Beddington rounds

A foggy start to the day, Nick and I covered 100 acre to the mound. Highlights included 2 Water Pipit, 3 Green Sandpiper, 4 Stonechat and 2 Wigeon. Ebird list HERE

Local Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake congratulates Beddington Farmlands campaigners for succeeding in over coming the Liberal Democrats!!!

Click to Facebook to read discussion 

In short, Tom Brake local MP (leading up to the general election) has congratulated us campaigners for the Beddington Farmlands Nature Reserve campaign. This follows years of persecutory behaviour by his party to crush the campaign. 

Discussion extract: 

' He has only associated himself with this campaign after the council shifted to calling out Viridor following political casualties in Beddington North, the political capital liability of the incinerator in the context of recently declared climate emergency, the public petition to enforce planning conditions and the threat of direct action from Extinction Rebellion. The council and Tom Brake have been protecting Viridor for years and have ignored extensive scientific reports and media about the damaging delays to the restoration. There is strong evidence that the Lib Dems in cohorts with Viridor actively persecuted local campaigners (removal of funding, expulsion from committees, access restrictions, denial of access to funding, legal action threats etc). It's a bit rich that he is now congratulating people that he did his best (or rather the Lib Dem-Viridor partnership) to crush.'

Weekend in Lisbon- PRC meeting

A good weekend in Lisbon- on Saturday we had the Portuguese Rarities Committee AGM and because we worked right through and got everything done we had Sunday off and had a bonus birding day in the Lisbon rice fields Ebird list here.  Unfortunately my bins are in for repair and the Easyjet flight I got would only allow me hand luggage so I was only armed with a pair of 8 x 32 opticrons that I borrowed from my nephew Sid. This meant no camera, no scope or decent bins for what was a most spectacular birding location and involved Magnus Robb finding a first for Portugal (and also a Red-throated Pipit) and me getting a world tick and two WP ticks. It was one of the best most un-prepared birding days I've had.

The world tick is a bit provisional- a Taiga Bean Goose which was found by Luis Gordinho a week or so ago. Magnus Robb found a Tundra Bean Goose as we arrived at the site (this will be a first for Portugal if accepted - by us!?!?)  and then we also found Luis's Bean Goose which looked better for a Taiga Bean Goose - a larger, long necked bird with more orange in the bill and a white thin blaze on the rim of the bill. The two Bean Geese were not particularly associating with each other. Will be interesting to see more opinions on these birds- some video should emerge soon (NOW HERE ). All I managed to document was a very poor digi-scope image of the Tundra Bean Goose. We also had another first for Portugal candidate, a Snow Goose (which has been present for a while).

We also had Cat C Yellow-crowned Bishops, which was a WP tick for me (and plenty of Common Waxbills) but unfortunately despite much searching we failed to find the Cat C Pin-tailed Whydahs (which would have been a WP tick for Pierre).

So my listing totals are now:  World List: 2933, WP List: 700,  False WP List: 895

Contrary to this post HERE, I realised I've seen a lot more in the WP then I thought as Netfugl only count compliant ticks and I've got something like 112 non-compliant ticks because I haven't got round to editing the records properly. Another job on the to do list! I'm still working to my target of reaching 800 in the WP by the time I'm 80 years old (800 by 80) but now I'm a closer than I thought- will need to slow down even more! Life is long- there's no rush (my twitching moto).

More on what we do at the PRC here: 

PORTUGUESE RARITIES COMMITTEE

 Tundra Bean Goose (top left) 

 Yellow-crowned Bishop - numerous in this area (unfortunately this was a road victim) 

 Twitch for the Tundra Bean Goose (with Magnus Robb, Pierre-Andre Crochet ((also below)) and XoFred 

Hardcore moths

I had the heath trap out at the Old Vic in between the frosts on Monday night. Still a few species out there. 

 December moth 

 Sprawler 

 Dark Chestnut 

Winter moth 

Farmoor- Greater Scaup and Lesser Snow Geese

A nice calm morning at Farmoor today. Ebird list HERE. Unlike yesterday where a sea duck at Staines some how managed to give me the slip despite two hours scanning for it, I did manage to find the Farmoor adult female Scaup that has been present for a while. Again like Staines the number of waterfowl seems quite low- maybe the widespread floods are encouraging dabbling ducks to flooded areas?

I finally managed to get a close encounter with the Oxfordshire Snow Geese. There's a feral (presumably Cat C, self-sustaining) flock of birds in the county which is pretty surreal to see. I made it 103 birds in total, 7 dark/intermediate phase and 6 juveniles. I presume they are Lesser Snow Geese (as opposed to the larger billed, thicker grinning Greater Snow Goose sub-species) based on the presence of dark phased birds (which are very rare within Greater Snow Goose populations).  I'd be interested to know about the history of this population.

 Adult female Scaup- the grey vermiculations on the mantle and scaps and the pale flanks and sides indicate an adult female. A juvenile female would be plainer brown and a first-winter male would not have the extensive white blaze around the bill.  

 Pale phase Snow Goose 

 Dark phase Snow Goose (aka Blue Snow Goose) 

 Intermediate phase Snow Goose- the white belly is the diagnostic feature for an intermediate bird 

 Juvenile Snow Goose- this years birds so clearly breeding somewhere 'locally' 

 In flight (above and below). 

