Once I had worked out that there was no real problem climbing over the fence I parked up and jumped over. Once I was up the bank I scanned as my Nikon would allow in the poor dim early morning light. The only birds on show were Pied’s. I worked out my bearings and headed down the east bank towards the south east corner where it was reported the previous evening. After a few hundred metres I noticed a small bird heading away from me along the concrete bank. A meadow pipit it be was. I continued down and soon saw another 4 Pipits all Meadow. I 200 metres away from the corner and decided to have a scan along the bank in front for as far as I could. Half way down along the south bank 500 metres away I found the Shore Lark walking tight to the concrete wall busily feeding away and walking away from me, i used my pace and was soon only a few hundred metres away but still wasn’t totally satisfied with the views. I managed to get to about 25 metres way, where the bird still looked comfortable feeding without any real sign of my presence affecting him. The bright colours of lemon yellow contrasting with what appeared to be jet black facial markings leads me to belive this is a male bird and a handsome first foe London and second ever sighting wel over fifteen years apart, truly worth all the effort.
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