I did my monthly bird count on the 16th. The highlight was a pair of Common terns thinking of nesting on one of the concrete watersports rafts. Terns started to be seen 15 years ago, perhaps offspring of the breeding population at the Wetland Centre. There were also three or four pairs of Black-headed gulls attempting to nest on another raft: this one with canoes stored on top. Despite suggestions over many years, LB Merton have never accepted that a specialist tern raft should be provided for this Amber listed species. They end up breaking the law by disturbing the nesting attempts on their rafts. I expect that this will occur again this year.
The Spring flowers were largely over, but wild roses were in flower. There's a Burnet rose in the hedgerow near the northern gate to the stadium, probably originally planted, as there are several horticultural rose varieties scrambling up through the thorn trees of the hedgerow further north. Also in the hedgerow is the native Dog rose, which probably arrived after a bird fed on a rose hip before flying to the hedgerow. Of course, we planted Dog rose in many of the plots around Horse Close Wood and those too were flowering.
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