as it was miles away from me and the visibility wasn't great. Using my bins, I wasn't sure whether it was a kingfisher or just a blue plastic bottle! It soon flew off but it's great to know that there is resident kingfisher there, I'm sure I'll see it regularly now.

For the Stock Doves, I was exploring a new area for me, just west of the bird sanctuary pond, and discovered a little area where there are several hanging bird feeders - useful to know. One of them had a parakeet on it, might take a pic next time and post it. Just above the feeders and to the left is an old tree with a nice big hole in it which the stock doves were using - there was a pair of them, male and female I presume, and they were periodically flying down to feed on the dropped seed. Great place to have your nest hole, I guess. Just roll out of bed and breakfast is right there on your doorstep.

I found the Nuthatch just as I was leaving the park, it was sitting in the tree just above my car - how considerate! I almost didn't look at it at first, it looked like a starling in the bad light and it was just sitting on the branch with ruffled feathers and preening itself, very starling like. I just had a quick check anyway, and got a shock when I saw it was actually a nuthatch. Later on it started calling which was good - I didn't really know the nuthatch's call but I will remember it now.

So that's my patch year list up to 39 and my life list up to 51!!!

[hughredcanary]

Surprised with the number of members visit the heath, it’s a sham the whether was so good this morning, feeling unwell and lack of sleep stopped me from gong but looking forward to meet at the heath with Reuben next week
Hugh

[KayD]

wow, thanks everybody for all the replies! Especially kstar, thanks for the encouragement, much appreciated.

No worries Reuben, glad to see you birding and blogging again. Never been to HH myself yet, your blog caught my eye because it reminded me of Bill Oddie's book and also because I think its great when you fiind an oasis of wildlife amidst such an urban area. I'll have to get my brother to take me up there when I next go to London, although he hates birds - I'll convert him one day I'm sure lol :-O

[Tiger_mz]

Hello London birders!

How many of you out there have hampstead Heath as your local patch? It is my local patch although I don't go there nearly as often as I should, but I'm going to try and do it more regularly. If I can get into a good habit, I'd like to do a blog like the one Tony Duckett has for Regents Park - excellent blog, if you happen to read this, Tony. Only mine would be nowhere as near as good because I am not a wildlife officer for the heath and wouldn't have nearly as much time to see good birds.

I can't find any blogs out there for Hamsptead Heath, can anybody correct me? Any tips on good areas of the heath for birds?

Reuben
Hampstead Heath has been my local patch for the last 21 years. It is a great place.

Not sure if any blogs exist for Hampstead Heath. However there are bird reports going back as far as 1946. If you enquire in Swiss Cottage library they should be able to help you.

[rubatroid]

Thanks for the post Tiger.

I went down yesterday, the first time in a couple of weeks, but very brief period and was with baby so not much time for birding.

Still managed to spot my first Redwing of the winter, an individual moving through the first hedge north of Parliament Hill. I'm sure there are many more Redwings around, if I could only get up early enough in the morning to spend some quality birding time!

For anybody who wants to go to the Heath, I have attached a helpful map which shows the heath plus the hedge I was talking about.

Reuben

[rubatroid]

...flying over the heath, but not by me!:-C That'll teach me for being so irregular