Those were the days

Common Whitlow Grass at Bow Creek, 11/3/2012 

A beautiful spring morning with the prospect of a an early migrant was spoiled by an act of thoughtless vandalism on the part of Lea Valley Regional Park; the extensive patch of bramble in the copse at the basin has been heavily pruned in the last few days despite the fact that a pair of Long-tailed Tits have built a nest there. You would have to be blind not to have noticed these delightful birds going about their business and one has to wonder what plans LVRP have for this increasingly compromised site. My personal belief is that LVRP pay scant lip service to the needs of wildlife at this "reserve" and would probably ditch it or totally amenitise it if they could, it seems to me that we are seeing the latter course in action. As Gary mentioned in the previous post , dog walkers have become a serious problem at the patch, today I aborted my trip around the ecology park on account of a family of chavs with two out of control dogs which made birding the site totally pointless, trying to explain to these "people" the damage their mutts are doing would be met with slightly less success than trying to explain quantum physics to a chimpanzee. This used to be such a good place to bird, you could go a complete day scarcely seeing another person, there was no silt, so wintering wildfowl often included Goldeneye and occasionally Scaup with local scarcities like Gadwall, Shoveler, Pochard and Great Crested Grebe much more regular, the comparative lack of housing made for more habitat and fewer people (point one I know but worth repeating), and, perhaps most importantly, the site wasn't "owned" by LVRP. With the imminent opening of a footpath linking the ecology park to Canning Town station effectively making the reserve a commuter rat-run, things are destined to become even worse. Highlights of my truncated visit today included six Shelduck, 108 Common Teal, 47 Tufted Duck, three Common Sandpiper and a Grey Wagtail.