DeanMessenger
Active member
an unassuming little place in middle surburbia. its just off Beddington Park / hackbridge. and its essentially a tiny little wooded island ( takes about 5-10 minutes at most to walk around ). But whats so special about this place is that its home to kingfishers.
there was talk that they had left a couple of years ago but i was down there last year and spent around 2 hours watching a pair of them whizz up and down in front of me ( sadly i couldnt find there perch spot to get a shot of them and so darn fast to catch in flight.
its quite overgrown around the waters edge ( a tributary kind of thing that goes in a loop as part of the river wandle )
. to get there you can actually park along Mill lane ( running into river Gardens ) and the entrance to the wooded area is on mill lane / river gardens itself.
I think its a council run warden supervised place and the whole area is no bigger than 100m by 100m. the island is accessed by wooden bridge that goes across the river ( stream ) and at its narrowest probably no more than 3 feet across and about 20 feet at its widest where it has a small weir that backs onto an industrial estate ( thats where the kingfishers seem to fly up and down ) . other than a few ducks as well as some woodland birds theres not much else to see, but its very quiet and secluded and doesnt suffer from public footfall as it leads nowhere but around the tiny island.
if its local to you and you want the chance of possibly seeing kingfishers ( never a guarantee ) then its worth a visit for an hour or two.
dont know if links are allowed but heres more information
http://www.wildlondon.org.uk/reserves/wilderness-island
there was talk that they had left a couple of years ago but i was down there last year and spent around 2 hours watching a pair of them whizz up and down in front of me ( sadly i couldnt find there perch spot to get a shot of them and so darn fast to catch in flight.
its quite overgrown around the waters edge ( a tributary kind of thing that goes in a loop as part of the river wandle )
. to get there you can actually park along Mill lane ( running into river Gardens ) and the entrance to the wooded area is on mill lane / river gardens itself.
I think its a council run warden supervised place and the whole area is no bigger than 100m by 100m. the island is accessed by wooden bridge that goes across the river ( stream ) and at its narrowest probably no more than 3 feet across and about 20 feet at its widest where it has a small weir that backs onto an industrial estate ( thats where the kingfishers seem to fly up and down ) . other than a few ducks as well as some woodland birds theres not much else to see, but its very quiet and secluded and doesnt suffer from public footfall as it leads nowhere but around the tiny island.
if its local to you and you want the chance of possibly seeing kingfishers ( never a guarantee ) then its worth a visit for an hour or two.
dont know if links are allowed but heres more information
http://www.wildlondon.org.uk/reserves/wilderness-island
