Wednesday 19 February 2020

Slow times at Beddington Farmlands

Been very slow recently, too much wind and rain for moth trapping and too mild and wet to bother spending too much time in the field. However been over the farmlands a couple of times with Kojak. Ebird list for today HERE.

Seemed to be a few migrant Redwings hanging around the mounds and also one Fieldfare. The high water levels were pushing Snipe around. Also one Wigeon and four Pheasants were on the Oak Copse (the site of the illegal tree felling). 

 Fieldfare 
 Redwings 
Lapwings - good to see a  winter flock still hanging in there despite all the pressures. The tables below show the overall decline of Lapwing on site since the 1997 baseline. How much longer will they hang in there? The breeding population shows a similar number to baseline but there have been fluctuations in between and numbers are now decreasing. The Tree Sparrow crash of 2013 followed a period of wintering decline too before the breeding population suddenly crashed indicating that wintering numbers could be a better indication of population stress compared to, for example, an ageing and increasing unproductive breeding population. The urgency to restore the farmlands to create new habitat and protect the breeding population cannot be over stated.

Lapwing Annual maxima (on ground, not including hard weather movements)
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
165
150
250
150
130
130
170
140
110
120
150
141


2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Population in decline.
nc
nc
nc
50
74
70
41
41
68
40
25

Lapwing Breeding Population
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
11
9
13
13
14
24
25
21
21
23
20
27


2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Population in decline following a period of growth
21
14
13
14
11
10
10
11
12
13
10

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