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Hampstead Heath regulars? (1 Viewer)

rubatroid

Well-known member
United Kingdom
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
 
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
 
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!
 
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
 
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
 
rubatroid said:
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.
 
Ken Hall said:
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
 
The Firecrest said:
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
 
11 jan 2007 - morning stroll

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
 
Nice report Reuben, keep 'em coming

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

D
 
Little Bittern - Hampstead Heath

kstar_76 said:
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.
 
Last edited:
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
 
rubatroid said:
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
 
delia todd said:
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?
 
rubatroid said:
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
 
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?
 
delia todd said:
Bramblings though? where are they this winter - I haven't seen one yet. :C

D
Good 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! ;)
 
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