Wednesday 30th. January 2013

Knowing that I was going to have to make a journey 'up to the smoke' sooner or later , I have been watching reports of Bearded Tits in Hyde Park on the London birds page . Then , on Sunday , Marianne / The Wild Side visited the site , and posted a report and pictures on her blog , so this morning I decided to bite the bullet and travel up to London with what seemed like everybody from my neck of the woods . Having sorted out my business first , I headed by tube to Kensington , then a short walk to Hyde Park and the Serpentine . Fortunately , it would appear that the reed bed directly below Princess Diana's memorial is about the only one on the banks of the Serpentine , so it was not difficult to find . An obvious problem from arrival was a very strong wind , at times almost laying the reeds horizontal , but at least there were good periods of sunshine . I walked up and down the short reed bed a few times , finding no sign of the birds , and to hear them 'pinging' over the wind would be almost impossible . Another birder arrived and set up a scope , the back of the reed bed being no more than 5 mtrs. from the path we were standing on , perhaps he didn't own binoculars , but I didn't even use mine as the distance was so little . I spotted the two females low in the reeds , but one

disappeared lower still , whilst the other one posed atop the swaying phragmites , showing the ring which was fitted last Autumn at Rye Marsh . The second bird then joined it and they both took off , but only to land at the far end of the reed bed , to start working their way back along it's length . Often , both birds would disappear , especially after a particularly strong gust , but after a few

minutes would reappear , some times feeding at water level , unfortunately behind the iron railings . With no sign of the wind abating , it became a matter of waiting for the few moments of less movement between the strong gusts , and hoping that the birds were posing nicely , but more often

than not , they were back on to the camera , but not always . A couple more birders arrived and passers by stopped to find out what all the fuss was about , but numbers didn't seem to bother the

birds , although we did get a few looks from one of them , but it wasn't us that ruffled it's feathers . They didn't like it when one of the parks gardening vehicles went by , and kept out of sight for some time . It was difficult in the conditions to get one of the birds in focus feeding whilst swaying in the

 wind on the reeds  , even harder to get both , but it was managed a couple of times . By the early afternoon , and with more people stopping and looking , the birds stayed to the back of the reed bed , and impossible to focus on through the reeds , so I headed off to the tube to make my way home , after a couple of satisfying hours of photography . I'm sure it will take a lot longer than that to process all the shots taken . En route home ,  a wait for my connection at London Bridge station

afforded a shot of The Shard from the end of the platform . Even with the lens down on 70mm , I could only get the upper floors in the viewfinder , and a sore neck .