Had this aythya loosely associating with adult female Scaup - the off white blaze and pale ear covert patch, size and structure look good for a juvenile (pale yellow-brown eye) Scaup but the blue band on the bill suggests it might be a hybrid? Certainly looks different to the other Scaup-faced Tufted Ducks on the reservoir (below). Others on the Oxon birding blog are claiming this as a pure juvenile Scaup. Not sure how much of a deal breaker any blue on the bill is? Just been checking IBC and looks like a bit of blue in the bill is a variable feature in juvenile Scaup so considering everything else seems to fit- looks like within variation of juvenile Greater Scaup. Scaup identification is a somewhat troubling affair with ,according to Smallshire (1986),  20% of birds are hybrids between Scaup and Tufted Duck. 

'Scaup-faced' Tufted Duck- are these birds expressing Scaup gene introgression?

 Adult female and juvenile Scaup with Tufted Ducks

 Juvenile Scaup- in this image the amount of black at the bill tip and nail looks quite extensive bordered with a blue band- is this within variation of a pure bird?

Here's another aythya (an adult female) from Farmoor from earlier in the year (from late summer)- another bird that looks like there could be some Scaup genes knocking about. 

Staines

Popped into Staines Reservoirs on the way to Oxford this morning. Pretty quiet (low numbers of wildfowl too) but the six Black-necked Grebes near the causeway were worth the effort. Ebird list HERE . I couldn't find the Long-tailed Duck despite intensively looking which was still present apparently.

Black-necked Grebes 

UGANDA TRIP REPORT

Here's our trip report from our WISE BIRDING July Uganda trip.

UGANDA TRIP REPORT

Beddington Farmlands- Gull Comeback

Another interesting day at the farmlands. Ebird list HERE. Viridor are tipping again on the landfill which is attracting several thousand gulls including a superb adult Caspian Gull. We thought we may have seen the last of this local speciality after the landfill was officially closed last winter so a very welcome (if brief) return. Apparently they need to tip some rubbish as the Incinerator is not fully commissioned yet.  Also a first-winter Mediterranean Gull.  Other highlights included at least 7 Water Pipits, 7 Green Sandpiper and 5 Stonechat and Frankie and Tank had Siskin and Bullfinch. Good numbers of finches about- the very good conditions of 100 acre and south-east corner are attracting both wetland and seed eating species.

 Adult Caspian Gull (above and below). Extensive white in the primary tips indicates an individual from the west of it's range. 

 First-winter Mediterranean Gull 

 Meadow Pipit and Stonechat 

 Green Sandpiper 

 A sight we thought we'd seen the last of- good to see the gulls back for probably one last time 

Otmoor Otter

A good day at Otmoor. Ebird list HERE. The hands down highlight was an Otter from the first screen, the first time I've seen one here. Jacob and I returned in the evening for the starling roost and we also had Barn Owl and Bittern. Also good to see winter numbers of Lapwing and Golden Plover building up and Wigeon numbers also building up. There's been Merlin, Short-eared Owl and Hen Harrier in the week- a pretty impressive inland wetland! For some cracking photos from today on the OOS blog see HERE.

Otmoor birding blog 

HERE

 Otter at Otmoor 

 Bittern on Greenaways- I couldn't work out whether it was standing in an awkward position or right behind a Short-eared Owl? 

 Part of the 30,000 Starling flock 

Evening at Otmoor 

Beddington Farmlands- winter counts

A very pleasant walk round the farmlands this morning. Ebird list HERE. Following lots of rain the habitat is looking incredible and I counted a site population of over 2700 birds today without even looking at south east corner, the works areas and Horse and Biker's field. Surely at least 3000 birds on site without any visible migration at all today and not including the 1000 Ring-necked Parkeets that fly over to roost and the 5000 Jackdaws that will appear at dusk! . 60 species in total.

 Female Stonechat- one of 6 today

 Reed Buntings in the corn and sunflower sacrificial crops 

 One of at least 20 Robins across the site this morning 

 Green Woodpecker 

 Teals on 100 acre- approx 200 on site today, mostly on 100 acre 

 Common Darters- literally last knockings 

 Red Fox- saw about five this morning 

 View over northern lake. With the wet grassland and the whole of 100 acre wet at the moment this has to be the most extensive wetland cover in decades at the farmlands 

 100 acre (above and below). Looking in top condition at the moment with large numbers of Teal, Snipe and finches. 

Lapwing habitat improvements on 100 acre- the islands are designed to provide predator proof nesting sites 

Day in Kent- Shellness

Tank, Kojak and I did Shellness and the Swale National Nature Reserve today. Ebird list HERE. With a north easterly blowing across the North Sea we decided to make the most of the last days of autumn. Highlights included 1 Woodcock over, 70+ Common Scoter in the Swale, 15+ Gannet, 8 Kittiwake, male and female Hen Harrier and 6 Short-eared Owls. 

 Female Hen Harrier 

 Flyover Woodcock 

 Common Scoters 

 Gannets in the Swale 

 Brents and Oystercatchers (above) and Brents and Curlew (below)