Beddington Farmlands Gateway

Quick Re-cap and update : Hackbridge is the village adjacent to Beddington Farmlands which will provide the main gateway to the nature reserve and the coreland of the Wandle Valley Regional Park. Planning applications to develop over 3000 new homes are advancing. The developments are 'sustainable developments' designed to compliment the gateway to the coreland of the Wandle Valley Regional Park and to develop the most sustainable suburb in London (and the UK) .

Development latest plans can be viewed at Hackbridge Primary School on Monday 4th November from 11am.

Plans will be on line from Monday: www.savills.co.uk/Felnex

STOP THE SOUTH LONDON INCINERATOR

The Beddington Farmlands ERF has been given approval by the local authority, the Mayor's Office and the Secretary of State despite the fact that all the local environmental and social groups were unsatisfied with the mitigation measures that were part of the application.
That represents a complete failure of local democracy and leaves only one last hope- a legal challenge on that decision.
Stop the South London Incinerator campaign are planning to lead that challenge and considering our negotiations with Viridor for adequate mitigation has failed we (I) have joined the STI campaign.

http://www.stoptheincinerator.co.uk/

Moth ticks

If I am not mistaken (which I could well be)- the above moths are (left to right) Red-lined Quaker, Beaded Chestnut, Brick and Angle Shades. The quaker and the brick will be new ones for me- taking my Beddington Farmlands pan species list to 990.
10 to hit my target of a grand.

Another Storm Coming ?

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An old Sunday school classic about the merit of being well grounded. Nothing like a good storm to reveal what is truely robust- trees, houses and even a society and it's systems.
With any luck we should have another good storm- a political one to prepare the ground for a post-growth greener and kinder society. Just hope we can do our bit round here to shake things up a bit.
Live in hope anyway :-)

STORM DAMAGE

 Beech- infected with Meripilus Giganteus- look out for large (massive) fronds in late autumn at the base of the tree . Its a cryptic disease so the canopy looks healthy while the roots are turnign to cork and the tree can fall at any time. If present fell the tree asap.

 Horse Chestnut with another hidden disease- apart from the ubiquitous leaf miner the tree look relatively healthy- but look below (hollow inside and decayed wood at base)

 This Maidenhair Tree snapped out at the top- with permission from the tree officer will try and save this by cable bracing it and reducing some of the canopy

 Despite the conditons the moth trap still produced- Mottled Umber was new for the year (left to right: 'winter moth', Mottled Umber and Angle Shades)

Magnolia seed pods- noticed this amongst the carnage

I was up at five keeping my eye on the storm. No birds from the window this morning and no news coming in from Roger by the lake or anyone else in London.

Spent the day on emergency calls out- we had it pretty bad round here- lots of trees down- mostly ones that had various diseases (cryptic in some cases).

Done another hour on the farmlands at dusk but still no sign of any sea birds. 

STORM

A Storm Coming

 Large Waisncot (First one this year)

 Angle Shades

Stubble Rosegill ? 

 Three of these came into the trap last night. (Don't normally pin insects unless I find them dead)

 Starlings and London

 Reed Bunting- a small influx of 7+ birds

Shoveler- a large influx of ducks over past week or so

I was surprised by the insects in the trap this morning considering it is quite blustery out there. Will be interesting to see if anything comes into the trap tomorrow as we are bracing for a big storm this evening.

Maybe a few birds blown in too but usually dissappointed by storms from the west round here. We usually do better with a blow across the North Sea but who knows?   

Pottering around the Obs

 Dark Sword Grass ( i think)

 Bush Cricket (Southern Oak?)

 Tree pits- Rudbekia with Snap dragons, strawberry ground cover and there were tomatoes growing up the Rowan

 Planting today- Foxgloves in the ground from window nursery

 Bit of bread making- bugger all to do with wildlife

Processing the insect catch in the bugry

 

These westerlies might be interesting if I was back on the Azores but round here I can hardly muster up the energy to leave the flat. Just been sorting out the wildlife garden and catching a few bugs. Harlequin ladybirds have hibernated in the bugry and there's been a few insects in the moth trap during these mild evenings. Lots of caddisflies, a few froghopper nymphs, 'winter' moths, a couple of micros that I simply could not be arsed to try and id and as I'm writing this I can see an Angle Shades in the trap.



