Exams Complete!

On Friday I sat my final A level exam a whole month after I had sat my first. It is such a relief now they are all done and I can start to focus on the next few months (I have a very busy summer ahead). But of course my first day of freedom I headed down to Beddington Farmlands to do my first bit of birding since the Purple Heron day.

It was light very early on Saturday morning so I actually slowed down in Beddington Park to appreciate the birds that were just waking up - all too often I rush through the park in the dark to get to the Farmlands for first light. I was delighted to see that the pair of Mute Swans on the main Boating Lake currently have six healthy looking cygnets. Last year they lost two of their four young to idiots who decided to slingshot them, so I certainly hope that nothing like that happens this year! There was also a pair of Egyptian Geese with eight goslings, different aged juvenile Coots, juvenile Moorhens, and nesting Grey Wagtails in the same place as the previous two years. Nine Tufted Ducks were on the main Boating Lake and at least four Rooks were in the trees nearby (perhaps they nested here just as they have done historically). A brief singing Mistle Thrush and a Nuthatch using the same nest hole as last year were nice additions as I approached the Farmlands entrance. Ebird list from the park here.

Adult Mute Swan with cygnets

Common Swift

Grey Wagtail

In June 2020 the Grey Wagtail pair successfully fledged three young:

This Red Fox above and below was rather curious of what I was doing

As I moved into the Farmlands and approached the South Lake hide I was greeted by a family of Common Whitethroats which included at least three recently fledged juveniles. There were also some juvenile Golfinches close by and two Sedge Warblers called between each other in the scrub immediately north of the hide. On the Southernmost Lake a female Pochard had three young chicks with it (another year of breeding Pochards at Beddington - last year four were successfully raised on the North Lake). I also spotted an eclipse male and female Shoveler in the background. On the South Lake a female Gadwall had nine chicks. Whilst I was watching them I saw a small bird hop up in the vegetation in front of the hide. I got some photos as I expected it to be one of the juvenile Whitethroats but when I looked at the photos I was clearly looking at a Lesser Whitethroat! Although a few Lesser Whitethroats are present on the Farm each year around now, they are usually secretive and even go long periods without even being heard so it was great to catch a brief view of one.

I then decided to move on and stand at Mile Road gate for a while. A juvenile Goldcrest was flitting around in the trees on the bend and there were also a couple of Chiffchaffs. There was a noticeably greater number of Swifts present compared to my previous visit. A Little Ringed Plover flew up off of the North Lake whilst calling and flew south east over Mile Road. As I walked a bit further along the path to head towards the North Lake hide I spotted a dead Common Shrew in front of me. I then heard what I hope was a very good Song Thrush impression of a Bee Eater (otherwise there was actually a Bee Eater and I was in the worst place in terms of how much of the sky I could see!). From the North Lake hide there was a second Little Ringed Plover still out on the main island, at least two male Teal, four Lapwing, at least three Reed Warblers. When I checked out the Wet Grassland hide there wasn't much at all but I did pick up my only three Long-tailed Tits of the day.

I started to head back towards Mile Road where I would meet Anand. Before he arrived I had a cracking view of a 2cy Hobby cutting through the centre of the ball of Swifts over the lake. Thankfully later on we picked up another Hobby. There was a flock of 54 Stock Doves on the southern area of the mound on the bend heading towards the Phase 3 Wet Grassland and three Rooks flew around too. On Phase 3 there were two Little Ringed Plovers (one presumably the bird that flew over Mile Road earlier). A Red Kite drifted west over by the Incinerator. Anand also spotted a Hummingbird Hawk Moth in the South East Corner (my first in the UK I believe) and then we think we possibly had a second individual. A Painted Lady butterfly was also on the border of the Phase 3 Wet Grassland and we found a Lesser Pearl Moth.

On 100 Acre we had two juvenile Black-headed Gulls, three Green Sandpipers (my first since the 30th of April), and a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker. The two dead foxes (one is only a skull) that Anand had seen previously weren't the nicest to see. We also had another Painted Lady. Anand then headed off and I stayed to do a bit of a skywatch before heading off myself. I had a Hobby circle above my head and a Buzzard fly south east over Phase 1 Wet Grassland, but the best and most shocking bird I spotted was a House Martin that briefly flew above Mile Road. This is only the third House Martin I've seen this year after two birds on the 27th of April!! On the way out I had a Green Woodpecker around the South Lake and saw lots of butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies. Farmlands Ebird list and more photos here.

Female Pochard with chicks

Gadwall family

Lesser Whitethroat

Juvenile Goldcrest

Chiffchaff below:

Common Swifts above and below

Dead Common Shrew

2cy Hobby below:

The brown colouration to the upperparts of the regimes visible in this photo are the main feature I used to age this as a 2cy bird, along with the pale-tipped coverts

Hummingbird Hawk Moth above and below

Painted Lady

Lesser Pearl Moth

Green Sandpiper above and below

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker

Red Fox skull

Record shot of the House Martin

Cormorant

Male Black-tailed Skimmer

Essex Skipper

Large Skipper

Marbled White

Ringlet

Black-tailed Skimmer above and below

Blue-tailed Damselfly

An Eventful Morning!

On Sunday I decided to head down to Beddington Farmlands very early in the morning. This was the first time that I had done so since I decided to step back from birding and focus on preparing for my A Level exams. The weather conditions looked decent: rain overnight, north easterlies switching to northerlies as the morning progressed, low cloud cover and the threat of more rain.

