EXTINCTION REBELLION WEEK

Absolutely magical day in London yesterday with 30,000 climate and ecological breakdown protesters bringing London to a standstill and the nation's attention to the need to declare a climate and ecological emergency. 

Incredible organisation by the XR coordinators, real heroic acts by volunteers and total heroes getting themselves arrested to bring the legitimacy of the action to the courts. 

A few pics here and links to more and comments. 

Jacob and I blockading Marble Arch 

Sutton XR in the crowd 

Today's mainstream media coverage (more HERE) 

Jacob enjoying the overhead surveillance 

Our new video for the occasion 

THE BUBBLE WILL BURST

INSIDE CROYDON ARTICLE

INCINERATOR ON SECURITY LOCK DOWN AS VIRIDOR GET TWITCHY

Extinction Rebellion Sutton

We had an action today at the Wallington Farmers Market promoting the petition to Sutton Council to declare a climate and ecological emergency in the borough and commit to change to reduce green house gas emissions and complete the Beddington Farmlands Nature Reserve. 

PETITION HERE - PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE 

Viridor/Pennon Group have responded to Extinction Rebellion Sutton and the international movement that will mobilise across world cities next week by putting the incinerator on full security alert and have shut the site down so that the bird group no longer have key access but can still access the site through the security entrance. On speaking to the main communications person, the company are keen to build on local community cooperation to complete the nature reserve. Good to hear Extinction Rebellion are making a positive impact and directors of corporations are sitting up and listening.  

 XR Sutton with 'Nature's Graveyard' - tombstones of extinct species. We also had a local nature's graveyard featuring species that were extinct or near extinct in Sutton- the most significant case being the Beddington Tree Sparrows. 

 Local MP Tom Brake signing the petition and supporting the rebellion 

Tom Brake agreed to sign the petition if we stopped fly postering his office 

 Nick Mattey- arch enemy of Liberal Democrat Tom Brake also supporting the petition - good to see something they agree on and rebellion bringing people together. Mattey has devoted his life to 'destroying the Sutton Lib Dems' 

 The Beddington Farmlands Tree Sparrow tombstone - numbers have dropped from 1000 birds in 2007 to only 2-3 pairs today 

 Nature's Graveyard 

 Our stand 

A bit of information on local extinctions 

Jacob with the Human Tombstone- 'self extinction: date/future unknown '

EXTINCTION REBELLION ARTICLE IN FINANCIAL TIMES

EXTINCTION SPEECH BY ATTENBOROUGH 

Acid Grassland Restoration at Mitcham Common

A busy few days at work and getting ready for Extinction Rebellion week which is starting this weekend. We spent Thursday on Mitcham Common looking at the next stage of the acid grassland restoration project. It was good to inspect the areas we worked on in early 2017 and to see how the restoration has been successful. In the future when Beddington Farmlands restoration is complete and the area is open to the public, a 'Wandle Valley Metropolitan Park' will be created, a 1000 acre contiguous green space between Mitcham Common and Beddington Park with the Farmlands at the centre. In turn the 'Metropolitan Park' will form the coreland of the Wandle Valley Regional Park which is 15 miles long. At the moment our local bird and wildlife group neglect Mitcham Common but as the group grows in the future as the whole area opens up it will be great to start collecting more data on the whole area. 

 Acid Grassland Restoration in late 2016/2017 More HERE

 The same area as above, today  

 After we cleared the area, the Common Green Team scraped the top and mounded the top soil up (right of pic) to create/expose a sandy substrate for the acid grassland to establish itself 

Wandle Valley Vista Point looking over Seven Islands on Mitcham Common 

Another thing that caught my eye at work this week was this wall in someone's garden- my favourite kind of living wall, natural, incidental with a diverse selection of lichens and ferns etc.

OTHER POSTS ON MITCHAM COMMON (Including the Ring-necked Parakeet Roost, Rare Fungi and local specialist plants and White-letter Hairstreaks ) 

A Spring Drop

Northeast winds, low cloud and drizzle produced conditions which dropped down quite a few migrants at the Farmlands today. New-for-years were Common Tern (2), Sedge Warbler (2) and Reed Warbler (1) with 15 Wheatear, 20 Swallow, 6 Sand Martin, 10 House Martin, 20+ Blackcap, 3 Willow Warbler, 1 White Wagtail, 2 LRP, the Black-tailed Godwit still and an impressive 60+ Snipe including flocks in southeast corner and 100 acre. 

 Barn Swallows 

 Barn Swallows and Northern Wheatear 

 Northern Wheatears (above and below). 15 today is the largest count this year so far. 

 Snipe flock - not a species we often associate with migration but definitely a big influx today 

 Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Tipping has temporarily resumed attracting nearly 1000 large gulls again including over 100 Lesser Black Backs.  

