Olympic birding

We had a great trip to the Olympic Park yesterday to watch some of the hockey (go GB!). I kept a tally of the birds I saw whilst on the site, and amassed a total of 12 species, including plenty of Cormorants commuting backwards and forwards, and a Common Tern, as well as several Sand Martins over one of the wetland areas; there is an artificial martin bank so I did wonder if they'd bred successfully.

The Olympic Park was extremely impressive, and some of the planting and habitat areas were quite interesting. The wetland areas all looked well established and fairly naturalistic; the wildflower meadows were also quite nice (where they hadn't been trampled down or sat upon), some consisting of native species (if a little heavy on Restharrow), and others with a range of native and showy non-native species creating a bit of a pastiche of a wildflower meadow (which I wasn't so keen upon...), but overall the effect was good, and the bees were certainly taking full advantage!

Park Live, with the Olympic Stadium on the left