Lea Valley, 13th June 2026

This was a very pleasant but sometimes frustrating wander through the Lea Valley.  A combination of the subject distance, heat haze and busy backgrounds meant even my extremely-overkill camera was struggling to focus a lot of the time, meaning I left with rather more record shots than pictures I’d want to put up on the wall.

But still, a bird’s a bird, and they’re nice to see even if you don’t get any pictures that will go into National Geographic - even more so when they’re not the kind of thing I’d see on a wander round Brockwell.

This walk featured:

Common Whitethroat, miraculously in focus

It’s summer migrant season and the whitethroats were everywhere.  Heard more than seen, but sometimes they’d obligingly jump out onto an exposed branch, like this one.  

Actually don’t know what this one is. Possibly a flycatcher, on the basis it has caught some flies.

This one was jumping about in the far trees toward the railway track, as you take the path from Cheshunt toward Bowyer’s Water.  I took so many pictures of it hoping to get at least something in focus, and this was as good as it got.

I’m not entirely sure what it is.  My first thought was Spotted Flycatcher; Gemini thinks it’s a Nightingale, with an outside chance of Garden Warbler.  Any of them would be pretty cool.

A while later, around the other side of the lakes, there was something angry in one of the bushes that Merlin thought was a Garden Warbler, so maybe that makes it more likely.  Can’t give any kind of firm ID either way, though.

Summer shade is no match for Lightroom’s AI denoise.

Rather closer up, a far more amenable Dunnock sat on a branch for a bit while I paparazzed it.

Lightroom’s noise removal is amazing.  This was in heavy shade and I was still at 1/1600 f8 from trying to grab the Nightinden Catcher, so the ISO was at 12800 and I had to raise exposure a bit in post.  One run through in LR and it comes out clean as you like.

On Bowyer’s Water itself, Greylag geese were patrolling, a pair of Pochards floated in the middle distance and a Little Egret did a flyover.  I didn’t stay there long; on this walk I was mostly interested in smaller birds, like this one:

Sedge Warbler posing, camera struggling

The marsh between the River Lea Navigation and the River Lea itself had Sedge Warblers in the scrub.  This was another one the camera had an incredibly hard time focusing on properly, and as such it’s not a good picture of a Sedge Warbler, but you can at least tell it definitely is a Sedge Warbler.

Preening Coot, which would sound like an insult anywhere else.

On the way toward the river, this Coot was parping gently to itself while preening.  You can shoot coots on any bit of water in London, but this picture I genuinely like.  The different grades of green, front he sharp bright leaves to the soft dark haze of the foliage I was shooting through, tie the whole thing together like the Dude’s rug, and then the red eye in the middle is a nice contrasting focus.

Chiffchaff, more goth than it should be.

This one was rather less successful.  I’ve got about 27,000 pictures of Chiffchaffs, but I still can’t resist a picture when one’s just sitting there out in the open.  But since I have 27,000 pictures of them, I tried to do something different, leaning into the dead tree it was sitting on and going for something gothic, with mono high-contrast.  I don’t think it really worked, but eh, not everything you try will be a winner.

Common Tern

In the Hooksmarsh car park there was an ice cream van.  This is relevant because it meant I was eating ice cream when this Common Tern came flashing up the river, in the company of a few Black-headed Gulls.  So this picture was taken one-handed while I tried not to throw my cone into the hedge.  If anyone ever asks you if you can really hand-hold the 200-600 - yes, yes you can.

Blackcap, hiding.

On the way to the Bittern hide I met another migrant, this camera-shy Blackcap.  They’re another bird you can see all over London at this time of year, but they can be quite shy, so I quite like image of it hidden in the branches.  This also shows the lens can nail focus when it isn’t fighting against several disadvantages at once.

Calm, stately Canada Geese. Nothing like real life.

This is probably my favourite picture of the day just based on the picture itself, rather than because it’s got a cool thing in it.  It’s bright and summery and the pair of Canada Geese look sedate and serene - two adjectives which could never seriously be applied to actual Canada Geese.

Reed Bunting

The day’s final spot was this Reed Bunting, hidden in the reedbeds on the way back to Cheshunt Lock.  This picture I’ve made a bit stylised - extra contrast, texture on the background whacked all the way down with the bird itself slightly sharpened.

Also a Reed Bunting

This one’s rather more naturalistic, with a wide-angle crop to emphasise the small bird amongst the jungle of reeds.

The most surprising bird of the day I didn’t actually see at all.  On the walk up past Lea Valley Lake, a cuckoo called from somewhere toward the river.  It’s the first one I’ve heard this year and, given the time, could well be the last.