Patch Tick Twitch and a Jammy Find

Tuesday morning started off well when I found a Grey Plover out on Phase 1 Wet Grassland on my way to Charlie's office. It was nice enough to stay there all day and was visible from the public hide too. A Great Crested Grebe found by Glenn was on the North Lake. I was out with Charlie and one volunteer installing tree stakes for the orchard trees on the mound and despite not actually birding the increased number of Meadow Pipit during the rain was obvious. After finishing our work for the day I decided to do a final rinse of the site. The highlight was an impressive count of 6 Little Ringed Plover on Phase 3 Wet Grassland. eBird list from Tuesday here.

Grey Plover

Yesterday saw the first proper movement of Hirundines over the Farmlands. My final totals were 82 Sand Martin and 14 Swallow north. 1 male Wheatear was on the mound. Full eBird list here.

However, it has to be today that currently takes the prize for the best day so far this week. I was working from home today but made sure I was all ready to jump up and go if something good was found by someone else. At first light Glenn reported a Curlew on Phase 3 Wet Grassland. I haven't seen a Curlew here since August 2021 so I was going to pop down late afternoon once I had finished work if it was still about. Unfortunately, Arjun and Steve Thomas shortly after informed us all that the Curlew was nowhere to be seen so it obviously didn't hang around for long. The WhatsApp groups remained fairly quiet for the rest of the morning other than reports of 7 Wheatear on the mound and the odd group of Swallows and a Willow Warbler. Then just before half past two in the afternoon I got a text from Alan Wilkinson explaining that he was currently watching 4 Ruff on 100 Acre just about visible from the permissive path. I couldn't believe it! I still needed Ruff and I instantly shared the news onto the relevant WhatsApp groups before setting straight down for them. Whilst I was on the bus (thankfully timings worked in my favour for once Arjun expressed his pain that he had not long ago just looked there and that they must have dropped in during the rain shower after he had left. By quarter past three I had finally got to 100 Acre gate and instantly I got one of them in my bins. I then got my camera and scope out of my bag and then moved just inside the gate to get a slightly clearer view of all 4 of them. Whilst watching them run along the southern edge of the island I suddenly tuned into the fact that there were several Lesser Black-backed Gulls alarm calling in the distance. I realised that this must have been due to the presence of a bird of prey so I looked over towards where all the noise was coming from. Above the Incinerator chimney I picked up a large raptor drifting slowly south west and when I raised my bins I realised it was an Osprey! I had literally just turned up to twitch Ruff as a patch tick and had ended up finding another good bird. It continued low and flew right through the centre of the site. I called my mum because I knew she was on her way down for the Ruff but unfortunately she was still on a bus when the Osprey went over. After getting some photos of the Osprey (the settings were wrong) I went back to look at the Ruff on the island only to realise that they had disappeared! So now not only had my mum missed the Osprey by a matter of minutes but now I feared she was not going to see the Ruff. I waited by the gate until she got there and then we proceeded into 100 Acre to look at the back of the island. A slow walk round revealed that they had indeed flown off somewhere whilst I was ditracted by the Osprey. We continued to walk through 100 Acre past all the beds just in case they hadn't gone far. Just as we were discussing the possibility that they could've relocated to a totally different area of the site a flock of Teal flushed up from a bed up ahead of us. I was going to raise my bins to check there wasn't a Garganey in amongst them when I noticed that four of them weren't Teal at all and were in fact the Ruff. They flew off high west and seemed to just carry on going but thankfully my mum had decent flight views. As we left 100 Acre news came through on the WhatsApp group that Nick now had the Ruff on Phase 3 Wet Grassland so we headed over there to get better views of them on the deck. Thankfully they were kind and stayed put, allowing my mum to get views of them through my scope too. Whilst watching them on Phase 3 we noticed a small group of Swallows flying about and the almost continuous calls of Little Ringed Plovers was notable so I did a scan and found a minimum of 9 of them chasing one another about. It really had turned out to be a great afternoon birding and my eBird list can be seen here.

These Ruff have put me on 157 all time for Beddington Farmlands and are my second patch tick so far this year following on from the Stone Curlew. I will be hoping for Redstart to put me up by one more in the coming weeks.

