Beddington Farmlands Update

For a full update on what's happening at Beddington Farmlands see report by Dave Burton from Inside Croydon HERE.

If you want the brief version it's basically nothing is happening apart from the usual powerless council having rings run round them by vulture capitalists. A masterclass from the corpocracy on how to breach planning and environmental law and commit ecocide and drive inequality with impunity. It really is an inspiration for all other companies out there especially now that environmental regulation is being increased and companies will be forced to do some more loop hole jumping. Valencia and Viridor and KKR & Co Inc before them have demonstrated perfectly how to circumnavigate any environmental or ecological regulations and continue committing ecocide and social decline with the full cooperation of the national conservation-NGO, Environmental Consultancy and environmental government communities. 

If you ever needed proof and a defining case study that nature and the majority of humanity is being systematically destroyed by all players in the system including the nature conservation/environmental cohorts then look no further. The Battle for Beddington Farmlands, a story of the world in microcosm, of how corporations, the government, the non-governmental sector and the public all conspire agaisnt nature. It tells the story of the state of the entire planet, a story with quite a concerning plot,  for much of nature and humanity, we are all on the brink of extinction.       

Little Oak Lodge- 150 trees planted

In our drive to plant and own 3200 trees (800 tonnes of carbon per family member to offset a lifetime's carbon footprint) we planted a hedgerow of Wild Cherry, Wild Pear and Buckthorn yesterday at Little Oak Lodge. It was only 150 tree whips (which need to survive for 100 years!)  but this adds to the several hundred more mature trees we have on our Bulgaria site (which we will need to expand). Also we have a large margin of error as not only are we reducing our carbon use (to try and get below 10 tonne each a year which is the UK average) but also we are not carbon accounting for the soils and other plant life etc so 3200 trees on wilding land will hopefully be way beyond out family footprint so hopefullly we will be firmly nature positive. Not sure any of this is an exact science but broadly along the right lines. 

A Robin flew into the conservatory while we working and we had Reed Bunting, Firecrest and 2 Egyptian Geese go over too while in the garden. 

There have been a few rare moth migrants blown in with Storm Bert incuding a Levant Blackneck in Dorset (found by Joe). So I've been persisting with the moth trap but no such luck here. However there were a few moths yesterday night with 2 Rusty-dots,  Angle Shades, 2 December moth, November moth, Feathered Thorn and 2 Yellow-lined Quaker. The weather is set to improve this weekend for insect migrants so will keep at it despite it being winter!   

Hedgerow planting. Still want to add another 5-6 specimen trees across the garden and plant up borders and beds with plants for pollinators and also grow some wildflower margins

First-winter Robin - aged by moult contrast in greater coverts which have rusty colour hooks to the inner greater coverts 

Storm Bert, Day Three

The wind eased off a bit today and by mid-morning the sun was out and Bert was fading away. Not a bad morning seawatch with highlights including an incredible 22 Great Northern Divers (presumably re-orienting with a flock of 6 and birds flying overhead high too) , a Long-tailed Duck and 2 Velvet Scoter. Ebird list HERE. 

After the two and half hour seawatch I did a bit of post-storm exploring (looking for moribund birds) so walked along the seafront past Hillfield Car Park to coastguards and then back the other way to East Beach and checked the freshwater pond there too. Nothing extra but did find a feeding area for gulls at Coastguards and next time there's a storm will keep an eye on that area. 

Interestingly when the sun came out I had 2-3 Painted Ladies flying around and a dragonfly went darting past too- presumably migrants pushed in on Bert's warm airflow. For fear of the moth trap blowing away I didn't put it out the last two nights but I put it on for two hours this morning before it got light and had a Diamond-back and a December moth. Will try tonight as there could well be some migrant moths blown in. 

