Saturday, September 20, 2008 - A Reed Warbler at Work |
I often have the dubious pleasure of working from BBC White City building, in the heart of West London. The building is a pretty big steel / glass structure about 6 storeys high, but in the central courtyard is a split level of gardens which I've always thought: "I wonder if anything turns up in here". Often when the rest of the country is heaving with migrants, I'll take a morning detour via the garden area, which has a patch of heather / alpine about the size of a tennis court, a smaller area of knee high shrubs, and a few scattered bushes, and a couple of Birch trees. Looks good habitat, if only it was 20 times bigger and not enclosed by 100 foot glass walls. Only wildlife I have seen in there up until yesterday was a Blackbird and a Rat!
Anyway, returning from the shop Friday afternoon past the garden, I noticed a nearby bush shake, and something dart into cover. Now a sharp eyed, focussed Birder may well have thought "Hmm.. an unstreaked Acro"! but all my meeting-fuddled, caffeine-deprived brain could manage was , "ooh! that looked very brown for a Chiff-Chaff!", and so I plonked myself onto a conveniently placed picnic chair, and sat and waited a while.
Didn't take long for the Warbler to re-appear, and it turned out to be a Reed Warbler.. too close for BInoculars, and superb views. Something you probably wouldn't look twice at in a reed bed, (but worthy of a good grilling in the middle of West London (particularly when the alternative was editting a database!).
So they can turn up absolutely anywhere, which we all know already! Unfortunately, I won't be back at White City for a week, so probably won't know how long it stayed.
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Diary of wildlife watching in and around North Baddesley, Hampshire.
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