Welcome to the Buteo Wildlife blog, a record of some of the wildlife that we have been seeing and occasional identification articles that will hopefully be useful for those trying to learn about wildlife.

If you enjoy reading this blog, join us on one of our tours - days and weekends looking for wildlife. Visit our website for details: www.buteowildlife.co.uk
Note that tours with clients may not always feature prominently on this blog because we are unlikely to have time for photography when out with clients - and walls of text don't tend to make the most interesting posts. If there is time for a few snatched photos they may not always be of the highest quality - but we'll use them anyway!


To try and keep posts in chronological order they may sometimes be given earlier dates/times than when they are actually posted. Apologies, for this - it's not meant to mislead anyone (and we will try to avoid this happening too often).

7 May 2012

Regents Park (10th April 2012).

A day spend in central London gave me the opportunity to pay an evening visit to Regents Park. Like some of the other central London Parks there can be a surprising amount of wildlife present, despite the number of people (and today, despite the frequent showers!).
Water-birds around the lake were the most obvious species, particularly the Grey Herons which can be ridiculously tame. Several pairs nest in a heronry on one of the islands in the lake, and the birds from this heronry can sometimes be seen competing with various ducks and Feral Pigeons for scraps of bread thrown, or dropped, by visitors.

Other species can also be very approachable in the park, mainly common species such as this Woodpigeon, which was feeding unconcerned only feet away from a busy path:

‘Wild’ corners provide suitable habitat for a few breeding pairs of warblers, such as Blackcap, as well as feeding sites for passage migrants.
Both Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff were singing near this area.

Introduced species are also very noticeable in the park, including Ring-necked Parakeets, Red-crested Pochard and Mandarin Duck, all of which have self sustaining naturalised populations in London. There is a collection of captive wildfowl species in the park as well, so not all of the wildfowl that can be seen are free living!
A pair of Red-crested Pochard flying over the lake, and a Mandarin drake at the lakes edge.

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