The distant drums of Spring

Great Spotted Woodpecker- 1-2 males drumming along Mitcham Common side 

Common Shelducks pairing up 

Linnets in mid winter flocks feeding on the ruderal habitat

 

The Great spots were drumming this morning and quite a few birds were singing. Apart from that it was pretty much typically wintery- 80+ Gadwall, 40+ Shoveler, 100+ Teal, 50+ Tufted Duck, 7 Pochard, 70+ Lapwing, 5 Snipe, 50+ Grey Heron, 70+ Linnet, 30+ Chaffinch, 3 Mipit, 8 Reed Bunts, 30+ Fieldfare and 10 Redwing. 



A dip into Diptera

Above: Flies!  

Fly id

Had an Introduction to Diptera Identification Course at the Natural History Museum today- really enjoyed it. Good bunch of people and a good bunch of flies.

This year I'm hoping to work on adding some diptera info to our Beddington Farmlands Bioblitz. Building up a detailed model of the biodiversity on site will help in planning the restoration, monitoring the effect of the conservation measures through a wide range of indicator species and also provide endless interest and stuff to discover.

Collecting and preparing the fly specimens and getting them into a family is the most I could hope to achieve (and then get someone who knows what their talking about to id the species). I might try and familarise myself with one or two families to species level.  

Didn't know what to expect at a fly identification course- as Lee kindly pointed out- I was the biggest freak there.

Daddy Long Legs

Pholcus phalangiodes aka Daddy Long Legs 

 

Found one of these in the obs this morning. An obs tick. It was encounters with these chaps when I was kid that triggered my interest in nature. Although the nature of that interest was not quite the same as it is today. I have even wrote a song about that : https://soundcloud.com/#peter-alfrey/09-daddy-long-legs

Fungi sp? Answers please?

Big Garden Birdwatch Weekend

Reed Bunting at Beddington 

Natural History Museum- currently hosting Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition 

Caspian Gull at Beddington 

Little Egret at The Grove, Carshalton 

Blue Tit on the Big Garden Birdwatch 

Fieldfare and Redwing on The Grove playing fields

 

Spent Saturday morning helping out the Sutton Biodiversity Team with a Big Garden Birdwatch event, Saturday afternoon at the farm with the ringers and Sunday went to the Natural History Museum (the nerve centre) to have a look at the Wildlife Photography of the Year Competition.  Here's a jumble of weekend pics.

Caspian Gull

Adult Caspian Gull

 

 

 

A bit of movement today- Fieldfares, a few Lapwings. Adult Caspian Gull again. Derek and Roy had a walk about- 4 Jack Snipe, 5 Green Sandpiper, 1 Stonechat, 70+ Linnet and about 15 Snipe. The Maned Duck is still around too.

More snow coming so will be intersting to see what happens. 

Beddington in the Freezer

Skylark- over 100 flew west/ northwest today

Adult Med. Also saw adult Caspian today and Frankie had a 1st winter Caspian too

View over Northern Lake

The cold weather continues and today Fieldfares, Skylarks and a few Redwings were on the move. We had over 500 Fieldfare, 100 Skylark and a handful of Redwings. Also 100+ Linnet on the mound.

A few of Dodge's pics from this cold spell: http://dodge007.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/good-few-days.html

Nice Fieldfare shots from Lee: http://www.leedingain.com/2013/01/fieldfares-on-move.html

Snow Patrol

Red Kite

Male Kestrel

 

Juvenile Peregrine

 

Raptors on patrol in the snow were the highlight of the day. We had Red Kite, Short-eared Owl (I missed it), Peregrine, 2 Kestrel and Sparrowhawk. The Peregrine was going after a Snipe. Still a bit of vis mig today including a Grey and a Golden Plover. Not as much moving as yesterday.