It was the first week of April, and I was amongst the first to enter the London Wetland Centre, a flagship reserve of the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (WWT) at Barnes, a little village on the outskirts of Central London. The reserve is bordered by the Thames footpath and the Thames River on one side, whilst the drive to the entrance passes a large area of manicured playing fields. A short walk away is Barnes, which still retains a gentle village atmosphere. It is an idyllic location with good transport links from central London. The Thames footpath runs between the river and the reserve and allows another route into the site for those who may want to combine a riverside walk with a visit to the site. However, there are no direct views of the river from the reserve. On this visit, I headed along a wooded path to what is known as the lagoon. The lagoon is inside the reserve, but tens of meters away and outside the reserve is the river, from where I could hear the shouts of boat coxes as crews trained on the river.

The entire reserve is man-made but comprises a rich matrix of habitats with wooded hedges, phragmites reedbeds, lakes, and various water features, including seasonally flooded wet meadows, ponds, and channels linking the various water features. I had visited the week before with my wife and spent a leisurely three hours and seen 42 species of birds, which highlights how good the site is for wild birds. On this visit, I was focused on photography, and it exceeded my expectations.

The trees and shrubs had begun to don their mantles of green in mid-March. In the first week of April, it was still not dense enough to obscure returning migrants who were in the canopy foraging for insects. The conditions were still good to obtain reasonably clear views of warblers that had returned for the summer. I stood by some benches at a lagoon viewpoint. I heard a blackcap singing, and soon a male blackcap came into view. I could see that it was a male from the black cap; the females have a red cap. Another two weeks, and the vegetation would have been too dense for me to have been able to take the pictures I managed.

I had arrived at 9.30 a.m. for the 10 a.m. opening of the reserve. I was the second person in and walked along the woodland bordering the lagoon to the ‘wader scrape’ feeling as if I had the whole place to myself. I enjoyed the spring morning and spent some time photographing some of the commoner birds, including the Blackcap, Robin, and Great Tit. The explosive calls of the elusive Cetti’s Warbler rang out intermittently, distracting me and making me hopeful that a bird would show itself. The London Wetland Centre has a very healthy population of this breeding bird. Despite some birds calling at very close range, I did not manage to get even a glimpse of one. However, I have noticed that over the years, Cetti’s Warblers in London sites, including WWT Barnes, are now becoming more inclined to offer a sighting. Perhaps the birds are becoming slightly more habituated. A pair of Jays flew in, with their blue wing bars catching the light. It is hard to believe that this beautiful pink bird is a kind of crow.

I settled down in the large birdwatching hide in what is known as wader scrape. Wader scrapes were originally pioneered on site, such as at RSPB Minsmere. They are areas where a layer of soil has been scraped off to create a shallow depression that can be filled with water to create shallow pools, which are good habitat for small waders such as Dunlin.

At the London Wetland, the water levels are carefully managed, and in summer, the water levels can be lowered to create islands, which create favourable conditions for ground nesting birds such as Little Ringed Plovers. Islands offer improved protection from land predators. I took time to observe a pair of Common Teal that were resting on the land. The male is stunning, with a green mask on its face. I could see other species of ducks, which included the tufted duck, mallard, pochard, and gadwall.

Near the hide is an artificial sand bank with nest holes that had been constructed especially for Sand Martins. This has been successful at the London Wetland for many years, with a flock of Sand Martins becoming a regular feature every spring and summer. At least 25 Sand Martins were present, visiting nest holes. Occassionaly, some would land briefly on the island and collect mud. They spend a huge amount of time in the air. Despite many visits to the site over many years, I have seen them perched on trees only on a few occasions. I have often wondered about this because barn swallows, which are in the same family, are often seen perched on overhead wires and trees.

Leaving the wader scrape hide, I continued the walk, circling the lagoon. I was able to see the Common Coots getting into two rounds of extended fighting. There is so much drama and action in Common Coot fights that I never tire of taking photographs, and I am still in search of the perfect image. Common Coots are a member of the rail family. Most rails are birds with narrow bodies that live within dense reed beds and are rarely seen. Coots and the closely related swamphens are wide-bodied birds that live out in the open and have given up the skulking and furtive lives of their family members.

Common Coots are extremely combative and seem to always spoil for a fight. The first sign is when a coot, with its wings arched over its back and neck outstretched snake-like and low over the water, approaches another. This is aggression being clearly signalled. A chase inevitable ensues, sometimes erupting into a fight. Not content with watching from the sidelines, one or two other coots join the fray. For a few seconds, water is whipped up into foam, and feathers fly.

A party of long-tailed Tit came crossed the path. A flash of yellow drew my attention to a brimstone butterfly. I continued on to take a seat inside the WWF hide. A hunting gray heron passed by very close. I noticed the fore-neck streaking. A Great Cormorant swam very close past the hide. On some islands close to the hide were Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Many of these birds are now habituated to people in London’s parks and allow a close approach. Nevertheless, in a bird hide, where people are less obviously visible, there is something special about being able to observe wild birds going about their everyday lives at close range and untroubled by the presence of people.

Back on a wooded path, I tried to photograph a singing Chiffchaff, which was silhouetted against a bright sky. Chiffchaffs are present in Britain throughout the year. But birds seen in winter are likely to be winter visitors from the continent. They find Britain’s weather milder. Chiffchaffs, which breed in Britain during the summer, tend to spend the winter in Arica. In winter, they are quiet and only utter their contact calls. In spring, they start to sing to establish breeding territories and attract a mate. Their songs are hesitant at first, with a stuttering mix of chiff and chaff notes. Before long, the confident ‘chiff chaff chiff chaff’ notes are ringing out. The Chiffchaff I was watching flew into a wooded border near a bird feeder with a viewing area. I followed it, and to my pleasant surprise, I found a juvenile male sparrowhawk perched.

It was unperturbed by people and gave me a baleful stare. It flew closer to the bird feeder, perched a few feet above, and watched the tits and finches that were visiting it. It flew away, and with the time coming up to 2 p.m., I went for lunch and a coffee at the café at the visitor centre. I had been at the London Wetland Centre for 4 hours, and it had been rewarding for wildlife photography. It had also given me some quality time to be close to nature and have a break from the big smoke. This is one of the reasons why I keep visiting it over and over again, and I always think about how privileged Londoners are to have such a well-managed, biodiverse nature reserve on their doorsteps with very good visitor infrastructure.