Azores Nature Pelagic 2013 Day One

Spent today on Terceira before we start our first pelagic tomorrow. Here's a few shots of terns in Praia da Vitoria harbour. Can you the identify the species?
Quite  a few birds around including summer plumaged Spotted Sand, four Semi-palmated Sandpiper, 1 Semi-palmated Plover, 1 juvenile Pectoral Sandpiper, 1 Garganey and good numbers of commoner waders in the quarry.

Azores Pelagic 2013 ahoy!

 Common Dolphins (Gareth Knass) 

 Zino's Petrel (Harro Muller)

 Swinhoe's Petrel

 Grant's Petrel

 Monteiro's Petrel

 Flying Fish

 Barolo's Shearwater

Sperm Whale 

 Loggerhead Turtle

 Wilson's Petrel

Black-capped Petrel (Killian Mullarney) 

Just getting packed for this year's Azores Nature Pelagic. We've got a full boat going out looking for local specialities from Garciosa and then an extension to Santa Maria looking for Whale Sharks.

Here's  a few pics from previous pelagic trips above. 

A Belgium led crew has just returned from the Bank of Fortune Area (which is where we are heading)  with highlights including a Swinhoe's Petrel and Sooty Tern. 

More on our trips to the Azores for serious birders/naturalists here: http://azoresnature.co.uk/

Walkabouts

 Little Grebe family- one of three pairs with young on site at moment

 Chiffchaff- several calling birds scattered around the edges

 Hoveflies- I've bought the book now need to find the time to id them

Budgerigar- new addition to the escape list this year

Following the meeting with the lawyers yesterday and a full on few days of tours and exhibitions and meetings I couldn't take any more work today so bunked off and had a walkabout round the farmlands.

Still deciding what to do about the declining state of Beddington and the frightening realisation that despite all the protection, policies and legislation in place to protect it- the 'authorities' cannot enforce much of it.  On the legal front our only option is  to write to the Secretary of State encouraging refusal of the application and then if that doesn't work- call for a Judicial Review to highlight some of the perverse and irrational decisions that have been made in the process.

It is very time and energy consuming dealing with systemic problems and also very unrewarding, exhuasting and potentially completely futile.

Therefore following my walkabout this morning and seeing all the wildlife at Beddington getting on with things, raising young, migrating, busy feeding and basically hanging in there (just about) despite all the pressure they are under I thought I would take their lead, do the same thing and concentrate on injecting energy into building the support base for the nature reserve and the regional park and thinking of ways that we can contribute to the restoration and development of the nature reserve and do what we can to take the responsibility away from Viridor (who don't seem to want it) and basically do the whole bloody thing ourselves. I suppose it would have been a bit too simple if someone else made our own wishes for a premier nature reserve on our patch a reality.  

That Budgey reminded me of a song we recorded about the impossibility of just wanting a simple life:

https://soundcloud.com/#peter-alfrey/me-and-my-budgie

Missed a Goshawk while at the Environmental Fair- occupational hazard!  : http://dodge007.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/icing-on-cake.html



Environmental Fair and Campaign Update

Was at the environmental fair yesterday and lots of interest in our stall campaigning for the upholding of London Plan and LBS Planning Policies to create a premier urban nature reserve at Beddington Farmlands as part of the coreland for the Wandle Valley Regional Park. Visits to our stall from lots of passionate people and also including the CEO of the Royal Parks, the Mayor of Sutton and our local MP.

Very interesting talking to various people regarding several concerns. The main concerns were related to the local area being used as a sink to dump wider problems with a lack of protection from the local authority/government despite their own 'commitments' to local social/environmental improvement- so basically those policies are being used as a front to hide a different reality.

 Also along the same vein there are fundamental concerns over the implementation of policies regarding provision for nature and the needs of local people when there is a reliance on a corporation (Viridor in our case) to implement those policies. It seems apparent that our cash strapped local authority cannot enforce legal conditions attached to planning permissions when it comes to taking on expensive legal teams  of the large companies.

 It seems to all boil down to whoever has the most money gets to call the shots and in our case Viridor get to decide how they treat the local people and the wildlife- for better or worse. So due to the tyranny of litigation risk they more or less have absolute rule with a choice to act in a social/environmentally responsible way or in a way that trashes the local society/environment.  So....so far.... round here's its a money dictatorship and local democracy and commitment to social/environmental policy is just an illusion.