Osprey - came quite close to the power lines

The 4 Ruff above and below

Willow Warblers, Dunlin and Birds of Prey

This morning my mum and I headed down to the Farmlands in the hopes that the male Ring Ouzel from yesterday had stuck around. Unfortunately we could not relocate it, but we did manage to find the first Willow Warbler for Beddington this year and behind it we could hear another individual. Both birds were in subsong but they were very quiet and could easily have been missed. Whilst watching one of them I thought I briefly heard a singing Sedge Warbler but unfortunately could not confirm 100%. My mum managed to get a couple of patch year ticks in the form of 2 Dunlin and a Sand Martin that were using Phase 3 Wet Grassland to feed. At least three Little Ringed Plovers and a Green Sandpiper were also on Phase 3. We also saw a Peregrine that carried its prey (a Ring-necked Parakeet) up to the top of the Incinerator chimney. After thoroughly scanning Phase 3 we then headed to the usual vismig spot as I thought that today was going to be good for raptors. My mum had to leave at 9am to get home for work but I stayed until midday. Overall I managed to get a minimum of 10 Buzzard, 3 Red Kite, 2 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel and 1 Peregrine, plus 2 Greylag Geese flew south and 16 Meadow Pipit moved through. eBird list here.

Willow Warbler below:

Dunlin below:

Beddington Farmlands: 20th-26th March

The past week at Beddington has been a strange one. Overall, spring migration still seems pretty slow and vismig counts have been poor. However, most days there have been one or two decent birds...

Monday 20th:

Near the start of my morning walk along the permissive on route to Charlie's office I found a male and female Blackcap and I presumed (wrongly) that I would get quite a few more throughout the day: they turned out to be the only two I had that day. 2 Sand Martin over the North Lake at 11:00 were the only other birds worthy of being reported on the WhatsApp groups. Heavy rain in the afternoon failed to bring anything in. eBird list here.

Tuesday 21st:

Before we headed off to meet the volunteers at 10am Charlie and I decided to do a check of 100 Acre in the vehicle (Lapwings are not as disturbed by the vehicle as they are people on foot). Whilst slowly driving towards the first bed with a Lapwing on we heard an interesting wader call twice. I asked Charlie if he had heard it and explained that I was convinced it was a Golden Plover. He responded to say that he heard it but he thought it was a Redshank. I was very confused as to how I could have mistaken a Redshank for a Golden Plover and then became even more perplexed when we drove a bit further and flushed up a Redshank from the next bed. I apologised to Charlie for not agreeing with his thoughts and started to muddle over how I had messed it up quite so badly. We then turned left and drove a bit faster to go around the bed the Redshank had flushed from. As we got to the corner of the bed a bird flushed up from the path right in front of us. The vehicle had barely come to a stop when I jumped out and reached for my camera whilst shouting "Golden Plover!" Given it had almost been run over it was no surprise that it flew off north never to be seen again. It almost ended my confusion and made me feel better that I hadn't messed up after all. Charlie and I must have just heard two different birds. Sadly I failed to get any photos of what was my first spring Golden Plover at the Farmlands because as I learned later in the day my camera lens had condensation on it from Monday's afternoon rain. A check of Phase 3 Wet Grassland whilst Charlie went of to fix a broken fence with Tonka produced no more than a Little Ringed Plover and a Green Sandpiper. A male Pheasant was boldly walking around in the open on the mound too. In the afternoon as we were filling the holes in the Sand Martin Bank with new sand with the volunteers a minimum of four Sand Martins flew over us. At the end of the day I went for a final walk around the site. Whilst I was scanning Phase 1 Wet Grassland Mark Bravery reported on the WhatsApp group that a female Marsh Harrier had just flown south east over the South Lake. Unfortunately I was not in a great position to look for it and failed to get onto it. There were zero records of Marsh Harrier in 2021 but five records last year so it will be interesting to see if we get anymore this year. On my walk over the mound towards the usual vismig point I spotted 2 male and 2 female Wheatear. Full eBird list here.

