Wednesday 11th May, Crystal Palace Park, 0630, dense white cloud, poor visibility, wind SW

The Ridge - didn't there used to be a tower somewhere?

As the BTO migration blog reports here, a fantastic array of birds have turned up across the country this week courtesy of the prevailing South Westerlies.

However luck deserted us at the ridge on Wednesday morning as a band of mist and cloud swept in overnight and made conditions impossible for visible migration. With visibility 50m at best we did a quick roll call of species in the scrub on the ridge instead: Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Dunnock, Robin, Wren, Blackbird, Blackcap, ChiffChaff, Whitethroat, Carrion Crow, Magpie.

Although many of these are common species and locally abundant, it doesn’t diminish their importance in terms of biodiversity. The scrub may lack visual appeal, being a mass of brambles, budlea, cow parsley and immature trees, but it is home to a wide range of species and in the context of a heavily-managed urban park it has considerable ecological value.

So the weather was disappointing but at least the breakfast at Dave's later was top notch!

One radio transmitter, no birds