Birds of London: St. James's Park

I arrived in London last week for a 3-week business trip. I knew I would have some extra time for sightseeing, and I should have guessed that I would end up spending a lot of that time birdwatching.

My birdwatching jaunts around London are so fruitful that I thought I would do a series of posts on London birding. My first few posts will focus on some nice birding spots I have found in the greater London area so far.

St. James's Park

Thanks to the thirst of kings (chiefly Henry VIII) for land to serve as hunting grounds, nearly 40% of greater London is now green space, making it the greenest city of its size in the world. Casual walks through Hyde Park, Regents Park, Greenwich Park, or Richmond Park (of these, I have only explored Hyde Park) will no doubt introduce you to some delightful bird species, from black-billed magpies to carrion crows, and from wood pigeons to mallard ducks. But if you want to see a wide range of species in just a small area of parkland, I would suggest taking a stroll through St. James's Park, near Buckingham Palace. For whatever reason, St. James's has a staggering diversity of wetland species for a park of its size.

Waterfowl of St. James's Park - part I

(click on image to enlarge)

Waterfowl of St. James's Park - part II

Skirt the north side of the lake in St. James's Park to see informational plaques describing 47 species found in the environs. Catch glimpses of many of these species near the grassy shore, where they no doubt await food from tourists, who are not prohibited from feeding them. The official guide to birds in the Royal Parks (http://www.royalparks.org.uk/__documents/main/docs/rpbirdsinfoweb.pdf) gives a complete list of feeding DOs and DON'Ts. (I for one don't support feeding the birds, though I do rather admire the Italian people for selling birdseed with birth control in Venice's Piazza San Marco. Anyone's who's been there will know why.)

Birds photographed in greater London in the course of 2 days

(over 20 species total). Of these, a lot were spotted in St. James's Park.

In a 15-minute walk through the Park, I saw 13 different species of waterfowl, plus 4 woodland/grassland species:

1. Hooded merganser (m.)
2. Mallard (m)
3. Mallard (f)
4. Egyptian goose
5. Common pochard (m)
6. Tufted duck (f)
7. Tufted duck (m)
8. Eurasian coot
9. Eurasian coot (juv)
10. Common moorhen
11. Common shelduck (m)
12. Eurasian wigeon (m)
13. Common pochard (f)
14. Red crested pochard (m)
17. Bar-headed goose
18. Mute swan
19. Mute swan (juv)
20. Greylag goose
21. Wood pigeon
22. Rock dove (common pigeon)
26. Blackbird
27. Blackbird (juv)
34. Carrion crow
(I will write about the other pictured birds in later posts.)

While I was surprised to see some of the non-native species, such as Egyptian geese, the bird distribution maps in my field guide tell me these species can be found in the area year-round. There were a few surprising sightings, however...

One surprise was the Hooded merganser (1), a North American species rarely sighted in Europe. Wikipedia tells me that most of the Hooded mergansers in the UK are presumed to have escaped from captivity, but I couldn't help but wonder whether this one might be one of the genuine vagrants. The possibility excites this bird nerd!

Another exciting sighting was the Eurasian wigeon (12), which (more reputable sources, including my field guide, tell me) is quite common in Britain in the winter months but only rarely remains this far south through the summer breeding months. Some, but not all, distribution maps show a few isolated islands of year-round residency in the south of England, and my field guide tells me that most of the birds that summer here do not breed. I'm dying to find out if this one will breed.... but either way, it's still quite rewarding to encounter a new species.

Finally, if you do go through St. James's park, don't miss the 6 resident pelicans. Pelicans were originally brought to the Park in the 17th century as an ambassadorial gift from Russia. In 2013, three additional pelicans were gifted from the City of Prague. I haven't seen the pelicans yet! But I hear they get daily public feedings of fish from 2:30-3:00.