Spring Evening- Beddington Farmlands

Quite a few summer migrants singing away this evening- 4 Sedge Warbler, 5 Reed Warbler, 4 Whitethroat, 2 Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap and also 4 Little Ringed Plover (pic 2) about, 20+ Sand Martin, 15 Swift, 10+ Swallow, 4 Shelduck and 2 Little Egret. Still one Shoveler and the odd Teal still hanging in there. There's a few Gadwall hanging around so will be good if they stay to breed.

WANDLE VALLEY PARK/ BEDDINGTON FARMLANDS CONFERENCE

Spent today at the Wandle Valley Regional Park Conference organised by The Wandle Forum, Natural England and Groundwork London.

Johnny and I (me top pic) presented an update on the development of Beddington Farmlands Nature Reserve and also got loads of advice on how to develop things further (bottom pic).

At one point things got a little bit weird: see here: http://peteralfrey.blogspot.com/2010/04/wandleful-world.html

SAVE THE BRIDGE!

I had to take down my gate (http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/2010/03/gate.html)

to the farmlands becuase I didn't have permission, didn't own the fence or the land either side or some nonsense but now they want to demolish the bridge! This is winding me up- I'm going to have to tunnel under the railway to get there.

If the nature reserve visitors centre is going to be in the Hackbridge field than this bridge will be the main access route to the farmlands! We need it!

Portugal-Holland-Iceland- Beddington Farmlands

This colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit was at Beddington on the weekend. Roger has tracked down the migration history of this bird which is here: http://dodge007.blogspot.com/2010/04/black-tailed-godwit-update.html

Turns out this bird spends the summer in Iceland, winters in Portugal and passes through Holland and the UK in between. Strangely the bird was in Holland a few days ago and decided to come to Beddington which seems to be the wrong direction to get to Iceland- maybe didn't want to fly into the volcanic dust??

SPRING MIGRATION BIRD TOUR- BEDDINGTON FARMLANDS

What a great little day. A good turn out for the Spring Migration Bird Walk. Weather was on our side with some rain and cloud forcing migrants down. The undisputed highlight of the day was a reeling Grasshopper Warbler (around the 20th record for Beddington and only my second) which we found on 100 acre. Another highlight was this male Whinchat (pic 1) which was a prize for the late staying tour members. In terms of newly arrived migrants there were also 6 Wheatears, 20+ Swift, 15+ Sand Martin, 5+ Swallow, 15+ House Martin, 3 Reed Warblers, 1 Sedge Warbler, 6+ Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Common Sandpiper
and 1 Greenshank.

SPRING MIGRATION BIRD TOUR FORECAST

I do believe we are in luck for tomorrow's tour. Approaching frontal conditions with light drizzle, moving into a southerly airflow could well create fall conditions.

In other words, migrants flying tonight will set off in nice warm air and clear skies hoping to make it as far north as possible. By mid-night they will start moving into cloud and rain, won't be too happy about that and will give up migrating- they will look for a suitable resting place and will wait for the rain to pass.

So the birding forecast tomorrow is: hopefully an interesting tern or gull, a scattering of common migrant land birds, an influx of hirundines and maybe an interesting wader or two.

SPRING MIGRATION BEDDINGTON FARMLANDS 2010

Been a good early spring period and we are now moving into the peak time. Highlights so far have included Firecrest, Osprey, two Marsh Harriers, six Red Kites (pic 1), Grasshopper Warbler, Kittiwake (pic 3)and also Curlews (bottom), Ruff, Greenshank, Whimbrel, Pintail and Oystercatcher. Common migrants have been arriving steadily (pic 2 &4 Whitethroat and Blackcap).

Tomorrow is the Spring Migration Bird Tour which I am leading. All are welcome. Meeting at Hackbridge Train Station at 0915. Tour to last 1.5 to 2 hours.

Roger took the superb Kittiwake and Curlew photos: more here http://dodge007.blogspot.com/