Great black-backed gulls (below) are uncommon in London away from the Thames and we usually only get a handful of sightings here each year. This February we had a fourth calendar year bird on the 26^th and 27^th. When the bird departed it did a couple of low laps around the lagoons, a habit which gave it away as probably the same bird which we saw last year in early March, when a third calendar year bird had the same habit.

Just as in January, we had a few visits from red-crested pochards (below) with a maximum of four being seen on the 12^th. These birds, based in Finsbury Park, are all male and spend much of their days touring local water bodies looking for females. A pair of shelduck were also seen a few times mid-month and numbers of both teal and shoveler peaked in low double figures.

Just as in 2021, a pair of Egyptian geese were the first nesting birds of the year and the female was on a nest for the latter half of the month. A pair of Canada geese (below) which seem to be resident here and are often to be found on the path between the reservoir and the woodland trail both have metal leg-rings, the rings revealing that they were ringed as adults in July 2019 at Walthamstow Wetlands.

It hasn’t been a great winter for snipe, but a peak count of seven was recorded in February. Water rails were mostly settled and quiet during the month but there are definitely a few present.

After being absent during January, reed buntings returned at the start of February and were seen all month, with the male being often heard singing. They were sometimes seen on the bird feeders although they face competition from the house sparrows (below), the population of which has dramatically increased in the last few years.

The total number of bird species seen here in February 2022 was 58. Historically February has been a variable month with this being a typical number in a mild year. Last February had more extreme weather and 67 species were seen.