Buzzard above and below

Male Pheasant

Male Wheatear

Female Wheatears above and below

Water Pipit below:

Wednesday 22nd:

I was at Hampstead Heath with Jamie and Keir (see blog post here) but Glenn had a day off work and managed to get a Grey Plover, 2 Sand Martin and a singing male Blackcap. Nick also got three Wheatear.

Thursday 23rd:

Not much happened. eBird list here.

Double-striped Pug

Saturday 25th:

With a strong westerly wind and rain I was hoping for a Kittiwake. Inland reports came up on Birdguides throughout the day but unfortunately we (Glenn, my mum and I) did not get one. Instead we managed to get the first Lesser Redpoll for the site this year. It called once as it flew south over the Sand Martin Bank at 06:50. About twenty minutes later a Red Kite drifted north west over the mound/Phase 1 Wet Grassland. By 9am Glenn separated from my mum and I to head home and whilst we had a male Wheatear at the northern edge of the mound he had three at the southern end. A walk around 100 Acre was fairly quiet. We then headed back south along the permissive path and by the North Lake hide there was a singing male Blackcap. Nick managed to get three others elsewhere. My mum then left to go home and I went back up onto the mound to do a skywatch in the hopes that Beddington would finally join the Alpine Swift party. Sadly no joy there but I did notice that there seemed to be a high number of Shelduck on the North Lake and I counted 18 of them which was the highest count of the year so far. Before I went home I decided to check Phase 3 Wet Grassland one more time. Early morning we had only managed a single Little Ringed Plover but Nick had seen three later on so I wanted to at least spot a second one. It did not take me long to find two LRPs on one of the near islands. With my scope I then began to scan the island to the right of them to look for the third bird. What I did land on instead was a Dunlin - the first for the Farmlands this year. The strong wind made it difficult to get a decent phonescope shot of it but I eventually managed. It was quite a long-billed bird so I'm thinking it might be Calidris alpina alpina. Full eBird list here.

Greylag x Canada Goose hybrid

Presumed alpina Dunlin

Sunday 26th:

The heavy rain when I first woke up early morning made me decide to go back to sleep as it was forecast to stay heavy for most of the morning. By mid morning interesting reports started to come through on Birdguides and then Ed Stubbs found a Kittiwake in SW Surrey. Shortly after an Alpine Swift was then found at Walthamstow. I forwarded on the reports to Dodge and then got ready. We headed down to the Farmlands at midday and realised we had made a mistake not coming earlier. A singing male Blackcap welcomed us as we came in over Mile Road Bridge and we went and set up on the mound and just waited. After a quiet first hour we walked across the mound to Phase 3 to check for waders. All we managed was a Green Sandpiper and 2 LRP before heading back towards the hide because there was an obvious band of drizzle heading straight for us. As we were walking back we started to notice a few kettles of gulls (mostly LBBGs and Common Gulls) and then a Red Kite flew south west. As we neared the hide we realised that the drizzle wasn't as bad as we had thought and so we stood up on the Sand Martin Bank instead. Again not much was happening and the drizzle got worse so we eventually moved into the hide. From behind us a flock of 14 Black-headed Gulls (our first of the day and getting more difficult to get now that most have left to go to their breeding grounds) dropped down and investigated the lake. This made us head back out onto the Sand Martin Bank despite the drizzle just in case more gulls came in. We then decided to walk along the west bank of the mound and check Phase 1 Wet Grassland but as expected it was very quiet. A Sand Martin did fly over our heads though. We then headed back up to our original spot on the mound. The Sand Martin was then seen lots flying around the North Lake. A bit later a hirundine came in from the south and I assumed it was the same Sand Martin Bank but when I got my bins on it I realised it was actually the site's first Swallow of the year and behind it was another one. They just went slowly north and did not hang around. We continued watching the sky for another twenty minutes before all of a sudden and rather unexpectedly Dodge turned around and said, "that's a male Ring Ouzel next to that Crow." I turned around and sure enough there it was feeding on the mound. I managed to get a phonescope of it before the crows and magpies chased it into the copse of trees. Last year we had to wait until late April for the first Ring Ouzel of the year and we really would have never predicted that for today (it's the first in Surrey this year). We did not see it fly off but after another brief spell of feeding on the ground we never saw it again. Dodge then got onto a gull in the distance flying directly away from us and told me to get my scope on it. Neither of us could see any reason why it was not a Kittiwake but it was just too distant by the time it eventually banked to say for certain so unfortunately it's one that got away. Full eBird list from the day here.

