Oakley Airfield

As planned I got up early this morning and went back to Oakley Airfield. Ebird list HERE. Highlights were 9 Wheatear, 11 Yellow Wagtail, 8 Corn Bunting, loads of Skylarks, Whitethroats and the Firecrest again. The site is literally less than a five minute walk from the Old Vicarage. I have spent the last several years (on and off)  looking for a migrant/birding hotspot by exploring the fields south of here towards the river Thame- I should have gone the other way! 

 Corn Bunting (above and below) - several singing birds, a lovely sound to hear amongst the choir of Skylarks and calling Yellow Wagtails- a sound I didn't think that still existed in the English countryside! 

 Male Wheatear (above) and female (below) 

 Male and female Wheatear

 There are literally Skylarks everywhere on the airfield- I estimated nearly 30 birds - the air was thick with the songs

 Adult Red Kite

Oakley airfield

The Old Vicarage, Worminghall- Local Exploring

Spent today exploring the local area. In the morning I visited Waterstock Local Wildlife Site (with permission of the owner) and in the afternoon we went on a family walk around Worminghall Airfield. Ebird list HERE. Pretty quiet at the Old Vic itself- just a couple of Hebrew Character in the trap and nothing on the noc-mig recordings last night. 

Worminghall Air Field

What looks like a migrant trap has been sitting right under my nose- literally within 10 minutes walking distance of the Old Vicarage. With Jacob throwing the mother of all tantrums preventing me from birding properly I still managed to see 5 Wheatear, 6 Yellow Wagtail and a cracking male Firecrest singing from a group of pines. There was also 4 Corn Bunting and very good numbers of Skylarks- I'm planning on getting up early and going back there tomorrow morning. 

 Male Firecrest

 Male Wheatear- one of five birds 

 Yellow Wagtail- at least six birds around (above and below) 

Waterstock Local Wildlife Site 

I did a morning walk from Waterperry to Waterstock and popped into the local wildlife site. Best bird was a Yellow Wagtail but I was mainly checking out this little hot spot for invert potential and there are also some special plants here too later on in the year. It's also a site for Otter and Polecat.  I've got permission from the very nice landowner to do some further exploring of the area and after lockdown may even be able to do some moth trapping there. 

 Comma 

 Cuckoo Flower 

 Snake's-head Fritillary (introduced) 

 Worminghall Airfield- a lot of the migrants were hiding on the tussocks on the old runways- it was a bit like desert birding 

Waterstock Local Wildlife Site 

Skywatch- Beddington Farmlands

An excellent skywatch this morning at Beddington in pretty classic 'flight' conditions. Ebird list HERE. Vis-mig totals were: 1+93 Bar-tailed Godwit E, 1+1+4 Whimbrel E, 1 first-winter Little Gull E, 3 Common/Arctic Tern E, 3 Yellow Wagtail N, 2 Meadow Pipit N, 10 Swallow N, 3 Sand Martin S, 5 House Martin N, 1 Common Swift N and 1 Common Sandpiper on the Southern Lake.

This is the third day now with good vis-mig conditions, there were also a couple of bits yesterday including the year's first Greenshank, 25 Swallow, 3 Sand Martin and a Hobby. Ebird list HERE

 90+ Bar-tailed Godwit heading East (above and below- past the incinerator chimney over Croydon). The largest flock ever recorded at the farmlands (and also the highest in Surrey following a flock of 70 along the Thames at Bankside in 2012- thanks Surrey birders Whatsapp group). 

 First-winter Little Gull with Herring Gull

 Bar-tailed Godwit (left) migrating high over with Whimbrel (right) 

 Whimbrel (above and below) 

Pretty classic wader 'flight' conditions for Beddington Farmlands with a north east wind and frontal conditions in the mid-April to early May migration window. 

Beddington Farmlands Lockdown Spoonbill and Marsh Harrier

Had a mad five minutes from the window this afternoon.  Cloud was coming in over the farmlands and there was a bit of light rain, so I thought I'd have a look to see if any high flying birds might get flushed out the sky. Within a few seconds I looked up to see a high flying first-summer Spoonbill flying east (it then got mobbed by gulls and headed off north) and five minutes later a female type Marsh Harrier flew south east. These birds were presumably associated with the edge of the front (or cell), which presumably acts as some kind of migration interface which birds either get blocked by or pushed along by. I waited another three hours after that but nothing more apart from a couple of Swallows and a Meadow Pipit. Also Willow Warbler and Whitethroat were singing from outside the window this morning. A pretty good day without leaving the flat! Ebird list HERE

So Spoonbill is the latest bird to be added to the good birds found or seen from the window. See here:  BIRDS FROM THE WINDOW

 Spoonbill being mobbed by large gull 

 Spoonbill- black tips to the primaries indicate a second calendar year bird (first-summer) . This is the 10th record for the farmlands mainly of single of two birds but in 2018 there were two flocks of 19 and 16. 

 Marsh Harrier 

One of the thousands of our local Rose-ringed Parakeets, outside the window today 

Mitcham Common walk

I walked round Mitcham Common today (Wednesday to Fridays I'm based in London for work) to look for migrant potential so targeted the three water bodies- Seven Islands, the Dew Pond and One Island. Lots of Blackcaps (26) and Chiffchaffs (17) and three Whitethroats on the circuit but I was surprised not to find anything else. Ebird list here . 2 Rook landing in the Oak Copse at the Gun Site was interesting.

I walked back along the Beddington Farmlands permissive path Ebird list here. Highlights were the three Little Ringed Plovers on the North Lake, 4 Reed Warblers, a couple of Whitethroat and a couple of Swallows.

The other guys had Nightingale and Wheatear so despite the clear skies migrants are still dropping in.

 Common Whitethroat

The Old Vicarage- food, pugs and sounds

Good job we made good use of the warm weather over the last couple of days because today the temperature has dropped to around 12 C and the cold wind has picked up again. So it was back to not a lot in the moth trap and doing more inside (started on the plans for the Bulgaria project today for as soon as we get out of lockdown). 

Food

So we've almost maxed out on our raised beds and food growing space. 

Bryan had strawberries and Garlic already growing. 

In the other beds we've put sugar snap peas (in drills). radish, beetroot, carrot and cabbage. These have all gone straight in to the beds. 

On the veranda we've got a few things starting off before moving them into the beds including tomatoes (some have already got three leaves so beginning to pot them on), broccoli (still growing in seed trays), runner beans (in individual pots) and we are planning on getting green peppers, kale and potatoes going too. 

Holly at work building the raised beds

Pugs etc

Very little in the moth traps last night in the cold north east wind so here's a few also rans from the night before. Here's a handy pug identification guide HERE.  I guess these are a mix of Brindled and Oak Tree Pugs

Brindled Beauty

Pebble Prominent 

Sounds

I had a good check through over 15 hours of sound recordings from the last two nights and really not a lot happening- Moorhen on both nights, Water Rail yesterday and the usual Tawny Owls. 

 Amazing soundscape of the Tawny Owls joining in with the dawn chorus 

Water Rail over the garden last night (listen to the end- I forgot to trim the section) 

The Old Vicarage- moth roll

We're on a roll with the moths at the Old Vicarage with several new for site today.

 Purple Thorn 

 Pale Pinion (gone for Pale Pinion rather than Tawny Pinion?) It's a Tawny (see comments- thanks Stewart!) 

 Blossom Underwing 

 Pine Beauty 

Least Black Arches