January 2018

Bird of the Month: a Little Bunting in E17
January’s Bird of the Month has to be the Little Bunting found at Walthamstow Reservoirs on the 19th. It lingered in the same small area through into February, obligingly favouring one bush in particular.

This rare vagrant has been recorded in London only about a dozen times. The first report was 62 years ago in 1956 and, so far as I am aware, this month’s record is the first since 2007, when a bird loitered at Amwell GP from the end of January to mid-April.

Other notable passerines
Apart from the Little Bunting, most of January’s more interesting sightings were also passerines.

The New World Horned/Shore Lark found at Staines Reservoir in November reappeared on 22nd Jan and stayed into February. It is not clear whether this female bird is a Northern American Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris alpestris), a Hoyt’s Horned Lark (E. a. hoyti) or a Prairie Horned Lark (E. a. praticola), but it remains a good candidate for a future armchair tick should the taxonomists decide to split the species.

It’s sad that a definite identification was not possible, but a hirundine flying south through Mill Hill on the 15th was reported as probably a House Martin. If so, it was the latest ever in London. A few Swallow are already overwintering in southern England, so it is not impossible for them to be joined by the odd House Martin.

New Year’s Day produced the only record so far this year of a Yellow-browed Warbler, seen at Fairlop Waters. Richmond’s eastern race Lesser Whitethroat, found by Franko J. Maroevic in mid-December, continued to hang around the same few back gardens throughout January — narrowly escaping a Sparrowhawk on the 5th. Franko is to be thanked for providing regular updates and advice for birders, and it’s good that he eventually managed to clock the bird in his own back garden.

The Beddington Farmlands Twite was reported infrequently in January but was still around on the landfill on the 27th.

Broxbourne’s three Parrot Crossbill (my Bird of the Month for December) disappeared after 18th Jan. Then, on the 28th, two males and one female — presumably the same birds — were in Regent's Park. On the 30th a male was seen briefly back at Broxbourne Woods before flying off north.

The spectacular Hawfinch irruption continued, with records from more than 40 sites across the London reporting area. The most reliable places for spotting this species were Ruislip’s various woodlands and Tyttenhanger’s Garden Wood. Until late in the month the most seen at any one site was 30+ at Garden Wood, but then Juniper Hill, near Dorking, got in on the act with 50+ birds on the 28th, 70+ on the 29th and an amazing 200+ on the 30th.

And the rest
Noteworthy sightings of anatids included Bewick’s Swan, Brent Goose, Barnacle Goose and Dark-bellied Brent Goose. The Common Scoter that arrived at Hilfield Park Reservoir in mid-December stayed right through January, as did the two long-staying drake Scaup, at Walthamstow Reservoirs and King George V Reservoir. Ditto KGV’s Slavonian Grebe. A Great Northern Diver was at Staines Reservoir from the 1st to the13th.

The Great White Egret at Fairlop Waters since late November was last seen on the 3rd, but the month also featured reports from four other sites.

Apart from the birds that have settled in at Greenwich Ecology Park and London Wetland Centre, both of which stayed all month, only three other Jack Snipe were reported — all on New Year’s Day.

Juvenile white-winged gulls were sighted a dozen times during the month — three Glaucous Gull and nine Iceland Gull.

(Contributed by Andrew Haynes, who accepts full responsibility for any errors. Historical information is mainly based on archived reports on this wiki and on ‘The Birds of London' by Andrew Self.)