Hampstead Heath regulars? (3 Viewers)

[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]

bummer of a week

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 Sweetland]

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]

Hampstead Heath [ir]regulars!

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]

Cheer up Reuben

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]

New bird and link to Heath map

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]

Stone curlew seen today...

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