Great Northern Divers on the move- 22 was an all time record count for Selsey Bill 

Long-tailed Duck - another patch tick, now on 177 HERE. Seems to have a white crown and extensive black patch on the lower breast/upper belly suggesting a male bird although no sign of the tail and also maybe the face should be darker on a male (see postscript below) ? . Slightly better views of LTD from earlier this year HERE and a range of plumage shots HERE

Velvet Scoters 

I wish I checked this area out over the last couple of days because this is where all the gulls were being pushed. Only a Med Gull today and this presumed juvenile/first-winter Northern Herring Gull (below)

Postscript: On the matter of sexing Long-tailed Ducks in flight here's a few selected images from a trip to Estonia earlier this year:

A pair of Long-tailed Ducks (above) with an obvious and stunning adult male so presumably both adults. The long tail on the male is obvious and would be at distance too. The white scapulars cojoined with the white rump/uppertail coverts is very distinctive too and are also obvious in what appears to be a first-winter male and female (below) . 

Female-type birds  (above and below) showing some of the variation in head and breast patterns. 

Storm Bert Day Two

Quite dissappointing today. Despite there being Cory's Shearwater and Leach's reported in the Solent and multiple Sabine's Gull in East Sussex and Kent, if anything there were less seabirds off Selsey this morning than yesterday. A Little Gull was the highlight here but I missed that but was still nice to see the Kittiwakes on the move (about 90 again in about two and half hours). Ebird list from this morning HERE.

Kittiwakes on the move 

First-winter Kittiwake (above and below, same bird). Amazing how the vivid dark markings on the upperwing is completely invisible on most of the underwing except for the other primary and the outer primary tips) and the alula? 

Quite a few smart Red-breasted Mergansers going through today 

Great Northern Diver battling into the wind

A few close Gannets going by

Also had this rather striking first-winter white-headed gull (above and below).  The contrasting white head and neck shall suggests a Yellow-legged/Caspian Gull and the pale upperparts with what appears to be pencil streaking is more consistent with a Caspian Gull. There are plain grey mantle features which appear light grey. With any mantle feathers in a Yellow-legged gull I would either expect pale edged with large dark centred or anchor shaped markings or plain darker blue-grey feathers.  The upperwing is very dark and appears mainly juvenile with some moulted inner coverts but the overall lack of chequered appearance of the coverts also fits Caspian more. The tail doesn't seem to taper towards the tip (also pro-Caspian) and the underwing on the image below looks whitish (another pro-Caspian feature). However there is dark mask around the eye and some light head streaking and the head and bill are quite compact (which could be consistent with a female bird anyway). For me the dark markings in the head and the structure indicates a mix of features but lots of pro-Caspian features but a not a pure bird and therefore presumably an intergrade.  

Storm Bert

The weather has been wild today as Storm Bert has been battering the UK. I was on dad duty this morning so missed the daily Selsey Seawatch which produced a Sooty Shearwater, Great Skua and Fulmars HERE but I was able to get in a couple of hours between eleven and one and then I returned with Isaac for another hour around 3pm (I used five bananas to keep him quiet while I seawatched from Hillfield Road Car Park). Highlights were a movement of 96 Kittiwakes going East (some very close at the Car Park), 25 Common Scoter, 15 Red-breasted Merganser, another Black-throated Diver, 7 Great Northern and 3 Red-throated Diver and 2 Bar-tailed Godwits. Ebird list HERE. 

The weather continues tomorrow so looking forward to what tomorrow may bring. 

Kitiwakes on the move (above) . Kittiwakes have been recorded inland all week (see HERE) including small flocks at the old stomps in Oxon and also at Beddington Farmlands. Inland sightings have been in a central inland belt between Sheffield and London. There were also 500 moving past Dungeness on Friday and 4 Sabine's there today too. Also the odd Leach's at Portland and in Kent today. 

Female/juvenile Common Scoters 

Great Northern Diver , the dark bars on the auxillaries are well shown on this image 

Male Red-breasted Merganser 

Black-throated Diver 

Juvenile/ first-winter Shag

Bar-tailed Godwits 

Great Northern Diver and Storm Bert 

Selsey Bill, Black-throated Diver

After a week of cold easterlies, frosts and snow, today was brighter but still with a cold northwesterly. The highlight of a couple of hours at the daily seawatch was a Black-throated Diver and also a single Great Northern, 6 Red-throats, about 50 Kittiwakes (they've been moving across land this week, see here for a cracking group at Port Meadow, Oxon HERE) and Common Scoters, Red-breasted Mergansers and Razorbills. Ebird list HERE . More photos and other news from the Peninsula as usual on the local blog HERE

Black-throated Diver was a Peninsula/Sussex tick, now on 176 HERE. 

