Friday 13 November 2009

Map of Wanstead Flats & Wanstead Park


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This is the patch, an overall area of about 200 hectares. We count anything we can see on or from the patch - though we'll mention it if in the fact the bird was miles and miles away. It's a moot point as to whether the residential streets that separate the Park and the Flats count or not, but we have to walk through them to get from one to the other, and you can't just switch off if you're a birder. A few of us actually live in these streets, and just you try and stop us counting anything we see from our gardens! We also annexed the Golf Course, but in reality this means that we view the Basin from Overton Drive.

6 comments:

  1. What's the red cross for. Or am I being dense?

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  2. It's to indicate that you go into Long Wood at your peril, unless you're actively looking for a homosexual encounter.

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  3. Actually, this and the past post have been very helpful. I can just imagine myself printing it out and flipping back and forth when perusing the latest tale of an exciting patch tick--thus entirely defeating the purpose of the internet...

    One thing I am curious about, as a USA/New England resident, is what are the ten or fifteen common birds you're likely to see out and about? You know, the short list of reliables and then, perhaps, the ones that are a little more interesting although not uncommon. (That is how I think of Cedar Waxwing, Hairy Woodpecker, or Cooper's Hawk around here; nothing to write home about, as they say, but I certainly pause and take a good look if I come across them.)

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  4. Ah Laurel, this is too easy for a self-confessed list addict. My spreadsheets already have a "sightings count" column, as well as a "total count" column; frequency as opposed to quantity. Here, in order of frequency, are the top 15 for Wanstead Flats:

    Wood Pigeon
    Common starling
    Magpie
    Wren
    Blue Tit
    Great Tit
    Mallard
    Sky Lark
    Blackbird
    Robin
    Canada goose
    Common Coot
    Black-headed Gull
    Greenfinch

    For the more interesting but not uncommon category, I have taken seven either side of the median, which gives, again in order of frequency:

    House sparrow
    Mistle thrush
    Little Grebe
    Shoveler
    Blackcap
    Whitethroat
    Reed bunting
    Collared Dove
    Common Kestrel
    Goldfinch
    Greylag goose
    Sparrowhawk
    Stonechat
    Swallow
    Goldcrest

    I think I need to get out more.

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  5. Could be, but I'm glad for your detailed lists as it helps clue me in to British birding. It's interesting (to me, anyway...) to draw parallels between inhabitants of similar ecological niches here and there. Wood Pigeon ~ Rock Dove ? or Mourning Dove?, Starling, well, we've got that too thanks to some ninny, Magpie ~ American Crow, Tits (forgoing any puns) ~ Black-Capped Chickadees, Greenfinch~Northern Cardinal, Canada Goose--didn't even realize you had them! Etc.

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  6. "I think I need to get out more."

    Silly. This is what causes you to create the lists in the first place.

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