Day Out to the South Downs

Happy farming 

Red Kite and Buzzard 

Took a trip off my Beddington 'island' yesterday for a walk with Gillian Bedzedder and Co to the South Downs and Arun Valley around Ameberly and Arundel.

Its a bird and wildlife rich area of ecologically managed farmland full of Skylarks, Yellowhammers, Corn Buntings, Linnets, Grey and Red-legged Partridges with Red Kites and Buzzards over head. It was great to return in the summer following a visit earlier on in the year :
http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/arundel-day-trip.html
Will go back again in high summer to see it when all the flowers and insects should be out in full.

Azores Pelagic 2012 - 3 places left

Black-capped Petrel (Killian Mullarney) 

2011 Crew 

Monteiro's Petrel (Gareth Knass) 

Common Dolphin (Gareth Knass) 

Blue Shark 

Barolo's Shearwater 

Loggerhead Turtle 

Wilson's Petrel 

Sperm Whale

 ITINERARY ONE                                                         (INTINERARY TWO)


SAT 28th July:  Arrive Sao Miguel                                      (NA)

SUN 29th July:  Azores Bullfinch twitch                              Arrive Terceira

MON 30th July:  Ferry to Graciosa                                    Ferry to Graciosa

TUES 31st July:  Pelagics                                                   Pelagics

WED 1st Aug:  Pelagics                                                     Pelagics

THUR 2nd Aug:  Pelagics                                                  Pelagics

FRI 3rd Aug:  Morning pelagic- fly to Sao Miguel               Return to Terceira

SAT 4th Aug:  Return to London                                        NA

Itinerary One goes from Garwick to Gartwick and includes twitching the Azores Bullfinch on Sao Miguel- cost is 1130 GBP (includes accommadation, international flights, internal flights, pelagics, chum - everything except food)

Itinerary Two is a meet up on Terciera and costs 740 GBP (not including international flights but everything else except food)

If you are intersted please contact Ian at Azores Choice who can also deal with any specific travel arrangements.
IanCoates: ian@azoreschoice.com
or email me:
littleoakgroup@btinternet.com

We have narrowed the search this year to two to three areas of high fishing productivity which corresponds with areas of upwelling currents and biological hotspots in the vicnity of Graciosa. We explored one such area last year and found a concentration of Wilson's Petrels, Monteiro's Petrel and also unidentified large skuas and a concentration of other marine life. We hope to find Black-capped, Trindade or Bermuda Petrel which have long been predicted as scarce but regular migrants and proven by geolocator tracking in the case of Bermuda Petrel. Southern Skuas have also been tracked into Azorean waters. These pelagics are aimed at finding these species and exploring the marine life and endemic species of the Azores.

The Bugery

Sorted out the small room in 'the obs' into an entomolgy lab (the bugery)

Grey Pine Carpet? 

Yellow Rattle? (if so seems like our seeding experiment is doing well because this is growing all over the area we seeded with Yellow Rattle)

Great day Ringing

Female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker 

Finally caught the Cetti's 

The first juvenile Starlings are out now 

Long-tailed Tit- flocks are beginning to form again as the first broods emerge 

Beddington Ringers

Yesterday morning produced a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the nets which is the first big surprise since we started ringing about 6 weeks ago. We haven't even seen a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on this part of the farm in several years.

Finally caught the Cetti's!

Also a few other migrants and the first juvenile birds are out now too.

THEE BRYANS COMPLETE

Thee Bryans (Parts One and Two and the Big Combi version)

The happy end 

Illustrated by Twigg

Birds by Szabolcs Kokay (http://www.kokay.hu/)

Mammals by Lisa Benson http://www.lmbgraphics.co.uk/beddington.html

Finally finished our nature themed music/art project.

Preview here:

http://theebryans.blogspot.co.uk/

Bit more here:

http://www.theebryans.com/

Turtle Dove Twitch

I was doing the washing up today and looked out of the window to see a strange brown shape at the feeders; binned it- a blinking Turtle Dove. The first one at Beddington in a couple of years and resulted in the first obs twitch with Dodge, Frank, Grant, Tank, Johnny, Nick and Gripper all paying a visit to admire this increasingly rare and stunning bird.   

Good to see it enjoying the habitat that we've got going in the communal gardens- trying to encourage wild flowers and natural seed food in addition to the feeders. Greenfinches, Linnets, Goldfinches, Starlings, Stock Dove, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Feral Pigeon and now Turtle Dove have been recently been feeding on the wilder lawns. Good stuff. 

Our Turtle Dove has been reported to:

http://operationturtledove.org/

Ringing Warblers and Shooting Swifts

Sedge Warbler 

Reed Warbler 

Whitethroat 

Swifts (click on to enlarge)

We had the nets up today with Mike and caught a few warblers. More Reed and Sedge Warblers now. We still haven't managed to catch the Cetti's.

Plenty of migrants still about which have been around for the last few days during this easterly spell: 9 Wheatears, 3 Whinchat, 20+ Yellow Wagtail, 5+ Common Sandpiper and lots of hirundines. The weather is forecasted to improve tomorrow so maybe the migrants will be on their way.