Greater London, England: July 12-20, 2011

Rain and family obligations limited my birding while in England this week. However, I still managed to log 29 bird species, and a few of them were new life birds for me. This time of year produced some immature birds, making it a new experience for me seeing some of the species that I had already photographed in previous visits there.

I was not able to photograph eight of these species, either because of a very quick look or not having my camera with me at the time: Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Pied Wagtail, Eurasian Wren, Jay, Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull, Rock Pigeon, and Greylag Goose. My photos of a Starling were not very good, and are omitted from the photos shown below. One of my target birds, the Goldcrest, continued to be a difficult subject to photograph.

Goldcrest

And I only got a couple of quick looks at Green Woodpeckers, photographing the back side of one in a tree with a Blue Tit.

Green Woodpecker

By far, the most numerous birds I saw were Great, Blue, and Coal Tits.

Blue Tit

Immature Blue Tit

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Great Tit

Coal Tit

Immature Coal Tit

The friendliest bird I saw was a very young Eurasian Robin that came right up to me when it was not drying out its wings on the grass.

Immature Eurasian Robin

Immature Eurasian Robin

Eurasian Robin

There were plenty of finches around.

Male Chaffinch

Female Chaffinch

Immature Chaffinch

Male Greenfinch

Female Greenfinch

Immature Greenfinch

Male Eurasian Goldfinch

Immature Eurasian Goldfinches

I saw many of the common species.

Woodpigeon

Magpie

Blackbird

Carrion Crow

Dunnock

Mistle Thrush

Mistle Thrush

In a small stream, I saw a couple of Grey Herons, and a Common Moorhen feeding her young chicks.

Grey Heron

Grey Heron

Common Moorhen

Common Moorhen

Common Moorhen

A few gulls and one or a pair of Swifts flew overhead each day.

Black-headed Gull

Swift

Swift

One of my target birds from my visit last October was a Sparrow Hawk, but I did not see one then. I was treated to a high flying Sparrow Hawk this trip on one of the few sunny days.

Sparrow Hawk

Sparrow Hawk

Sparrow Hawk

And I can't forget to mention the red-footed squirrel that tried to hide from me.

squirrel

This was only the first half of our trip. We sailed back to the U.S. on the Queen Mary 2, and I was able to see a number of North Atlantic pelagic birds.