Male Ring Ouzel above and below

Hampstead Heath

On Wednesday I met Jamie Cedar and Keir at Hampstead Heath. It was mostly for a social but as always some birding was done too. It was my first time meeting Jamie and also my first time visiting the site. Upon my arrival at one of the southern entrances I was welcomed by the noisy chatter of  a flock of Siskin. A Kestrel circled above our heads at our meeting point at Parliament Hill. We did not have much of a plan for where to walk but Jamie and Keir mentioned a Tawny Owl that's visible during the day and I explained that I had never seen a daytime Tawny Owl so we headed towards that. Jamie pointed me in the direction of the rough area that it roosts and gave me the challenge of finding it myself. Of course I happily accepted the challenge but surprised myself when within about two seconds I had got my bins onto a lovely Tawny Owl! Jamie then had to leave us but Keir and I carried on walking about. Shortly after the owl I had a bit of a shock when I saw a male Mandarin Duck swim out from one of the lake edges. Keir explained that they're about all the time but I just hadn't really given it any thought. Remarkably, this Mandarin was actually an eBird tick for me - the last one I saw must have been around a decade ago! A high Peregrine glided over as Keir and I came to the end of our walk around. My full eBird list from the day can be viewed here.

Roosting Tawny Owl

Grey Heron with prey (large frog or toad)

Male Mandarin Duck

Chiffchaff Fall

Today it became apparent very early on that there had been a local fall of Chiffchaff. Firstly, I had my first Chiffchaff in Beddington Park this year singing away and it was shortly followed by another. Then as I entered the Farmlands another singing individual was the first bird I heard. I met Glenn up on the mound at our usual skywatching point. From there we could here two more Chiffchaff - one by Mile Road gate and one somewhere up on the mound with us. Once the rain hit we came off the mound and made our way towards the bird group hide by the Sand Martin Bank. Whilst we were there we noted at least another 4 Chiffchaff and Glenn told me that he had two in the South East Corner before I had arrived. On Glenn's eBird list he has recorded 13 Chiffs so obviously picked up more on his way home. Birders at other sites across Surrey also reported an increase in their numbers. Other highlights from the morning included a flock of 5 Fieldfare flying south east, a small movement of Chaffinch, a Brambling going north, and 6 Greylag Geese and a calling Little Ringed Plover on North Lake. I'd have loved to have rinsed the whole site today but I had to leave at 10:00 and I knew Nick was going to do that for me so I just stuck to skywatching. On his walk around he managed to pick up another LRP, 6 Green Sandpiper, 1 female Pheasant, 6 Water Pipit, 5 Wheatear, 1 Stonechat and 1 Nuthatch. A White-fronted Goose and 2 Little Gull were reported in Surrey to the SW but unfortunately neither made an appearance for us. Once I got home more reports came through on the Surrey WhatsApp group of Little Gulls dropping down and there was also a Spoonbill at the London Wetland Centre, so it was a bit unfortunate that I couldn't have stayed any longer to keep a look out. My full eBird list from the morning here.

