Wandsworth Common
From Londonbirders
Wandsworth Common is a central London park of around 175 acres (73 hectares) and is a little over a mile long and around 0.3 miles wide. It is mainly made up of ‘amenity grassland’ (i.e. mown lawns with a few non-native trees) but contains some areas of scrub and secondary woodland. It also contains three fairly small ponds (two close together in the southern half and a third called the ‘Stock Pond’ alongside Bolingbroke Grove).
Breeding birds include: Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Egyptian Goose, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel, Moorhen, Coot, Stock Dove (possibly), Woodpigeon, Ring necked Parakeet, Great Spotted Woodpecker, House Martin, Dunnock, Pied Wagtail, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Long tailed Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Chaffinch (probably), Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Starling, Jay, Magpie, Crow.
A number of other species have been heard singing on site in Spring including Goldcrest, Willow Warbler, Whitethroat and Goldfinch but probably do not breed, while Swifts are common overhead from May to August. Passage migrants include Swallow and occasional Wheatear and some limited visible migration in October and November.
In winter the ponds attract additional ducks (numbers of Tufted increase and are joined by Shoveler and, occasionally in hard weather, Pochard) and elsewhere Goldcrest can be found in the tit flocks and finch numbers increase (e.g. good numbers of Siskin in the 2007/8 winter). Winter thrushes tend to be mainly Redwings, especially as flyovers in November. Gull numbers also increase with four species regularly using the common (Black headed, Common, Lesser Black Back, Herring) while Great Black backed are regular fly overs).
Other species occur fairly infrequently including Hobby, Nuthatch and Collared Dove. The site has attracted a number of good birds in the past with two Yellow browed Warblers in October 2005 and Pallas’ Warbler in 1985.
Details of 2006 records can be found here: Wandsworth Common 2006.
