Jonathan Lethbridge’s Monday update at Wanstead Birder:
“Wanstead is still grabbing the news for all the wrong reasons. My patch has become a crime scene, and is also described as an East London Beauty Spot. Hmmmm… No more birds have died since Saturday. That unfortunate Pigeon on the ITN broadcast was the last one.”
Reports also at London Tonight (in video), BBC London news (text) and the London Evening Standard (text).
Jonathan Lethbridge, of the Wanstead Birder blog, today reports that more birds have been found dead on Wanstead Flats after a suspected poisoning. He writes that he now has more accurate numbers of deaths – 79, rather than the 100 he thought yesterday.
[T]hat is still an awful lot. The majority are Crows… I spotted another dead bird in the water… and then commented to the others present that one of the Pigeons didn’t look at all well. This proved to be correct, and within a few minutes it was flapping its last on the bank, whilst a group of male Pigeons thoughtfully mated with it as it lay there helpless. The [ITN] film crew were there to capture its final moments… Actually seeing a Pigeon croaking is probably very pleasing to many Londoners…
Atchara Nualpenyai who ran a brothel above Chicken Spot in Wanstead High St, in which she made Thai women – who had been trafficked to the UK – work off massive debts to her, and who was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison last year has had her sentence cut to five years by the Court of Appeal.
Birds have been dying on Wanstead Flats – and poisoning is suspected. More here.
A house between two other houses? An application has been made to build a new house between two other houses in Onslow Gardens on Wanstead’s Nightingale Estate in place of the existing two adjoining garages. If it’s approved, could it open the floodgates to any number of new houses being shoehorned in the gaps between Wanstead homes? The Wanstead Guardian has a picture and quotes from worried neighbours.
London Datastore, a group which aims to make as much public data free and usuable by the public, says it’s had an “amazing” meeting with Redbridge Council at which the council said they were ready to share lots of their data.
Harry Cohen, outgoing MP for Leyton and Wanstead, is being investigated by police over his expenses. Coverage here in the The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, and Daily Mail.
The Wanstead Guardian also ran a story on Wansteadium’s spotting of mistletoe in Charnwood Drive.
