BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="RobinD" data-source="post: 1243843" data-attributes="member: 12827">Hi Robert,Until I was exiled to Birmingham, the area west of Heathrow was my patch.This is a brief overview of the obvious sites. If you decide on any of them let me know and I can give you a lot more detail.Staines Reservioir and Moor. Staines res (Mecca) has a fond place in the fokelore of British birding where many (who couldn't make it to Cley) learned our hobby! It is pretty dammed unglamorous, being a concrete bowl with a causeway across the middle. As you would expect, it is a site for waterfowl, waders and aerial feeders. September is prime passage time so anything may turn up but it is quite dependant on water level. The Moor is the other side of KG6 res and is an area of wet grassland and scrub. Finches, pipits, wagtails, chats should be around along with raucous parakeets. Kingfisher as well if you are lucky!Wraysbury Gravle Pits. The pits are a large area of mature gravel workings with an excellent scrub area in the middle. They come into their own in the winter when a wide range of wildfowl is present but should have some good birds present including Kingfisher. The scrub has all the common warblers, finches, buntingsand is good for Hobby. There may still be juv Cuckoo about.Langley and Black Parks. Langley Park is a traditional "Country House" park (although the house is private) and used to be the stopover place for the Dukes of Marlborough between London and Blenheim! The open parkland and old trees make species like green Woodpecker and Little Owl easy to find, along with innumerable Jackdaws and parakeets. The woods and arboretum hold plenty of the common birds (tits, finches) and the other two woodpeckers. There is a good vista to Windsor Castle as well!Black Park is the other side of the road from Langley Park and has a much greater variety of habitats and species. There is a lake by the main car park which is good for dragonflies but not a lot of waterfowl (except a couple of pairs of Mandarin. The woods in the park are mixed adding variety and making species like Nuthatch and Treecreeper fairly easy to find. There are often Crossbills in the park (we are having an invasion at the moment...) along with Siskin and Redpoll. My favourite area of the park is the small area of heather heath which should look excellent at the begining of september. Good birds there too!Black park is also next to Pinewood studios and is used as a location in many films from the Forbidden Forect of Harry Potter to a jungle camp in Casino Royale!ATBRobin</blockquote>

Verification