Beddington Farm- 2nd August

The first Wheatear of the autumn today.

Also 24 Green Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpiper, 100+ Lapwing (post breeding flock building- numebrs usually peak in August), 2 Teal, 2 Gadwall, 25+ Goldfinch, 10+ Greenfinch, Chiffys calling in cover, Reed Warbler and Whitethroat about but keeping quiet.

The juvenile Peregrine was present again.

Black and white Petrels!

With the pelagic season underway- been reading about petrels. Interesting BTO blog post today- potential pitfall in i.d- especially from a distance from a sea watch:

http://btoringing.blogspot.com/2009/07/albino-storm-petrel.html

Beddington

Had a quick look over the farm. 1500+ Starling feeding on the enclosed bed and 10+ Mistle Thrush on park side. A few family parties of Whitethroat about. Tufted Duck broods have hatched and out on the lake. A few Swifts about and only a handful of House Martin and one to two Sand Martins. A juvenile female Peregrine over the lake is presumably one of the young from the pair that bred in Sutton. Johnny got some video recently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLBid5MkxFQ

Canvey Point- Essex

Top to bottom: a) Juvenile Mediterranean Gull with Sandwich Tern, Common Tern and Dunlin, b) adult Knot with Dunlin and Common Tern, c) Dunlin (race presumably schinzii), d) adult Curlew in active wing moult, e) Oystercatchers.

Plenty of birds staging now in the Canvey/Teweks/Two Tree complex and with a 6.0 tide the whole lot were up in the air- hundreds of waders, gulls and terns including 150+ Oystercatchers, 60+ Curlews, 30+ Whimbrels, 120+ Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Bar-tailed Godwits, 1 Knot, 1 Sanderling, 150+ Dunlins, 50+ Ringed Plovers, 40+ Avocets, 24 Grey Plovers, 1 Golden Plover, 45+ Turnstones, 1 Common Sandpiper, 80+ Redshanks, 2 Greenshanks, 4 Mediterranean Gulls, 500+ Black-headed Gulls, 10 Sandwich Terns 25+ Common Terns and 21 Little Terns. Also 2 Yellow Wagtails in saltings and one Swallow over.

Curlews were in active wing moult, in contrast to the Whimbrels which were showing no signs of moult. Also intersting variation within the Dunlins- only the odd adults were moulting, also a few juveniles now. Not so many Ringed Plover which were outnumbered by Dunlin.
Previous early autumn pics from Canvey:
http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/2008/08/weekend-in-essex.html

Bit more on Canvey Dunlins etc here. Note how the birds have worn since they were here in the spring:

http://peteralfreybirdingnotebook.blogspot.com/2009/05/essex-160509.html

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater Dip

The only rare thing today was me twitching resulting in something that I do a lot- not seeing anything of particular historical signifcance.

However after dipping the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater Lee and I went to Oare Marshes, surely the finest wader site in the south east.

Early autumn is a great time to see adult waders moulting into winter plumage. There were 11 Ruff, all males, presumably the females go elsewhere and the juveniles will follow very shortly. Also a family party of Little Ringed Plover with four juveniles- a classic late July sight. There were about 12 Whimbrel, including five flying off south west at dusk- this movement will pick up over the next few weeks. Only two or three Black-tailed Godwits so the majority are presumably still in Iceland and/or heading this way. 2 adult summer plumage Curlew Sandpiper were the highlight. Four Teal, family parties of Pochard, four juvenile Shelduck, eclipse and juvenile plumaged flocks of Mallard, juvenile Pied and Yellow Wagtails, family parties of Bearded Tits in the Reeds and the odd scratching of late singing Reed Warblers- all classic late July features.

Musical Interlude

Got a new song on our community band facebook site:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thee-Bryans/67571634534?ref=s

Beddington 190709

Juvenile male Kestrel (top): The dark bars on the median and greater coverts are narrower than the rufous interspaces. The tail is also grey. A single visible subterminal triangle bar to the mantle feathers (from Forsman).

The two Greenshank have decided to move on but were replaced with a Redshank . Still 20+ Green Sandpiper, also 6 Common Sandpiper and no move on duck numbers.

A few Swifts (40+) over the last couple of days and last week 300+ were present. Have not seen a Barn Swallow in a few weeks and only one Sand Martin pair have bred in the artificial site.

A bird wave of Blue, Great, Long-tailed Tit with Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Great Spotted Woodpecker were passing up irrigation bridge this morning.

Four Kestrel (a family party) including this juvenile were hunting over the mounds.

Most gulls are at some stage of active moult at the moment with this Common Gull (above) showing an active moult from first summer to second winter (inner primaries first). Also one first summer Mediterranean Gull on the lake.