Walk in Lee Valley Country Park on 23rd February 2025

I went by train from London to Cheshunt in order to go for a walk in Lee Valley Country Park towards the end of February and was hoping to see some wildlife.  It was an overcast day and there wasn't much around, but I enjoyed the day anyway.

Great Tit perching on a tree

Dunnock on the wall

Distant view of the Fisher's Green bird hide

Crows bothering a Buzzard

I love the design of electricity pylons!

Bare-branched trees on one of the islands

Great Crested Grebe in a hurry

Cormorant drying its wings

Twisted tree and another electricity pylon

and another!

Grey Heron balancing on a thin twig

Muntjac deer, coots and Teal

Weeping Willow tree at the edge of the river

Bird of the week - Cattle Egret at Lee Valley Country Park

On Saturday, my camera and I went for a walk in the Lee Valley Country Park, near Cheshunt.  The walk was run by the RSPB and more than 25 people attended it, which was rather a lot for a group of bird watchers.

We saw lots of interesting birds but, for me, the special of the day was a beautiful Cattle Egret skulking in the undergrowth.

The Country Park is huge and we only covered a fraction of it in the few hours that we spent there.  Now that I have been there with other people, I hope to go again on my own and also hope that I will not get lost!

Great Cresed Grebes courting in Lee Valley Country Park

On a recent cold day I went for a walk in Lee Valley Country Park with a group from the RSPB.  Our last port of call was the Grebe Hide, where we were treated to a great courting display.  Unfortunately, the Great Crested Grebes were quite far away and, even with my lens at longest zoom, these photos are the best I could manage.

At first there were actually 3 Great Crested Grebes, but one of the males soon got rid of his rival.  This happened too far away for me to get any photos at all, but I could see the aggression through my binoculars.

Then the chase got going:

Male and female Great Crested Grebes

Mr and Ms eventually got closer together:

Great Crested Grebes

and then closer:

Courting Great Crested Grebes

and then extremely close:

Is it one Grebe with two heads??

They did a lot of head bobbing, which I was unable to photograph.  They then parted and chased one another around for a while before getting back together and repeating the whole process.  It was fascinating.  I would have stayed longer, but I was freezing and the group were leaving to get the train back home.

It was a great day, with a great amount of birds.  As well as the Great Crested Grebes, I saw a Bittern and lots of Lapwings (photographs in my other posts).

Lapwings in the Lee Valley Country Park

During a walk in the Lee Valley Country Park, which was led by a member of the RSPB, we were treated to groups of Lapwings in two different, but very similar, areas of the park.

Lapwings on the lagoon

There were groups of Lapwings flying around too, but it was impossible to photograph them.

Lapwings standing in the water

Both groups were in the distance, but I hope that you can still see what beautiful birds they are.

Bittern hiding in the reeds

Recently I went on a very cold "birding" walk in the Lee Valley Country Park.  I stopped for sandwich lunch in the Bittern hide and everyone there was very excited because an elusive Bittern had been spotted.  I thought I could see something moving in the distance, so pointed my camera with the longest zoom it could manage and hoped for the best.

It turned out that a Bittern had been spotted, but in a different channel to the one I was looking at!  When I realised this, I looked in the right direction and the pesky bird - which was very clearly visible in the water in front of the reeds, just quickly hopped right out of view before I could capture its image.  I was absolutely gutted and annoyed with myself for the rest of the day.

However, when I got home and downloaded my photos onto the computer - guess what was hiding in my picture?

Camouflaged Bittern in the reeds

I had seen a Bittern after all - but it was not the one that the others were looking at!  I felt very lucky and very elated to see this very shy bird sitting in my photograph.  And isn't it very well camouflaged while hiding in the reeds?  No wonder it is hard to spot.

Bittern in the reeds

Larger view of the well-camouflaged Bittern