There is an incredible transformation of the weather predicted for tonight. We should be going from frost and freezing wind today to saharan sand in the morning and day time temperatures of 17 C by Sunday. It's nearly freezing (about 3 C) outside at the moment but I've put the moth trap on because around mid-night the warm air comes in (possibly with moth migrants at the leading edge) and by the morning it should be 10 C.  A lot of wind and rain comes in too so will be interesting what happens. 

Black-throated Diver (above and below).  A few diagnostic features include the evenly curved bill (lower mandible strongly curved in Red-throat), over 50 percent of the neck is dark (much less in Red-throat although juveniles have a diffuse wash) darker along the bottom edge , with a broadish flank line (diffuse and broken on Red-throat) and unmarked white auxillaries (marked with long streaks on Red-throat), the white flanks wrap further up the rump and the trailing legs are large and well protruding. NB. The flank stripe is a diagnostic feature for in-flight Pacific Diver which has a broad and even stripe. (HEB, Duivendijk 2024) 

Red-throated Diver for comparison showing the curved lower mandible, only half of neck is dark, there are streaks/marks on the auxillaries, the flank line looks solid and broad in this bird, actually more substantial than the Black-throat (generally more diffuse and broken, so usually the opposite), there is no wrap up of the white underparts towards the rump and the trailing legs appear a bit less substantial

Red-throated Diver (left) and Black-throated Diver (right), side by side comparison shots (above and below). In the pic below the slightly larger size and heavier structure of Black-throat is exaggerated by the photo effect. 

Great Northern Diver - even at this distance the overall jizz, bulk and long thick trailing legs of the bird suggests a Great Northern. Not sure what the gull is, in clear winter skies looking into the sun it wasn't easy viewing this morning.  

Little Oak Lodge in yesterday's wintery conditions 

Selsey Bill and East Side

The weather is deteriotating from tomorrow so I thought I'd make the most of the calm weather and did a good seven hours in the field today. I started off joining the daily Selsey Bill Seawatch HERE and then went over to East Side for the high tide HERE. 87 species across both sites (including Avocet and Shoveler on a drive by of Ferry) and nearly 7000 birds on East side marking a clear major influx recently of wintering birds. The Brents, waders and other waterbirds have seemingly been arriving at night as there have been no major movements off the coast with just numbers continung to swell in the harbour more or less day on day. 

Highlights today included 4 Velvet Scoter off the Bill (a patch tick so now on 175 HERE) , 7 Great Northern and 4 Red-throated Divers also there and on East Side highlights included 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 1 Bearded Tit calling, 10 Rock Pipit, 1 Dartford Warbler, 1 Brambling, a late Barn Swallow and the main highlight was the sheer spectacle of the thousands of birds now gathering in the harbour.

Three different Rock Pipits today showing how variable they were. The top two with prominent superciliums are presumably littoralis- although if I remember right  the current thinking is that all UK wintering Rock Pipits (outside their breeding areas) are littoralis (from Northern Europe) which would make sense.  

As good as the views get at the Bill- Velvet Scoters

Last time I was at Pagham a week or so ago there were only about 500 Brents around and today there must have been at least 2000 (above and photos below). Epic scenes. 

Male Stonechat 

Dartford Warbler- as is customary it was loosely associating with three Stonechats in the gorse by Pagham Lagoon 

Don't always get a photo op of a Cetti's

Red-throated Diver in the harbour mouth 

Dunlin, Knot and Grey Plover at the Spit- must have been nearly 2000 birds here. I could only see 2 Barwits across the whole harbour

Mystery of the day was this hybrid duck in with the Wigeon. The American wigeon looking head seems stuck on to a mystery body and bill. Not sure what combination can throw up this? Gadwall x Wigeon maybe or an American Wigeon hybrid? Maybe a hybrid with White-cheeked Pintail ? Maybe something from Arundel?  Thanks Andrew and Ed for suggestions .