Moorhens and Rosemary Beetles at London Wetland Centre

The captive birds at London Wetland Centre certainly envy the resident moorhens. You’ll find moorhens in the tundra area, the wooded patch, the swampy spot, completely at home next to the non-native collection species from all over the world. Every little enclosure has got its moorhen. They are even taking advantage of the feed provided for the other birds in some surprising ways…

(Dear reader, I apologise in advance if you are eating while reading this post. The topic in the next paragraph is a little revolting.)

Here are two moorhens, a juvenile with a parent, keenly watching the emperor geese. What are they looking for? Fresh droppings. When no uhm… second-hand food was coming for a while, the moorhens even pecked the slow-digesting geese under the tail. Most geese didn’t seem to mind it, only one got angry and chased the impatient moorhens away. While it may be a good way to get a meal with little effort, it carries a high risk of getting parasites and contracting diseases from the geese. Fortunately, it’s not a very common behaviour when other sources of food are available.

Coots are known for their cantankerousness, but the related moorhens also don’t shy away from a good fight.

The quarreling pair soon attracted an audience (of other moorhens; the ducks took no notice whatsoever).

All nearby moorhens rushed to see what the fuss was about. Short fights broke out among the spectating birds, which apparently got too excited watching the main duel. Five minutes later the commotion died down and the moorhens calmly swam away to get back to what they had been doing before.

The South side of the Wetland Centre features some beautiful wildlife-friendly gardens. Although I’m not sure how much they have changed over the years, one has had a lavender patch for at least a couple years. In early October the lavender was way past its prime, yet it attracted attention with small spots of vivid colour. The rosemary beetles.

These stunning beetles arrived in the UK about 20 years ago on garden plants imported from Southern Europe. They are considered pests, for their larvae feed on rosemary, lavender and thyme. I wonder how the lavender patch at the Wetlands is doing, and how it will fare next year. Will the resident birds be enough to keep the beetles in check and prevent too much damage to the lavender? Or will the plant suffer so much that the WWT staff will have to take action by removing the beetles manually when spotted? Spraying the garden with chemicals (hopefully) isn’t an option, considering that the residents of the bug hotels located therein would also suffer. The beetle larvae should be hatching now. Let’s see what happens.

A Bit About Bedfont Lakes Country Park

Bedfont Lakes Country Park, quite close to Heathrow, UK, is where my ringing group operates. I joined the group a couple of years ago as a trainee. In the reserve part of the park are reedbeds and a tiny scrap of woodland, while on the southern side we have a managed meadow, an orchard and lots and lots of brambles. The reserve is open to public on Saturdays. There are two hides with a view on the small lakes.

In the UK ringing groups operate all year round. We try to go once a week, if the weather allows. We catch mostly common garden birds such as tits (great, blue, long-tailed), robins and dunnocks, but also reed warblers, whitethroats (common and lesser) and meadow pipits. Other warblers, kinglets, finches and woodpeckers fall into our nets in small numbers too. Below is a tree creeper, quite rare for us.

What I personally get very excited about is pigeons. We don’t get many of them, as they usually bounce right out of the nets which are designed for smaller birds, and more importantly, I am very fond of these gentle and awkward birds. Here is a collared dove, which took a while to realise it was already free to go.

Raptors are also very rare for us. Since I joined, we did catch a couple of sparrowhawks. Here is a female. They’re larger and more feisty than the males.

Her fearsome claws.

Apart from us bird people, there is a group of bat people who come round every now and then to check the bat boxes in the reserve. We ring birds, they ring bats. As you can see in the picture below, the bat rings go on the wing, but they are not closed, only bent over the forearm.

The park is also home to some beautiful and very interesting insects, such as this hornet mimic hoverfly, pictured feeding on a teasel:

Teasels are great – they provide nectar for insects, their seeds are eaten by goldfinches, the seedheads become cozy homes for insect larvae, and the leaves form “cups” holding rainwater. Plus, they look simply stunning.

Another charismatic invertebrate to be found in the park (the reserve area) is the lesser stag beetle.

And here is another eye-catching insect – a forest bug.

I wish I had pictures of some of the larger inhabitants of the park to show, but grass snakes tend to slither away at the sight of an over-excited person trying to get close enough to take a picture with a mobile phone, rabbits are generally skittish, and foxes like to keep a safe distance. They are there though, and it’s not difficult to spot them.