I have spent nearly 12 hours today staring out the obs window. One of the few times I went away from the window was the precise moment Frankie had 2 female Goosander (a local rarity).
So three days into this storm and the effects are beginning to show. There were movements of Lapwing and Golden Plover across London and Surrey. Steve Gale continues with his run of record breaking counts and had the highest numbers of Lapwing and Golden Plover for the region (over Canon's Farm) with 617 and 170 respectively. More here: Steve Gale blog
Final scores on the doors for Beddington (between Frankie, Kojak and myself) were:
2 Goosander, 193 Fieldfare, 17 Redwing, 16 Meadow Pipit, 195 Lapwing, 25 Golden Plover, 1 Jack Snipe, 1 first-winter Iceland Gull, 1 first-winter Glaucous Gull, 2 Peregrine and 1 Chiffchaff.
There wasn't a lot of movement before around 0800. Fieldfares dominated the morning but after 1300 the Lapwings started to move. The movement was in a westerly direction with a few of the Meadow Pipits heading north-west.
Certainly been an interesting day across London with escape movement birds being seen across the region including central London. SEE HERE. Woodcock, Merlin and Avocet have been recorded in the region today.
Lapwing fighting against the snow
Golden Plovers heading west
Fieldfare in the obs garden
Fieldfares going over
Presumably this cold weather makes birds more vulnerable in several ways. I've been enjoying the song of this Song Thrush (a ringed bird- presumably one of our local birds) before this weather started. Seems an age away from when we were expecting Spring HERE- although it was just over a week ago! (although a Wheatear was claimed today in Lancashire!)
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