UK Life List

Bold = Scarce/Rare        Red = Not Yet Self Found/Joint Found

1. Greylag Goose
2. White-fronted Goose
3. Tundra Bean Goose
4. Pink-footed Goose
5. Brent Goose
6. Barnacle Goose
7. Canada Goose
8. Mute Swan
9. Bewick's Swan
10. Whooper Swan
11. Egyptian Goose
12. Shelduck
13. Mandarin Duck
14. Garganey
15. Blue-winged Teal
16. Shoveler
17. Gadwall
18. Wigeon
19. American Wigeon
20. Mallard
21. Pintail
22. Teal
23. Green-winged Teal
24. Red-crested Pochard
25. Pochard
26. Ring-necked Duck
27. Ferruginous Duck
28. Tufted Duck
29. Scaup
30. Lesser Scaup
31. Eider
32. Velvet Scoter
33. Common Scoter
34. Long-tailed Duck
35. Goldeneye
36. Smew
37. Goosander
38. Red-breasted Merganser
39. Red Grouse
40. Ptarmigan
41. Capercaillie
42. Black Grouse
43. Grey Partridge
44. Golden Pheasant
45. Pheasant
46. Quail
47. Red-legged Partridge
48. Feral Pigeon
49. Stock Dove
50. Woodpigeon
51. Turtle Dove
52. Collared Dove
53. Cuckoo
54. Nightjar
55. Swift
56. Water Rail
57. Spotted Crake
58. Moorhen
59. Coot
60. Crane
61. Stone-curlew
62. Black-winged Stilt
63. Avocet
64. Oystercatcher
65. Grey Plover
66. Golden Plover
67. American Golden Plover
68. Ringed Plover
69. Little Ringed Plover
70. Lapwing
71. Kentish Plover
72. Upland Sandpiper
73. Whimbrel
74. Curlew
75. Bar-tailed Godwit
76. Black-tailed Godwit
77. Jack Snipe
78. Woodcock
79. Snipe
80. Grey Phalarope
81. Red-necked Phalarope
82. Common Sandpiper
83. Green Sandpiper
84. Marsh Sandpiper
85. Wood Sandpiper
86. Redshank
87. Lesser Yellowlegs
88. Spotted Redshank
89. Greenshank
90. Turnstone
91. Knot
92. Ruff
93. Curlew Sandpiper
94. Stilt Sandpiper
95. Temminck's Stint
96. Buff-breasted Sandpiper
97. Sanderling
98. Dunlin
99. Purple Sandpiper
100. Little Stint
101. White-rumped Sandpiper
102. Least Sandpiper
103. Pectoral Sandpiper
104. Western Sandpiper
105. Black-winged Pratincole
106. Long-tailed Skua
107. Arctic Skua
108. Pomarine Skua
109. Great Skua
110. Puffin
111. Black Guillemot
112. Razorbill
113. Guillemot
114. Little Gull
115. Kittiwake
116. Sabine's Gull
117. Black-headed Gull
118. Mediterranean Gull
119. Common Gull
120. Caspian Gull
121. American Herring Gull
122. Herring Gull
123. Yellow-legged Gull
124. Great Black-backed Gull
125. Glaucous Gull
126. Lesser Black-backed Gull
127. Iceland Gull
128. Little Tern
129. Gull-billed Tern
130. Black Tern
131. White-winged Black Tern
132. Arctic Tern
133. Common Tern
134. Roseate Tern
135. Sandwich Tern
136. Little Grebe
137. Slavonian Grebe
138. Great Crested Grebe
139. Black-necked Grebe
140. Red-throated Diver
141. Black-throated Diver
142. Great Northern Diver
143. Black-browed Albatross
144. Leach's Storm Petrel
145. Fulmar
146. Cory's Shearwater
147. Sooty Shearwater
148. Manx Shearwater
149. Gannet
150. Cormorant
151. Shag
152. Glossy Ibis
153. Spoonbill
154. Bittern
155. Little Egret
156. Cattle Egret
157. Great White Egret
158. Grey Heron
159. Purple Heron
160. Osprey
161. Black-winged Kite
162. Honey Buzzard
163. Sparrowhawk
164. Goshawk
165. Marsh Harrier
166. Hen Harrier
167. Pallid Harrier
168. Montagu's Harrier
169. Red Kite
170. White-tailed Eagle
171. Rough-legged Buzzard
172. Buzzard
173. Barn Owl
174. Little Owl
175. Tawny Owl
176. Long-eared Owl
177. Short-eared Owl
178. Hoopoe
179. Bee-eater
180. Kingfisher
181. Wryneck
182. Great Spotted Woodpecker
183. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
184. Green Woodpecker
185. Kestrel
186. Merlin
187. Hobby
188. Peregrine
189. Ring-necked Parakeet
190. Red-eyed Vireo
191. Golden Oriole
192. Red-backed Shrike
193. Isabelline Shrike
194. Great Grey Shrike
195. Woodchat Shrike
196. Jay
197. Magpie
198. Jackdaw
199. Rook
200. Carrion Crow
201. Hooded Crow
202. Raven
203. Coal Tit
204. Crested Tit
205. Marsh Tit
206. Willow Tit
207. Blue Tit
208. Great Tit
209. Penduline Tit
210. Woodlark
211. Skylark
212. Shore Lark
213. Bearded Tit
214. Icterine Warbler
215. Sedge Warbler
216. Blyth's Reed Warbler
217. Marsh Warbler
218. Reed Warbler
219. Grasshopper Warbler
220. Sand Martin
221. Swallow
222. House Martin
223. European Red-rumped Swallow
224. Wood Warbler
225. Yellow-browed Warbler
226. Hume's Warbler
227. Pallas's Warbler
228. Dusky Warbler
229. Willow Warbler
230. Chiffchaff
231. Greenish Warbler
232. Pale-legged Warbler
233. Arctic Warbler
234. Cetti's Warbler
235. Long-tailed Tit
236. Blackcap
237. Garden Warbler
238. Barred Warbler
239. Lesser Whitethroat
240. Western Subalpine Warbler
241. Whitethroat
242. Dartford Warbler
243. Goldcrest
244. Firecrest
245. Nuthatch
246. Treecreeper
247. Wren
248. Dipper
249. Starling
250. Siberian Thrush
251. Mistle Thrush
252. Song Thrush
253. Redwing
254. Blackbird
255. Fieldfare
256. Ring Ouzel
257. Spotted Flycatcher
258. Robin
259. Nightingale
260. Bluethroat
261. Red-flanked Bluetail
262. Red-breasted Flycatcher
263. Pied Flycatcher
264. Collared Flycatcher
265. Redstart
266. Black Redstart
267. Whinchat
268. Stonechat
269. Amur Stonechat
270. Wheatear
271. Waxwing
272. Dunnock
273. House Sparrow
274. Tree Sparrow
275. Grey Wagtail
276. Yellow Wagtail
277. Eastern Yellow Wagtail
278. Citrine Wagtail
279. Pied Wagtail
280. Meadow Pipit
281. Tree Pipit
282. Water Pipit
283. Rock Pipit
284. Chaffinch
285. Brambling
286. Hawfinch
287. Rosefinch
288. Bullfinch
289. Greenfinch
290. Twite
291. Linnet
292. Redpoll
293. Crossbill
294. Goldfinch
295. Serin
296. Siskin
297. Lapland Bunting
298. Snow Bunting
299. Corn Bunting
300. Yellowhammer
301. Reed Bunting
302. Little Bunting
303. Black-faced Bunting
304. Song Sparrow
305. Blackpoll Warbler

