Lea Valley Park

[BucksMike]

Spent a very nice few hours at Lea Valley Park both yesterday and today. Lots to see in the snow and ice including the Bitterns. These were a little far away and flying, possibly being put up from the reeds by the foxes that are about.

[Ukwildlifeo]

Nice photos Mike, the fox especially. Planning to show any on Thursday (assuming we can all get to the meet!)?
Ive been meaning to get up to fishers green and the bittern hide for weeks now but not managed it. Im too chicken to drive on the roads at the moment!

[thebeard]

excellent fox images there mike, that looks like a great place to visit!

[BucksMike]

Some days are bad some days are brilliant and today was one of those days. Lea Valley once again turned up trumps on what could easily have been not so good, just being in the right place at the right time. Early on it was dull, dreary and not very good at all for photographs but I decided to go check out if any wildlife was around. Walking f=round the lake early on was not promising though, a sight of a couple of bitterns flying a way of was all I saw until a Great Crested Grebe popped up close by with a huge Perch in its mouth and spent some time trying to get it down its throat. After continuing on by the river I did catch sight of a pair of Goosander but they kept swimming away from me about 50 metres ahead all the time. When I came to dense area of bank vegetation I thought I could now move faster out of sight to see if I could get a better photo but sadly as I went out of sight the Goosander flew and that was the end of them. Round by the weir were a two Male Smew trying for the attention of a red headed female so things were improving. I then met up with a guy I had been walking with earlier, sorry if you read this i never did get your name but I have to say a big thank you to you. As we were watching a pair of Goldeneye on the river and a Fieldfare devouring hips you thought you could see a Bullfinch deep in some bushes and moved to get a better view. Not only had you found one Bullfinch but through the scope we counted 6 males on one bush. A beautiful sight and one I would have missed. We both thought that was it for the day and wandered back to the cars. I decided to take a quick look at the Bittern Hide on the way through and was rather pleased I did. As I went in i was told a couple of Bittern had been seen regularly that morning in front of the hide in the reeds. As I got things sorted to take a look, one flew in front of the hide over to reed beds on the left. One in the reeds was seen but not clearly untill another bittern decided to show itself and walk over to the spot where the first one was so in a matter of minutes we had 3 Bittern known to be about. All of a sudden the one that had just walked into the reeds towards one we knew to be their came out in a hurry, across a channel and into more reeds followed by the other one. The latter stayed in one channel walking away from us while the one being chased came through the reeds into the next channel and walked away. Two Bitterns in sight at the same time, and on camera. So all in all a great day watching if not for the photography

Mike