Birdwatching on Hampstead Heath

While I have often been to the Heath, I have never thought of it as a place for birdwatching. But Dan had done it a few times so we set off in the sunshine (quickly to turn to pouring rain) with Dan's twins, Luka (birdspotter extraordinaire) and his sister Anna, who was being forced to come along as punishment for some misdemeanour. I think its the first time that my mere company has been used as a form of chastisement, or maybe its just the first time I have been told so in as many words....

Anyway, Dan managed to find us the very muddiest of paths to squelch through. The sort of stuff that tries to suck the shoes off your feet. And nearly succeeds

Dan caught by surprise while trying to survey the ladies swimming ponds...

So my best photos - this Great-Crested Grebe. A first for me - Dan didn't attempt to capture it for fear of water getting into his bazooka, sorry lens.

But obviously you can do more with a camera the size of an anti-tank gun. So over to Dan...

Jay

. Redwing - which I would never have spotted but Luka did immediately. "See the red on its wing" says Dan. Well only now on the photo I pick up a little reddish brown...

Mistle thrush

But most exciting was below, a kestrel in a little copse. God only knows how Luka identified this from an initial fleeting glimpse. Dan felt it was more in sparrowhawk habitat leading to the most amusing bit of existential philosophic dialogue of the day. "But why isn't it a sparrowhawk?" asks Dan. "Because it's a Kestrel"  replies exasperated Luka. Well, you had to be there...

Anyway, with a bit of staring at it through binoculars we attracted a little crowd wondering what we were looking at (this not being the swimming ponds...). This then leads to the difficulty of explaining exactly where to look in amongst a lot of identical trees, with only branches to go on. One branch looks very much like the next one.

Dan stalking redwings

 And even if the weather suggested winter, the daffodils were bravely suggesting Spring. But we retired for fish and chips before trench foot and hypothermia set in.