So I thought I’d visit two sites in East London to see what I can see on quick visit. Perhaps you can see more but at least it will give you flavour of what you might see there. First up the Olympic Park, completely redesigned from the factories that used cover some of this area and then East India Dock. A small nature reserve in the docklands showing the wide diversity of the capital
Olympic Park
I haven’t been here since I worked on it back in 2008. It was mostly a building site when I was here so it is wonderful to see it all re-landscaped and flowers growing up like wildfire. I did a short walk around the stadium following the long strips of wildflowers and along the river here doing a circuit of the Olympic Stadium. Amazing how wildlife will just start filling in gaps with Reed Warblers blasting out from the edges of the waterways and Common Whitethroats singing from small patches of vegetations. It seems like every patch had birds breeding in it.
Date visited - 13 May 2016
Species seen - 35 species
Highlights - Cetti’s Warbler, Reed Warbler, Grey Wagtail, Kingfisher, Sand Martin and Stock Dove
Location - East London, sandwiched between Stratford and Hackney running along the River Lea
Tips - Listen along the vegetated areas of the rivers for warblers singing and watch out for squadrons of Cormorants flying over
East India Dock
I have often popped into this site and being close to the river increase the variety of species you can see for such a small area. What I really like about is the small size, easy to do in an hour and lots of ways to here by public transport.
Date visited - 7 May 2016
Species seen - 33 species
Highlights - Common Tern, Little Ringed Plover, Reed Warbler, Shelduck and Chaffinch
Location - On the east side of the docklands on the north side of the river and opposite the O2 Arena.
Tips - listen what you can hear in the woodland on the west side, check the rafts for Common Terns and always look on the river