News of an inner-London-first broke mid-morning on Monday. A Juvenile White-Winged Black Tern on the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Cracking, I thought, just a 20 minute cycle up there and I could get some nice shots. Bugger, I thought, meeting at lunchtime in Clapham. Nailed the meeting, on the bike, made good pace into town, arrived Hyde Park at 16:00 - bird gone!! Gutted.
Fortunately, more reports of the bird Tuesday morning and nothing in the diary. 10:45 on the bike, straight back to Hydey. Arrived at the Lido and there was the little flutterer on the other side of the lake. A classic birder stationed amongst the Japanese tourists was my first confirmation her was still around!
As the tern landed on its favourite perch I headed up to the bridge to grab a couple of shots. On the way I picked out some classic rancid birds of Central London Parks.
The black-header.
The lesser-blacker.
The Great grebe,
The Cormorant, looking extremely malevolent in the fading light. I like this picture, he looks like Rodin carved him from stone!
I nabbed a photo of the perched tern, just as he was chased off by a black-head.
It was pretty overcast and the little blighter was quite rapid dip-feeding. However, I managed to grab some nice shots before heading back to work.
A great bird for my London list, and a UK first as well.
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