Top to bottom (Snow Bunting, Yellowhammer, Common Buzzard, Wigeon in Beddington Park, Teal in Beddington Park, Snipe in the canal and Green Woodpecker in the park)
That was a perfect day. Always wanted to see Snow Bunting at Beddington and to find one in the snow was simple poetry. It was in the company of three Yellowhammers (another good Beddington bird), a couple of Reed Buntings and 80+ Linnet. This morning I walked the canal and flushed 4 Jack Snipe and 8+ Snipe. Back at the hide we had a Common Buzzard go over and also a trickle of migrants including 20+ Redwing, 6 Fieldfare, 3 Skylark, 50+ Woodpigeon, 8 Cormorant. There were 2 Chiffchaffs and 2 Goldcrests.
As nearly all the water was frozen and the wildfowl have all migrated I decided to check Beddington Park Pond which never freezes. Sure enough some of the ducks were hiding out there with 2 male Wigeon (adult and first winter) , 20+ Teal and a male Gadwall- all rarities for the park. Also in the park there was a bird wave of 10+ Long-tailed Tit, 4 Goldcrest, 1 Coal Tit, Blue and Great Tits, Treecreeper and Nuthatch.
Twitch pics here: http://peteralfrey.blogspot.com/2010/12/winter-wonderland-x.html
and Roger's account here: http://dodge007.blogspot.com/
5 comments:
Fantastic find Peter.
Loved it!
I am supposed to be going to Bulgaria tomorrow to look for wild geese and Dalmatian pelicans on the Black Sea wetlands but I want to stay in Croydon! Something wrong there :-))
Good luck with your flight Peter. I can understand your reluctance to leave the farmlands at present. You've had a great run of birds recently
Although I missed the Bean Geese to some inexplicable communication failure :-))
WOW that woodpecker is beautiful!
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