More hints of Spring

Chiffchaff on flowering Cherry Plum. Also 2 Blackcaps singing today. 

First-winter Caspian Gull (one of four first-winters today) 

Iceland and Caspians

Juvenile/first-winter Iceland Gull

 Adult Yellow-legged Gull 

Second-winter Caspian Gull (the same distinctive individual that has been around most of the winter) 

The spring raptor migration is gearing up. One Common Buzzard yesterday and one Red Kite and three Common Buzzards today. 

Common Quaker- up to four in the trap in recent evenings 

Video of Caspian and Iceland Gull (click on blue facebook image) 

Gulls etc

Josh J, David C and myself has a good look through the gulls this morning- 6 Caspian Gulls, 1 Yellow-legged Gull, 1 2nd-summer Med Gull and one of the Glaucous Gulls.

Juvenile Glaucous Gull 

Second-winter Caspian Gull 

Tree Sparrows (up to 10 birds hanging in there) 

Male Stonechat 

Black Swan- still present 

Top video- Juvenile Glaucous Gull, Bottom video: Second-winter Caspian Gull 

Barmy Barnies and a Tenner of Gulls

A good haul of gulls this morning with ten species:

 2 juv/first-winter Glaucous, 1 first-winter Iceland, 4 Caspian Gull (1 2nd-winter, 3 first-winter), I adult Yellow-legged Gull, 1 ad Med Gull, 100+ Lesser Black-backed, 8000+ Herring Gull, 20+ Great Black-backed, 10 Common Gull and 2000+ Black-headed Gull.

Also two additional taxa argentatus Herring Gull and Lesser Black-back backed both intermedius and graellsii.

Plenty of turnover of gulls at the moment with migrating flocks moving over high and some coming down. A great time of year to find a mega gull with so much traffic moving through. 

 Glaucous Gull #1

Glaucous Gull #2 

 Bird #2 has a distinctive pale head and nape contrasting with the lower nape and upper breast. 

Bird 1 is more uniform. Difficult to conclude (due to moult and wear) whether either of these is the same as the bird that was first seen in December HERE but the December bird was a real monster with what appeared to be a disproportionately short bill- presumably young birds can change a lot in a few months. Both birds were seen coming out the roost at Walton Res this morning by Dave Harris. 

 The juv/first-winter Iceland Gull with the contrasting primaries has been comparatively easy to track and has been present since late November. It's also been seen by Josh on the Thames and Dave at Walton. HERE

 Second-winter Caspian Gull. Following an influx in December/January, there have been relatively few records until today with at least four birds on the Northern Lake. 

 Adult Mediterranean Gull. An increasing rare visitor to the farmlands- the first one I've seen this year. Previously a winter visitor in small numbers. 

 Adult Yellow-legged Gull - up to five present recently

 68 Barnacle Geese moving north-west today. The first record of  a flock over the farmlands looking rather wild. Difficult to rule out a feral group moving around though. 

 Still five Wigeon around.

 Up to 8 Jack Snipe recently and 120 Snipe. 

 At last some moths in the trap. Common Quakers and March Moth. Typical early spring moths. 

Mompha subbistrigella - a classic early micro. 

Beddington Farmlands on Question Time

INSIDE CROYDON ARTICLE

Farmlands Works

Marcus (Site Ecologist) and Hysni finalising the plan 

Getting out on the islands 

We re-located one of the Shelduck boxes onto the raft. Very strangely we found a dead female Shelduck on the raft so removed it as probably not the best thing to entice new residents 

Part of the works was removing vegetation on the island to create a mosaic of vegetation heights and structure, retaining some small willows and areas of bramble to create areas for roosting waterbirds, nesting ducks and nesting warblers/ buntings. 

A major part of the works in controlling willows. Here we're removing the willows from the area of wet grassland. 

View over the lakes 

Tomos made Barn Owl boxes. Incredulously the local council recently cut down the tree the Barn Owls bred in last year!? ( Presumably they want to sell the field to developers and last thing they want is Barn Owls). 

 Barn Owl pellets from last year's roosting areas- we used these to scent the new boxes. 

The Barn Owl boxes going up. We've created three potential nest sites- so hopefully the Barn Owls will be back next year and the council can go and jump in the lake. 

Greylags on the lake- hopefully they will repeat last year's breeding success in the areas we've created 

Lapwings- up to 34 on the small wet grassland area in the Southern Lake. Working on the island gives us a chance to count the Snipe, Jack Snipes and Water Rails . We reckon 120 Snipe, 8-9 Jack Snipe and at least 5 Water Rails on the lakes. 

Dotted Border- the only moth we've had in the last few weeks despite various attempts at light trapping from the Obs 

Colt's Foot flowering- plenty of signs of Spring now. A Small Tortoiseshell flying around the bridge, willows bud bursting, Blackthorn and Cherry Plum flowering, snowdrops been out for ages, the first Daffs , Iris and Crocuses out in the planting areas, Dog Violet's flowering. a small passage of Stonechats (up to five), Shelducks increasing and the odd Redwing calling at night. 

Crocus at the Farmlands entrance 

A male Pheasant by the obs feeders- only the second record in the Obs garden. One of five on site. 

The slaughter escalates

As the assault on the environment and nature escalates, the question remains- will there ever be a serious challenge? 

If it wasn't for the Aarhus Convention ( that caps the costs of individuals and organisations when challenging councils and corporations on environmental matters) it would have been impossible for us to bring a judicial review regarding the incinerator. Proposals are under way to scrap the cost caps which means corporations and councils can do what they like (they do anyway) but completely unchallenged (at least with a challenge the public, if interested, can learn about what further risks their personal health and lives will be faced with and can take personal mitigation). 

This latest move by the Capitalists is being challenged by most of the major environmental groups including the RSPB. The challenge will probably be unsuccessful. Unless we see a unified full scale counter attack from the social and environmental sector- the only prospect is growing inequality, less nature and more impoverished lives for the majority of people.