Latest Addition: Serin 22/10/25

Ruddy Shelduck and Year Tick Wheatears

This morning I met Anand at Beddington Farmlands at Phase 3 Wet Grassland to see if the Stone Curlew had stayed overnight. Unfortunately we could not find it anywhere. I did however here a singing Chiffchaff coming from the South East Corner and a Fieldfare was about somewhere but I couldn't see it. We then headed away from Phase 3, to the Enclosed Lagoons, where we saw a Jack Snipe and 2 Water Pipits. We then made our way up mound to try and find the male Wheatear that Andy Harding had just had. Before we managed to see it I got a phone call from Andy. I knew he was down by Phase 3 so I thought he had relocated the Stone Curlew. I never expected him to tell me that he had a Ruddy Shelduck out on Phase 3! Had Anand and I really glanced past it whilst scanning for the Stone Curlew or had it only just dropped in? We headed back south over the mound to Phase 3 and instantly got onto the bird. I then had to leave Phase 3 to head to Charlie's office for a short meeting. On route to the office I found a pair of Great Crested Grebes on the North Lake and then on Phase 1 Wet Grassland landed my scope onto a stunning 1st cycle Caspian Gull. I spent a while getting a few phonescopes of the Casp and then had to rush back to the office as otherwise I would have been late. As I went past Phase 2 Wet Grassland I noticed at least seven Stonechats.

