A Christmas present resulted in a weekend trip to London from the 25th it wasn’t a birding trip as such but you’re always on the lookout for something no matter where you travel. We decided on travelling M1 to j15A then cutting down to the M40 and travelling in that way for a certain bird. When we hit the M40 there were Red Kites everywhere, we had nether seen as many apart from Gigrin Farm, we carried on enjoying the spectacle as we travelled towards London.
The hotel we were stopping in, Reading Lake Hotel, is nicely located on a lake side so here we were able to overlook the lake from the apartment balcony to see Shoveler, Mallard, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Mute Swan, Red Kite, Black headed Gull, Common Gull, and Mute Swan. An Early evening walk around one of the lakes gave us sightings of Coot, Moorhen, Long tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Robin.
The journey back home was uneventful only seeing Ring-necked Parakeet (2) fly over the M4 as we made or way towards London from Windsor
The full weekend bird list (In no particular order) :-
Great Crested Grebe, Cormorant, Grey Heron, Mute Swan, Whooper Swan, Canada Goose, Wigeon, Gadwall, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Red Kite, Sparrowhawk, Common Buzzard, Common Kestrel, Eurasian Coot, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Woodpigeon, Pied Wagtail, European Robin, Common Blackbird, Fieldfare, Redwing, Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Common Magpie, Rook, Carrion Crow, Common Starling, House Sparrow, Greenfinch,
Huddsbirder 