Awooo, Where Birds of London?

I wasn’t expecting to have as good a time in London as I did. I’d visited once before, about ten years ago, for a wedding. I didn’t do much then, but a friend took us to a proper pub in the East End (The Grapes) but I was dismayed about how the tourist trade had taken over. This time around, we had locals to advise us on where to go, and it was much better all around. Expensive for sure, but no worse than any other metropolis. Far right trolls on the internet may have you thinking it’s overrun by gangs of Clockwork Orange thugs in tracksuits, or “doesn’t look British anymore” (that’s racist code for “too many immigrants”) but I encountered neither in my week-long stay, and I wandered many neighborhoods and parks, from Camden Town to Canary Wharf, Aldgate to Brixton. (Didn’t rock down to Electric Avenue, sadly.)

The Fox and the Girl statue at Regent’s Park.

I did see a lot of birds, and I’m not using the British term. I didn’t carry my big camera because frankly it’s a pain in the arse, to use the British term. So, I apologize for the phone quality pictures. My favorite were the Rose-Ringed Parakeets all over the parks! They’re feral, escaped from aviaries during a storm in 1987, and now they’re everywhere. Invasive perhaps, but a joy to see and hear.

The birds were quite acclimated to people in the parks; and the people were quite friendly compared to the States. The few times I ran into rudeness or loudness they were Americans immigrants to the U.K., like the couple who decided that arguing about their screaming toddler was best done next to the man reading a book at the top of Primrose Hill, because why not inflict their business on everyone trying to enjoy the view? If they have to suffer for their life choices, why shouldn’t we?

I could have watched the magpies stalk through the grass all day. They were much less noisy. And people find these lovelies annoying?

I visited Primrose Hill, Kensington Gardens, and Regent’s Park. I saw an Egyptian Goose, but didn’t get a good photo; these Greylag Geese were more accommodating.

In Regent’s Park there’s an abundance of waterfowl. I caught this Gray Heron in a less than flattering moment of preening, a Great Cormorant, and a Eurasian Coot with a mouthful of greens.

Not pictured? Lots of Tufted Ducks and Red-crested Pochards, swans galore. At Chatsworth in the North, I saw a Eurasian Moorhen, Canada Geese, and got a brief glimpse of this fellow from afar… a Mandarin Duck!

I’m eager to see one up close! There is a feral population in Britain, and they are often seen in parks in Dublin and Berlin, so I’ll have to go looking next time.

Londoners weren’t as friendly as the folks in Glasgow; we somehow managed to follow Google Maps into the middle of an unsanctioned drunken football parade, and we survived unscathed. We weren’t even scolded. One young man asked if I was a Celtics fan and I knew the answer was an enthusiastic yes with a big stupid American smile, and that got us through. In Glasgow we found plenty of swans and magpies in the parks, and songbirds hiding in the trees. This swan and cygnets made their nest on a concrete ramp under the Falkirk Wheel, and the operators put up signs to protect them.

The Kelpies are near the Falkirk Wheel, about an hour outside town. I loved the Glasgow city murals, especially the modernized St. Mungo, the patron saint of the city, and the Robin he brought back to life after his schoolmates had killed it.

I didn’t explore too many parks in Glasgow, but we walked along the Clyde. It’s a lovely city, and its people and the proximity to the Highlands makes it my favorite city of the U.K. that I’ve visited. Helps that we have a few friends there. We have friends in London as well, but it’s such an expensive city, and getting out of it to explore something wild is an adventure in itself… I made the mistake of driving to the Jane Austen house, which was worth the trip, but took most of a day. The rolling green countryside that inspired Watership Down was lovely to see, and I will visit London again.

In Glasgow we visited Shawlands, the City Center, the Glasgow Green, the Cathedral and Necropolis, Finnieston, Barras Market, Trongate… I love Monorail Music, and I just missed seeing Mogwai play! They were sold out, or I would have gone.