According to my favorite German birding guide, Great Britain is the “motherland of birding.” In fact, the authors advise that if you really want to know about the birds in any particular region of the world (including Germany), you had better hope that a Brit has already been there, because if so, he certainly has written a book about it.

So I wasn’t at all surprised to overhear no less than three conversations about birding in my jaunts around town (including one overheard from a bathroom stall in the National Gallery), nor to find that I had competition when attempting to browse the incredible birding section at Foyles. I also noticed that no one raised an eyebrow when I was standing in the street looking at trees through my binoculars. Here in Berlin I always get suspicious stares when I’m out observing.

Unfortunately it was very cold and windy while I was in London, so I spent more time indoors than out. I did take a nice walk through Hyde Park however, where I heard the lovely, quiet song of this little gentleman, an old-world robin. He very kindly let me photograph him while he sang. In fact, he seemed used to the idea.

In an old cemetery in Battersea I saw a few of the famous south-London Parakeets. Their excited squawking and bright new-world coloring was a defiant contrast to the grey, gothic, tumble-down place. Unfortunately I could only get a dark photo, but you get the idea.

The Thames is swarming with birds. I was regretting that I hadn’t done a better job studying my gulls and cormorants. I was also regretting forgetting my binoculars that day. But here is a shot of a gulp of cormorants on the Thames: