Birds and bridges - Battersea Park and the Thames - January 2019

An early January walk in Battersea Park with my camera on a vey overcast day resulted in the following photographs:

A male blackbird hopping around in the dead leaves at the base of a bare-branched tree

Two male Tufted ducks swimming around in the lake

A pair of Northern Shoveler ducks - with the female in head-bobbing mode

A tall bare-branched tree at the edge of the lake with Cormorants sitting in the branches

There was a heron towards the top of another nearby tall tree

Gulls, swans and ducks headed towards the footpath in order to be fed by a small group of people that had gathered there.  Chimneys and cranes belonging to Battersea Power Station can be seen behind the modern flats in the background.

A Heron was perching on iron railings at the edge of the lake and more Cormorants or Herons were perching at the top of another tall tree in the distance.

A Magpie showed me his/her beautiful blue feathers as I walked behind along the gravel path.

Where have all the people gone?  It was a very dull day and hardly anyone was in the park.

Catkins hung from one of the trees at the edge of the lake.

A Magpie perched for a moment on the branch of a Jacaranda tree.

A heron with a twig in it's beak flew up above it's nest at the top of the Heronry.

There were several nests in the Heronry and this one was occupied by a pair of Herons.

Heron's nests at the top of a couple of tall trees at the edge of the lake.

Two ducks took off from the lake and flew across the colourless sky.

At the end of my walk round the lake, I walked along the Thames at the edge of Battersea Park.  The lights were by then shining on Battersea Bridge.

Chelsea Bridge was also lit up.  The Shard was sticking out of the top of the tall building on the left.

A red London bus crossed Chelsea Bridge in front of the Shard.

The railway bridge and Vauxhall Tower could be seen from the other side of Chelsea Bridge.  The new American Embassy, with lights blazing, is on the right-hand side of the photograph.

I had a lovely walk around the lake in Battersea Park and along the nearby Thames path, but I would have preferred a brighter day weather-wise!

May blossom, birds and architecture - Battersea Park and the Thames

During the first week in May, my camera and I went for a walk in Battersea Park.  Unfortunately, this time we were unlucky with wildlife spotting.  There were only a few of the usual suspects around.

A heron was clinging for dear life onto a set of railings.

A mallard drake was lurking near the edge of the lake.

A female mallard was doing the same.

Luckily, however, there were lovely blossoms on the trees.  Below are a couple of Jacaranda trees that blend into one and looked absolutely wonderful.  The photograph does not justice at all to the amazing sight of these trees in full bloom.

On the path near the lake was this shrub covered with white blossoms.  Unfortunately, I do not know what it is called.  It looked very pretty in the sunshine.

The wildlife situation was so bad that I was reduced to taking this photo of a carrion crow sitting on a branch by the river Thames.  In the background is Chelsea Bridge and the tower of the water pumping station across the river in Pimlico/Victoria.

This time I went to investigate the new area that is now open in front of Battersea Power Station.  There were a couple of mallards standing on the wall opposite the water pumping station.  I think that they were waiting for a ferry to come and pick them up!

I loved the back view of their heads.  Here is the female mallard.

What a great iridescent green head this mallard drake has.

A huge man-made bird flew over the new glass greenhouse flats next to Battersea Power Station.

The new pink Nova building in Victoria can be seen at the right-hand side of the photograph below.

Here is a view of the very tall tower in Vauxhall, with the amazingly-shaped buildings behind.

Across the river, in Pimlico, fancy trees are painted at the top of this block of flats.

I crossed over Chelsea Bridge and walked along the other side of the river.  Below is a photograph of Battersea Power Station and the horrible new flats next to it.

There a lots of trees along the side of the river and I liked the view of the Power Station seen through the over-hanging branches.

A very disappointing day for wildlife - but good for Spring blossoms and architecture!

Birds on ice in London's Battersea Park, Battersea Power Station and the view from Chelsea Bridge

Yesterday afternoon it was dry and not as cold as the last few days, so my camera decided to take me on another walk round the lake in Battersea Park.  It was a bit misty along the river Thames on the way to the park and quite overcast, so not really the best day for photography, but at least it was not raining.  On my way along the river I passed Battersea Power Station - now with a lot of work being done to it as it is converted into flats, etc.

This is a view of the power station through a motley-looking tree.

Below is a photograph of Chelsea Bridge, which I had to walk over in order to get to Battersea Park on the other side of the river.

Below is the view from Chelsea Bridge and shows the railway bridge over the river with a very misty Vauxhall Tower in the distance on the left-hand side and the new American Embassy (still under construction) on the right-hand side.

When I got into the park, I discovered that part of the lake was frozen over and birds were standing on the ice.  Here is a collection of dancing black-headed gulls.

This black-headed gull looks as though it is wondering what is going on and thinking how cold its feet are.

These two gulls are standing right near the edge of the ice.

Further round the lake there were amazing reflections of the trees in the ice and lots of twigs and sticks sitting on top of the frozen water. 

A very bemused-looking heron was standing on the ice - must be hard trying to fish in these conditions!

There were lots of black-headed gulls standing on the frozen water on the other side of the lake, behind the heron.

Here two coots are having trouble with walking on the ice.

There is a another small lake further round the park and there was a row of male and female Mallards standing on the ice in the middle of this.

There were patches of open water in the lake where I saw several pairs of Northern Shovelers and Gadwalls, a Cormorant, Great Crested Grebe, Tufted duck, a large collection of Coots and the park's resident Mute Swan family - pen, cob and 7 juvenile swans.  I hope to put photographs of them in another blog post when I have time.