Monday 12th. November 2012

After spending a wet Saturday hedgelaying , Sunday dawned sunny and quite mild , but I had promised Carol a hand with the garden tidy up , and as the 'Brownie points' were rather low , getting out had to be put on hold and six hours working in the garden was the order of the day . Everything that could be shredded was , and the compost bins are now overflowing , but even so , there was a car load of material that wouldn't go through the shredder , that needed to go to the tip this morning . But the good news was that the 'Brownie points account' is now bulging , and the trip to the tip was combined with a look around South Norwood Country Park on the way back .
Unfortunately , yesterday's sunshine was history , and it was a very dull morning with the odd few spots of drizzle mixed in . I was hoping to find some of the 150 odd Fieldfares that had been recorded last week , but didn't see or hear a single Winter Thrush during my visit , nor any sign of Siskins or Redpolls that had been seen . There were six Shoveler , three pairs on the lake , along with a Little Grebe and a pair of Mute Swan . The usual Mallard , Tufted Duck , Moorhen and Coot , together with a pair of white farmyards ducks , Black-headed and the odd Lesser Black-backed Gull , I hope ,

pictured , was just about as good as it got . The scrub area over near the car park was particularly quiet , with just the odd flyover Chaffinch and Goldfinch . The highlight was near the pitch and putt , where a male Kestrel was concentrating so hard on finding his breakfast , that I managed to get



reasonably close , and even though the light was bad , managed a few shots , before he realised I was there , then he was gone . On the way back to the lake , a distant white 'blob' in the trees alongside the

ditch that marks the boundary with the cemetery , turned out to be a Little Egret . I know flyovers have been recorded on site , but not sure if a 'still' one has been . With nothing else of interest found , and with the sky getting greyer by the minute , I headed home , but on the way decided on a quick look around Kelsey Park in Beckenham . As soon as I entered the park , the RRParakeets were making their presence heard with their screeching , but amongst that , from the top of one of the large London Plane trees , another , more parrot-like call could be picked out . Looking into the grey sky ,

at the very top of the tree , I found two Blue Crowned Parakeets , my first sighting of the species since about this time last year . A bit of sunshine would have shown off their blue crowns , but in the grey , the colour was lost . There might have been a third specimen around , but I couldn't be sure .
By the bridge over The Beck , one of three Egyptian Geese seen during my visit , the other two still

in the same lawned area where I saw them last time . On the same bridge , a very striking feral     

Pigeon . I can't make my mind up if it's colouration is due to it's breeding , or that it chose a low branch to roost on last night . Fewer Mandarin Ducks below the waterfall than on previous visits , and from the opposite side of the lake , confirmation that the juvenile Grey Herons have finally left

the nest , but , an adult has already taken up squatters rights on the nest for the coming season , which is only two or three months away now . On the way back to the car , On the edge of The Beck ,

before it enters the lake , I found this goose , sitting very quietly by itself . Not sure exactly what it is , as although it looks like a Canada , the feathers and black on the neck both look wrong . Perhaps it was just having a bad feathers day . Driving home for lunch , the drizzle got heavier , and this afternoon has been horrible .