 Still up to 10 Shelduck around and lekking on 100 acre 

  A couple of new for year moths too last night- Streamer (above) and Silver-Y (below) 

Little Gulls etc

Managed to get in a couple of hours at Farmoor today (otherwise this weekend has been Jacob's birthday event filled). Five adult Little Gulls appearing at about 1530 was nice as was a mixed flock of wagtails on the causeway; Pied and White (and) intergrades, Yellow and Grey Wagtails and still several hundred Sand Martin (not the thousands from recent days) and a few Swallows and House Martins. Also managed to finally catch up with the Cat C Oxfordshire flock of Snow Geese - about 90 of them on F2- certainly the jewel in the crown of the Oxon-Anthropocene-Plastic-Goose-Spectacle (note here). 

The nights have been very cool recently and not a lot in the Old Vic moth trap- Common and Small Quakers, Clouded Drab, Hebrew Characters and a Many-plumed Moth (in the house).

Tried sound recording again last night but James (not Bryan this time!) fell asleep with the TV on and window open again by the microphone- I'm going to have to move it to the back garden and risk the rain to get some clean recordings to trawl through. 

 Adult Little Gulls (and Black-headed Gull) above and below 

 Male Yellow Wagtail 

 Flock of Snow Geese (white and blue forms) 

 Sand Martin- one of several hundred 

 White Wagtail (or intergrade) 

 White Wagtail (or intergrade) 

 Will put this one to the 'Adriaens test' when I get five More here but that rump looks quite dark for a 'pure' White Wagtail

 Male 'Grey-rumped Pheasant' singing in the Old Vic garden this morning 

Blackcaps and Blackwit

Been a busy last few days at work and campaign work. Managed to get out to the Farmlands on Wednesday and yesterday evening briefly, the most notable thing was an influx in Blackcaps- 12+ between the lakes and Mitcham Common and a Black-tailed Godwit on the lake yesterday evening.

Back in Oxford this weekend for Jacob's second birthday. They guys have had a good morning at the Farmlands with Ring Ouzel, Glaucous Gull and Great White Egret this morning and last weekend they had Stone Curlew too. 

 Female Blackcap in Blackthorn 

 Male Blackcap (above and below) 

 Black-tailed Godwit 

 'White Wagtail'

 Male Teal- still good numbers of Teal about, 70+ on the lakes and 100 acre 

Beddington Farmlands Petition handed to Sutton Council with 6294 signatures

Mini-fall

Frontal conditions produced a little fall at the Farmlands today with site year ticks including 1 Little Gull, 1 Willow Warbler and 3 House Martins, with 12 Sand Martin, 5 Swallow, 4 Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap and a rather unseasonal female Stonechat.  

On the winter lingering front were 2 Green Sandpiper, 7 Water Pipit, 70+ Teal and 5 Snipe and there was also 4 Shelduck on 100 acre.

 First-winter Little Gull (above and below) 

 Female Stonechat - an April rarity locally 

 Teals over 100 acre- still 70+ around 

 'Silver Fox'

Frankie found this gall- one in the to be identified box 

Oxfordshire Weekend

A fairly quiet weekend . The highlight was the Orange Underwings on Saturday in Bucks and a Red Chestnut in the Old Vic light trap yesterday (moth lifer). Did Otmoor twice but pretty quiet: Ebird list. Only migrants that I could find were a Little Ringed Plover, a few Chiffchaffs and a Blackcap at Otmoor but also had a Swallow along the road and a House Martin in Thame. It was a bit disappointing as  elsewhere in Oxon there was quite a significant Spring push with big influx of Sand Martins (750 over Standlake and 200 over Farmoor) and goodies such as Garganey, Ruff, Ring Ouzel and the first Yellow Wagtail elsewhere.

I even did a noc-mig session but only had a single Redwing call, a Woodpigeon singing at about 3am and Moorhens and Pheasants calling through the night. It didn't help that Bryan fell asleep with the TV on and the window open right next to my microphone until 2am! 

Ice on the moth trap this morning so nothing but a single Hebrew Character. My moth trap got eaten by termites when in Ghana so looks like a whore's pair of tights at the moment- might use the opportunity to upgrade my moth trap as only using a 12V Safari trap at the moment. 

 Red Chestnut

 Aythya hybrid (TuftedxScaup?) with Tufted Duck at Otmoor. Presumably the bird that has been around for a while. 

 Third-calender year male Marsh Harrier at Otmoor

A Redshank from Staines on the way up here on Saturday. Not sure of the status of Icelandic Redshank T.t.robusta  in UK although this paper suggests they are common migrants (HERE). Typically birds are more heavily barred on the underparts than the nominate, a bit like this one.