The Little Beast from the South East

Today was not quite as exciting as we were hoping for but nonetheless it was an interesting day. The wind switched to the south east today and temperature got above freezing with the lakes remaining open water (so certainly not as harsh as our last hard weather spell, the infamous 2018 Beast of the East) . Highlights today included a Grey Plover, 203 Lapwings and a Dunlin (I missed it) with an influx of Meadow Pipits (70+) , a few more Chaffinches, a couple of Stonechats, the first Fieldfares in a while, an increase in Shelduck and Mute Swan, a Raven, a Yellow-legged Gull and the usual Caspian Gull seen by Zach . Ebird list HERE.

Elsewhere in Surrey and London, Common Crane and Kittiwakes were found with flocks of Lapwings and Golden Plovers, an Oystercatcher and White-fronted Goose SEE HERE. 

The cold weather continues until end of this week, what will tomorrow bring?

Grey Plover (above and below)

Lapwings on the move (above and below)

Second-winter Yellow-legged Gull (centre right) and Argentatus Herring Gull (centre left) with Argenteus Herring Gulls 

A migrating Mute Swan at height appearing and disappearing in the clouds pretending to be a wild swan 

Water Pipit 

Song Thrush (above) and Meadow Pipit (below) 

A hybrid Canada x Greylag Goose flying over too

Kestrel- leaning towards a juvenile female on this bird. The mantle feathers have traverse bars, the greater coverts have relatively broad dark bars and the moon-shaped tail tip indicate a juvenile. A juvenile should have single triangles on the mantle and narrower dark bars on greater coverts. This time of year it should also be moulting towards first-summer plumage.