Gary Howard's birds and wildlife

I lived in the London Borough of Bexley for the first 31 years of my life and growing up I cycled to local gravel pits and rivers and meadows to look for birds, amassing quite a good list for places like Ruxley Gravel Pits and Footscray Meadows. Back then (sound like an old git now!) there were plenty of Spotted Flycatchers and I was seeing Tree Sparrows, Corn Bunting, Bullfinch, Lesser-spotted Woodpecker and many birds that are now far less common and widespread. By the time I moved to Orpington in the London Borough of Bromley in 1997 I was far too involved twitching and birding Kent to bother taking much of a look around locally and so when a Long-tailed Duck was reported on a fishing lake just a few miles away it was a case of where ? (I have never seen a long-tailed duck in Bexley either).

I spoke to Barry Wright who gave me good directions and then set off to take a look in the early afternoon sunshine. 

It was a quite tiny lake, probably only an acre or so but there it was, diving frequently and looking rather smart in the sunshine.

Long-tailed Duck