Soooooooooooooooooooo........... what can be done about that?
Meeting with lawyers later today to see what the remaining options are. Options are slowly converging on martyrdom :-)

August Bird and Wildlife Walk

 View over the Northern Lake with Hackbridge and Bedzed eco-village in background

 Juvenile Garganey

 Green Sandpipers, Lapwing and Teal on 100 acre

  Southern Hawker

Purple Loose-strife on the Southern Lake

 

Sam Woods is back in town at the moment so we led a public bird walk which was attended by 19 people. The group saw some Green Sandpipers and had a good look round the site.

Birding was good today with Marsh Harrier, Garganey, 10 Ringed Plover, 1 Dunlin, 3 Ruff, 12 Green Sand, 2 Common Sand, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Whinchat and a Nuthatch behind Jims.

Autumn Flight and Fall

 Easterly winds over North Sea and frontal conditions over eastern UK - classic flight and fall conditions. Local wind conditions at Beddington were north-westerly, a reminder that local wind conditions can be mis-leading

 Oystercatchers

 Ringed Plovers and Dunlin

Common Terns

A big day at the farmlands with some good sky-watching and grounded waders. 1 Turnstone, 2 Oystercatcher, 5 Dunlin, 15 Ringed Plover, 12 Snipe, 34 Common Tern over, 38 Shoveler and 1 Little Egret.

More here: www.beddingtonfarmlands.org.uk 

Lest we forget: http://northdownsandbeyond.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/another-kick-in-guts.html

Beddington Farmlands Natural Disaster ?

Beddington Farmlands is part of the London Plan (Policy 7.17) and the Core Planning Strategy PMP9 to be developed into a nature reserve and core area for the Wandle Valley Regional Park for Greater London. For more on the plans click here: The future of Beddington Farmlands

In light of the recent decision by the GLA and London Borough of Sutton to allow Viridor to build an incinerator on site here are a few statistics on the progress of the Conservation Management Scheme which is in place to implement the regional park and nature reserve policies. 

Tree Sparrow Population

Crashed from 1000 in 2007 to 60 this year

Conservation Management Scheme Breeding Target Species

Little Ringed Plover- 0 pairs in 2013

Ringed Plover- 0 pairs in 2013

Redshank- 0 pairs in 2013 (extinct as a breeding bird since 2005)

Common Tern - 0 pairs in 2013

Yellow Wagtail- 0 pairs in 2013 (extinct as a breeding bird since 1995)

Lapwing- Down from 22 pairs in 2005 to 12 pairs in 2013

Sedge Warbler- Down from 25 pairs in 2000 to 2 pairs in 2013

Reed Bunting- Down from 23 pairs in 1995 to 1-2 pairs in 2013

Whitethroat and Reed Warbler- Relatively stable

Conservation Management Scheme Wintering Target Species

Teal- Down from 830 in 1995/1996 to 350 in 2012/2013

Shoveler- Down from 150 in 1995/96 to 100 in 2012/2013

Lapwing- Down from 165 in 1995/96 to 35 in 2012/2013

Snipe- Down from 35 in 1995/1996 to 20 in 2012/2013

Water Pipit- Down from 10 in 2000/2001 to 3 in 2010/2011

Green Sandpiper- stable

Conservation Management Scheme Restoration Progress

Acid Grassland- Originally due for development from 2003 onwards. No progress to date.

Wet Grassland- Due for completion in 2011. Minimal progress to date.

Neutral Grassland- Due for completion in 2008. Some progress.

Southern and Northern Lakes- Completed but not to specification with in-correct water height and no on-going maintenance

Public Access- Originally the nature reserve and regional park was to be completed and open to the public in 2015. 

Migrants

Following species also in decline on site since the current conservation management plan has been in place: Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, Ruff, Greenshank, Turtle Dove, Cuckoo, Whinchat  and House Martin

Scroll down for more on the Incinerator and state of Nature at Beddington Farmlands.

More from Inside Croydon:

http://insidecroydon.com/2013/08/23/incinerator-campaigners-to-take-battle-to-judicial-review/