Gunpowder Park - Lee Valley

The weekend of the 19th/20th May was one of the BTO wetland bird survey (WeBS) monthly count days and I popped over to Gunpowder Park to count the wetland birds, at the same time I took a few photographs of the habitat on offer, including the wetland areas I will be counting in the coming year. The park is managed and maintained by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and a lot of the planting is still relatively young in terms of growth as the park was only opened in 2004.  In those 8 years the native hedgerows have established well and in time the newly planted trees will also mature, only adding to the changing and developing landscape. More about the nature reserve, including directions and a really useful map can be found on the link below.

http://www.visitleevalley.org.uk/en/content/cms/nature/nature-reserve/gunpowder-park/

Just to give you a overview of Gunpowder Park and some of its charm, below is a selection of photos showing the type of habitat and wetland on offer if you were to plan a visit.

The main entrance to Gunpowder Park can be located off the A112 Sewardstone Road, just off the M25 at junction 26.

  

Main entrance and car park 

The view south from the top of the Cob Fields

Open grassland - Skylark country

Osier Marsh - main lake

Osier Marsh - small lake

Cattlegate flood relief channel part of the River Lee

Maturing native hedges along a bridle pathway



Although not the best time of year for counting our wetland birds (the winter months are a more important time for the WeBS counts, when the birds are not breeding and are more numerous in number), I did manage to see a small selection of wetland birds which you would expect at this time of year on the water around Osier marsh.

• 1 Grey Heron
• 2 Gadwall - (1 male & 1 female)
• 11 Mallard
• 1 Little Grebe
• 3 Moorhen
• 1 Coot

Interestingly there was one small duck on the main lake which was either a female Teal or Garganey, it was in the furthest corner partially hidden by the reeds and over hanging trees and only gave the briefest of views, before frustratingly disappearing out of sight. This would have been a good record of either bird, if only I could have had a better view...!