First moth tick of the year



If I have identified this correctly as a Chestnut then it's my first moth tick of the year at Beddington.
More bugry news here:
http://peteralfrey.blogspot.co.uk/

Hackbridge - towards becoming the most biodiverse residential area in London

Lesser Celendine outside Bed-zed Eco-village 

Daffodils finally emerging on the Green 

A flock of 17 Waxwing on the flowers estate (part of the Beddington Farmlands recording area)

Spent today planning out some additional areas for wildflower meadow planting in Hackbridge and had a look at some of our projects across the village- all good. Found a flock of 17 Waxwing on the flower estate and lots of widlflowers emerging across the village which is all good encouragement for our aspiration to become the most biodiverse residential area in London.

SPRING AT LAST

Willow Warbler 

Wheatear 

Common Sandpiper 

Common Quaker 

Salticus scenicus (I-spot id)

Spring has finally arrived over the last few days. There was a pretty major fall at Beddington and over London yesterday. I managed to get over there today and quite a good haul of migrants: 1 Woodcock, 15 Wheatear, 15 Swallow, 5 Sand Martin, 1 Reed Warbler, 1 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Blackcap, 6 Whitethroat and 1 Common Sandpiper.
Finally a few moths and a few more bugs appearing.
More on local spring migration here:
http://www.leedingain.com/2013/04/london-wide-fall.html

Malta weekend

Eleanora's Falcons 

Mediterranean migrants

 

Had a family wedding over the weekend in Malta. Meet up with my uncles and cousins who are Maltese hunters. Interesting to catch up on the latest developments in the controversial Maltese hunting culture and interesting to hear their side of the story in this clash of tradition with modern environmentalism. My cousin Litzio commented that it's a bit like parents fighting over their children with a real danger of the children getting hurt in the process. I think there is certainly some truth in that and my personal point of view on the matter is to achieve a sustainable culture and that has probably more or as much to do with habitat conservation and maintaining healthy populations of migrants in Northern Europe as it does in managing hunting in Southern Europe. 

Very intersting to have a look through my family's  historical personal collections.

Moroccan post trip tick

Rock Martin

More on this here :

http://www.leedingain.com/2013/04/rock-martins-at-bagaa-tafilalt-morocco.html 

http://gwentbirding.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/cover-me-porkins-im-going-in.html

Trashed

Grey Heron and a load of rubbish 

Common Gulls- a spring migrant 

Water Pipit- for some reason they get a bit more approachable this time of year

 

Despite the improving of the weather there was still not a lot of migrant action.  There was a brief Wheatear that I missed and also a LRP and Common Sand- which I also missed.

Pretty shocking to see the results of the strong north east winds that have persisted over the previous weeks and has resulted in a pretty major pollution incident on the Northern Lake with large quantities of windborn debris from the landfill.

ABC etc

Wildlife garden at the Natural History Museum

African Bird Club, BOC and NHM Conference talk

New tree planting on the southern mound 

Mile Road Bridge Improvements

 

Hardly been in the field over the last couple of weeks mainly because it has been freezing. Been busy working to keep warm- been working on green space improvements to Mile Road Bridge, Nightingale Road Nature Reserve and putting in a couple of butterfly strips on Bedzed and by the hide. Been a bit more progress on the restoration at the farmlands with a load of trees going in on the southern mound.

Spent the whole day today at the Natural History Museum at the ABC/BOC/NHM conference listening to a series of very good lectures.