I got to the Farmlands at 04:15. I instantly found a pair of juvenile Tawny Owls. Before this I had only ever had two previous records of Tawny Owl within the Farmlands boundaries and both of these were heard only birds. The shock of finding young birds on the site actually meant that I originally thought that I had imagined their calls in my head. Luckily, they called several times, which confirmed to me that they were not in my imagination. I managed to catch a glimpse of them flapping around as they moved along the treeline. They seemed to follow me for a while as I crept along the treeline sound recording them, before I decided to leave them alone to minimise any potential disturbance I was causing (I did not want to prevent an adult bird from coming and feeding them etc).

Sound recording of the young Tawny Owls:

I moved on to look over the Phase 3 Wet Grassland as the sun began to rise, although it remained dark for a long time due to the cloud cover. I went to my usual viewing corner to set up my scope to scan the islands and edges of Phase 3 for waders. But before I even started to set up my scope, I realised that one of the fence posts further along the path looked a bit odd. As the light levels were still low I couldn't quite make out what I was seeing. I raised my binoculars and found myself looking at a fox. Rather ironically, it had managed to get its back left foot caught in the 'fox-proof fence' that surrounds the Phase 3 Wet Grassland! After several attempts to gain its trust and get close enough to it to help I managed to rest some unused fence posts that were to the side of the path against the fence for the fox to rest its front legs on in the hopes this reduced the weight pulling down on the stuck foot. Whilst I did this, my mum managed to go up to it and carefully release its foot from the fence. The fox didn't hang around and hastily ran into some nearby vegetation. I can only hope that it copes and recovers from its injury. My mum and I did the best we could in the situation and I am glad that we could free it otherwise it faced a certain and rather slow death. At least now it has a better chance of survival.

The strange position that I found the fox in!!

After freeing the fox, I finally set up my scope and scanned for the Ringed Plover that I had heard calling whilst helping the fox, which was my first at Beddington this year. Sadly I could not see it and I did not hear it again either. A Little Ringed Plover and a few Lapwings were the best I could pick out. So my mum and I headed around Phase 3 and headed off to the 2nd Development Area.

Earlier in the spring, the 2nd Development Area was the favourite area of the whole site for migrating Wheatear and Whinchat. I know it has good potential for something rarer to turn up so I did a walk there and back just in case. I thought I heard one distant call of a Grey Plover but decided it wasn't quite enough to go on to claim it. Nothing of note other than 2 more Little Ringed Plovers that have taken a particular liking to the flattened earth where many members of the bird group walk and diggers and tractors also sometimes drive along. We then continued on over the mound. Instead of cutting through the centre of the mound, we decided to go around the edge, which would take us round to look over the South Lake. As we walked, I mentioned to my mum that the lack of 'decent' sightings on the South Lake in recent years may be due to the lack of people that actually scan it thoroughly. It is always easy to neglect areas that don't seem to get much and head off to the known 'hotspots' of the site. I knew if a rarity ever decided to show up on the South Lake it could easily be missed. I scanned the South Lake from the mound and as usual there wasn't anything other than the usual suspects. Some of the Grey Heron chicks that were still in the nest last time I had looked had fledged and were on the outskirts of the Southernmost Lake (the Southernmost Lake is supposed to be developed into a reedbed but for now is separated from the main South Lake by a narrow causeway). On we went towards Mile Road gate. My mum was going to leave after I'd done a quick scan of the North Lake.

Before we got close enough to the North Lake for me to scan it, I pointed to a heron that was flying very directly towards us heading south west over the North Lake. I don't always look at and scrutinise the herons at Beddington because they are 'always just!' Grey Herons. But for some reason on this occasion I was drawn to it. I raised my binoculars and something didn't quite seem right. I debated whether to get the bird in my scope or get some photos. I chose to get some photos as the bird was about to pass us relatively closely. Once it had passed it started to circle over the Southernmost Lake (back where we had just looked over!). It was at that point when I had more time and got the bird into my scope. I expected to see in the scope a normal Grey Heron and that what I had seen in my binoculars was me just going insane. But that wasn't the case at all. I had a full scope view of a Purple Heron flying around! The face and neck pattern was striking, as was the long spread out toes. It began to lose altitude and I realised it was actually going to drop down on the Southernmost Lake. I lost it as it plummeted downwards because the mound obscured my view. I sprinted back towards where I had stood only 5 minutes before. At this point, my mum realised that I wasn't just having one of those silly moments when I joke about a common bird being a rarity. When I got into a position where my view was no longer obscured I was relieved to see that it had perched right out in the open on some netting that is partly submerged in the Southernmost Lake. My mum was still back where I had just sprinted from but I waved back at her to let her know I could still see it. I got a few rushed phone-scope shots and then put the news out on the appropriate WhatsApp groups (of which there are now many). Instantly I got a call from Ian Jones who asked whether it was showing still. I explained where it was and then he rushed down. I then started to call some other Beddington birders. I couldn't remember who needed it for Beddington, or how many previous records there were (I now know that this was the 4th site record and first since 2005 - I was born in 2004!).

By the time Ian, Glenn Jones and Duncan Bulling managed to join us on the mound it had moved from its original perch and gone into hiding as a result of all the Grey Herons that gave it weird looks and stared it down. Dodge was down by the corner of the lake where it had disappeared into and called me to say he could hear it having an argument with one of the Grey Herons. Shaun Ferguson and Steve Gale were down in the public hide. Eventually they all managed to see it but only as it circled and gained height before flying off south east about an after after I had first spotted it flying in. Happy with the end to my morning I headed for the exit and went home to do some revision.

Ebird list from the morning here.

Purple Heron photos below:

Above pics all of it as it flew in

Rushed phone-scope of it on the deck

Pics below all taken as it left the site...

The casual manor in which I put out the news was not reflective of the level of excitement in the moment 😂