Little Oak Nature

Graveyard in Carshalton Village- great little wildlife area

Ganoderma sp (Southern Bracket ?) 

 Bonnet sp (Clustered Bonnet? ) 

Got myself a new compact camera that i can carry around at work so thought I would add the occasional post about the wildlife and nature that I find in people's gardens and places that I work in.

Here's  a few pics of some fungus that I came across today and have no idea what they are. Will try and identify them when I've done some work.

More on what our company does here:

 http://www.littleoakenvironmental.co.uk/



October moths at Beddington Farmlands

 Beaded Chestnut (i think rather than a Lunar Underwing)

 Red-green Carpet

 Cypress Carpet (left) and Grey Pine Carpet (right)

 November Moth and Autumnal Moth? 

 

A few moths in most milder evenings - mainly carpets and 'winter' moths now. 



Thee Bryans

A few images from Thee Bryans (Artwork by Holly Showell, with Kokay Szabolcs and Lisa Butler)
Like our facebook page if you like: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Thee-Bryans/67571634534

Its a Rock Opera for kids about the adventures of a modern day naturalist.

Corvo Biodiversity

Firstly- check out the news from Corvo and the account of the Yellow-throated Warbler- a first for the WP : Corvo Blog

 Rock Samphire- grows commonly on the shore

 Fly- any id help most welcome

 Clouded Yellow

Oxalis  articulata

Club mosses, spagnum and juncus? in the Caldera 

Need something to do when one is crippled on Corvo or waiting for a mega to appear- bio-diversification is the answer :-)

Azores Biodiversity 

http://www.azoresbioportal.angra.uac.pt/index.php?lang=en

Corvo Biosphere Reserve links:
 http://parquesnaturais.azores.gov.pt/en/corvo-eng/news-2/local/1843-corvos-biosphere-reserves-5th-anniversary
http://www.unesco.org/mabdb/br/brdir/directory/biores.asp?mode=all&code=POR+02

SPEA docs (Corvo Life Project) :
http://life-corvo.spea.pt/en/documents/

Pan-species list for the archiepelago:
http://www.azoresbioportal.angra.uac.pt/files/publicacoes_Listagem_ml.pdf

Thanks Joaquim for the links. 

Corvo Trip, Day Six and Seven

Cedar Waxwing (www.vincentlegrand.com) 

Northern Parula- my best photo of a yank passerine this year (not impressed!) 

Lapland Bunting

Wasp Spider

Corvo 

Only a short trip for me this year to Corvo as I had focused on the pelagics this autumn (http://azoresnature.co.uk/?page_id=15)

Spent the last couple of days on Corvo being driven round by Katt with my dodgy knee and finally managed to photograph an American passerine before I had to leave.

So far I haven't missed any Azores lifers on Corvo but it's only a matter of time in this unfolding season. For links for Azores 2013 see here: http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/azores-season-2013.html

Corvo trip 2013, Days 4 and 5

 Black and White Warbler, Lighthouse Valley (Rafael Armada) www.rafaelarmada.net
 

Common Snipe on the road

Birding from the 4x4 with Katt

Spent today and yesterday around the village and fields and did a bit of birding with Katt from the 4x4 too. I didn't see much but there's a few birds around including a new Philadephia Vireo today and a few wood warblers around too. More here:

 

Corvo 2013 Blog : http://birdingcorvo2013.blogspot.pt/



Corvo trip 2013- Day 2 and 3

 Cliff Swallow (Vincent Legrand www.vincentlegrand.com)

Northern Parula, Corvo village (www.rafaelarmada.net)

 Juv Glossy Ibis- one of four on the airfield

 Azorina vidalii- an endemic species to the Azores. The coast line of Corvo village is the best place in the world to see this species.

 Corvo birders - an 'emergency restaurant' has been set up in the auditorium to feed the birders. Will be 45+ birders on the island tomorrow. 

Evenings at the Guesthouse

 

A few good birds around over the last couple of days including 2 Parulas, an American Redstart, a Buff-bellied Pipit, Cliff Swallow, Rough-legged Hawk and Red-eyed Vireo.

All I've seen is the four Glossy Ibis on the airfield because I've busted my knee and stuck around the guesthouse but as this is my ninth year to Corvo luckily I seen all those beauties before.





 

Northern Parula by Rafael Armada (www.rafaarmada.net)