Easterlies!

We are all getting rather excited about the east winds coming this weekend. Check out the Met Office weather forecast for Monday..... I'm having a long weekend!

850th Species

Caloptilia semifascia

 

Caught one of these last night- my 850th Beddington species. My Beddington Pan Species List here:

http://peteralfrey.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/beddington-biodiversity.html

Also a few Horse Chestnut Leaf Miners flying around now and just caught my 5th Dewick's Plusia for this year. A Little Owl was calling a few moments ago from Irrigation Bridge.

Easterlies are due on the weekend so hopefully this spell of prevailing winds will break and we get some more bird migrants.

Birthday Local Patching

My 40th birthday today and Beddington supplied a surprise out of the blue with a juvenile Gannet yesterday evening and a new moth tick- a Red-green Carpet. The Gannet was the 9th record for Beddington (my 5th record and 7th individual but first one on the deck).
 Pics here on David's blog (I twitched it with no gear after Derek raised the alarm):
http://devilbirder.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/local-gannet.html

The Gannet twitch

Red-Green Carpet (rhs) and Burnished Brass 

Beddington Gulls

 



Spent today looking for migrants and ticks (for the pan-species list). Pretty quiet on the migrant front in these prevailing wind conditions. However a few bits an bobs- 50+ House Martin, 20+ Swallow, 5 Sand Martin, 10+ Meadow Pipit, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Blackcap, 5 Chiffchaff, 1 Sedge Warbler, 6 Green Sandpiper and also 1 Peregrine. 40+ Stock Doves on the mound and also 20+ Linnet and 10+ Goldfinch on the edge.
Got a few bugs and beetles that I need to id too.

September Beddington Farmlands Nature Walk

Led a walk around the farmlands today. Not too many migrants about in these prevailing wind conditions but plenty of waterfowl on the Southern Lake, a few hirundines hawking over the North Lake and about 30 Grey Herons too. We had a look at the restoration and discussed some of the issues surrounding the Incinerator proposal. More on that here:  http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/beddington-farmlands-erf-planning.html

Teal and Shoveler- 150+ Teal and 50+ Shoveler on the Southern Lake 

Up to 2000 Starlings around recently. A flock here flying in front of the Shard. 

 

A few migrants

Wheatear- four on the newly cut mound today 

Whinchat- only the third one this autumn at Beddington. Also Yellow Wagtail and Meadow Pipit on the mound and 2 House Martin flying around. Also 30+ Stock Dove feeding on the mound.

 

The tip is full of Starlings and Corvids at the moment- about 2000+ Starling and 500+ Jackdaws/Carrion Crows

Dewick's Plusia- the third one this year caught in the trap yesterday  

A few more recent moths (left to right) - Center Barred Sallow, Willow Beauty and Light Emerald

BEDDINGTON FARMLANDS ERF PLANNING APPLICATION

INCINERATOR (ERF) PLANNING APPLICATION


As many would have heard a planning application has been submitted to build an Energy Recovery Facility (i.e. an incinerator) on Beddington Farmlands.

The view of the bird and wildlife group is that we do not support the application because Beddington Farmlands is Metropolitan Open Land (Green Belt) and also the incinerator is not complimentary to the ethos of the nature and country park that Beddington Farmlands is being developed into. The restoration of Beddington Farmlands has been compromised and delayed for many years and most of the species that were targeted for conservation have declined. Therefore our support is not for an incinerator but for conservation targets to be met and for the restoration to be delivered for a nature area for people and wildlife.

The deadline for public consultation of the Beddington Farmlands Incinerator is on 18th September so there is still time to make your comments here:

http://213.122.180.105/FASTWEB/comment.asp?AltRef=D2012/66220&ApplicationNumber=66220&AddressPrefix=&submit1=Go

or you can email your comments to:

developmentcontrol@sutton.gov.uk

Every comment is very important in the planning decision making process.

Previous posts here: http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Incinerator

Sunny Sunday

Hobby eating a dragonfly (probably a Migrant Hawker as quite a few of these about) 

Kestrel on the mound- 4 or 5 of these hunting on the mounds 

Ringing session this morning produced a few migrants- Chiffchaff, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat and Reed Warbler. Not so many migrants about in the continuing hot and sunny weather 

Sedge Warbler 

Paradise Shelducks (I think) flying over 

The Southern Lake from the Mound- plenty of ducks on the southern lake. The reeds are taking off better now (below). The Mound is due to mowed this week and soon seeded to produce a species rich grassland over the southern restored area.