REDBRIDGE: Birdwatchers get a real treat (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Birdwatchers get a real treat

8:30am Monday 30th August 2010 in News By James Ranger

NATURE-LOVERS are enjoying an unprecedented bonanza of bird-spotting in Redbridge, which experts are putting down to the recent harsh winter.

Some species have returned to the area for the first time in more than 100 years.

Keen birdwatcher Daniel Erickson-Hull, 34, launched a birdwatching website in January last year and now has a dedicated army of more than 100 followers who report their sightings to him.

He said: “Normally the birds would start nesting and having their young in March, but because the winter was so long, we didn’t see that until around May.

“What that means is that some birds are still brooding even now. Everything has been pushed back.

“Housemartins build their nests in the eaves of houses and some are still doing that in the borough, and normally they would have stopped by now.

“What happens when we have a long, cold winter like the one we’ve just had is that birds over-compensate so they might have two or three broods.

“Nationally there has been a real decline in cuckoos, but we actually have seen an increase in their numbers in Redbridge over the last couple of years.

“Herons have also never been known to nest in the borough but earlier this summer two were spotted in Valentines Park in Ilford. They all disappeared from the borough some time between 1860 and 1880. Also, there were a pair of redshanks nesting over in Fairlop Waters and that’s the first time that has ever happened in the borough.”

Birdspotter Peter Gordon, 35, of Albert Road in Wanstead, rigged up a camera in the nestbox where a pair of blue tits made their home in his back garden.

He said: “It was a bit of a tragedy actually. There were 11 eggs and they all hatched and seemed to be doing well.

“The male then disappeared – presumably eaten by a local sparrowhawk – and the female was left to fend for herself.

“To feed that many chicks you need to bring them something like 1,000 caterpillars and I don’t think she managed it.

“In the end one chick survived, so there was something of a happy ending.”

For more information about birds in the borough, visit redbridgebird watching.blogspot.com.