I had a work trip to London at the end of Sunny May so  whilst there I decided to visit a couple of places.  On arrival to the capital I met a good friend at Euston and then we headed to newly opened wetland in the North East of the capital not far from Upton Park tube station.  Woodberry Wetland was run by the London Wildlife Trust and it had just opened to the public after many decades of no access.  I had to meet another friend who worked as a professional wildlife photographer in another country.   He rather cleverly decided to arrive by car and not only did it take a long time to meet but it also took a while to find a parking space. 

Once at the wetland centre we stopped off at the café for a quick bite to eat.   My friend from London and I watched with absolute horror as the last two slices of Victoria Sponge were scooped up by a smug looking southerner.  What made it worse was we were next in the queue.   We settled for a tuna sandwich,  coffee and banana cake.     It was a warm and sunny day and the café and the wetland was heaving.  Once feeling refreshed we moved onto the nature trails.  There was a lake, reed bed, scrub, some woodland and a little bit of grassland against the backdrop of high rise flats. 

We saw the usual species we would expect to see in our gardens in the North as well as two of the larger species of woodpeckers - Green and Great Spotted.  I pointed both out to my friend form London who had never seen a woodpecker before.  We managed to see Gadwall, Mallard, Tufted Duck, Shelduck, Pochard and Red-crested Pochard - 6 species of ducks was not bad!  There were Herring and Lesser black backed Gulls, Cormorants, Grey Heron, Little and Great Crested Grebes. 

There was a loud and abrupt explosion - I was not surprised to have heard a Cetti's Warbler and I could only imagine how common tis bird could be in the Capital's wetlands.  Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Garden Warbler and Whitethroat were other warbler species seen and heard.  We probably managed to see around 51 species here.  The reserve is worth a visit if you are nearby and it is a popular haunt of North London's trendy hipsters who can often be seen picnicking with like minded friends.     

A couple of days later we headed to the London Wetland Centre.  I have been here a few times before but it never failed to surprise me beautiful a spot it was the centre of such a large city.  It had a fantastic bird list and a few days after my visit a Little Bittern was reported for a few days at least.  Time was limited and first stop was the café of course where we ordered a large pancake with strawberry jam and cream.  They were huge and the first one took a long while coming so I had to cancel the second one as it would have taken out so much time of our tight schedule.  I did conclude that cream did not compliment pancakes though after going halves with my friend on the first one.  Once again the usual suspects were present as well as everything we saw at Woodberry Wetlands.  7 duck species including Teal and Red-crested Pochard.  There were Lapwing, Little Ringed Plover, Redshank, Snipe, Dunlin, Curlew, Common Tern, Great- Blacked Backed Gull, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Ring necked Parakeets.

The first set off wetland photos are from Woodberry and the second after Tower Bridge etc are from The London Wetland Centre.