Once my meeting had finished I headed straight back to Phase 2 to try and figure out just how many Stonechats there actually were. I managed to confirm that there were 9 birds together. Andy then reported three more male Wheatear not too far away so I headed round to see them. I must have been where he had seen them less than five minutes after he had put the news out but they were nowhere to be seen, so I headed back to Phase 1 to see if the Casp was still about. Sure enough the Casp was there bossing about some of the nearby Herring Gulls and some Magpies. I decided to wait and watch it because it was such a lovely individual and only my second Casp here this year (last one was 1st January). Whilst I waiting for it to fly up an adult Med Gull dropped in calling. Just as I was thinking of leaving the Casp and heading back to the mound to do a skywatch it took off and kindly flew past Dave and I, calling as is went, rather than flying away from us. Dave and I then headed up the mound and managed to find 3 Wheatear. I am not sure if all of them were different birds to the ones Andy had but one of ours was a female so there were at least 5 Wheatear on site today. Our short skywatch was decent too - we had a Red Kite fly west, 3 Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk. The Great Crested Grebes started displaying and a male Reed Bunting flew south over the North Lake. Just before leaving the site we headed back to Phase 3. The Ruddy Shelduck had gone but I managed to pick out three Little Ringed Plovers (2 males and 1 female). The two males were already chasing each other about. On the way out of the South Gate there was another singing Chiffchaff. Full eBird list here.

Ruddy Shelduck above and below

1st cycle Caspian Gull below:

Adult Mediterranean Gull below:

LRPs Have Returned (oh and a bonus Stone Curlew)!

The day started well yesterday at Beddington Farmlands when I picked up an adult Mediterranean Gull amongst a kettle of Black-headed Gulls over the North Lake just before 7am. Then as I started to make my way towards Charlie's office I spotted 3 Stonechats along the fence running east from Mile Road gate. A small movement of Meadow Pipits was also noted, with 26 flying north - my highest count here in months - and a Rook flew south. Once with Charlie we did a quick check of Phase 3 Wet Grassland before cracking on with some work to the Sand Martin Bank. The Black-tailed Godwit that I had found the day before was still present but other than that and the male Wigeon it was pretty quiet. Inside the Sand Martin Bank we spotted three hibernating Peacock Butterflies, plus a dead one. Outside of the bank there was a Small Tortoiseshell flying about in the afternoon sunshine and a few Buzzards circled above. At one point we stopped working to go and have a chat with Derek Coleman just as he was leaving the site. Whilst talking to him I heard a Little Ringed Plover from somewhere around the North Lake but we could not see it. This was the first record for the year here. In the afternoon when Charlie had left to go home I decided to bird the site more and try and locate where this Little Ringed Plover had gone down. 4 more Stonechat were present by the Main Effluent Channel but there was no sign of any Wheatears on the mound. Over on Phase 3 the Blackwit was still there but also to my delight were 3 Little Ringed Plovers all together. Full eBird list from yesterday here.

Little Ringed Plovers above and below

Buzzard

Peacock Butterfly with fungi growing on it

Today was an ever better day birding wise despite not being able to see everything that was reported. I birded with Glenn and Dodge for about an hour before I left to head off to Charlie's office. About 5 minutes later I got a phone call from Glenn so I knew they had seen something good. They had just found a female Black Redstart right by where I had just been standing with them. Charlie and I went to check Phase 3 before heading round to try and see the Black Redstart. The Blackwit was no longer there but the 3 LRPs were still about. Glenn and Dodge had just made there way over to try and find them so I pointed them out to them. Unfortunately by the time Charlie and I got back round to where the Black Redstart had been there was no longer any sign of it. Glenn and Dodge then found a male Wheatear up on the mound, which was the first Wheatear record at the Farmlands this year. Later on whilst doing some work with Charlie I heard my phone ringing again and this time it was Dodge phoning me. He explained to me that Glenn had just found a Stone Curlew and that it had dropped down and landed somewhere on the mound. I told Charlie and then started making my way towards them in the hopes that they could locate its whereabouts. Just as I got onto the mound where I could them both it suddenly flew up from ahead of them and so I fired off some distant record shocks just in case it was the only views I was going to get. Thankfully it looked like it had dropped down on Phase 3. I went to go and find it out there and eventually with my binoculars I managed to spot it stood preening itself on one of the middle islands. It has to be the first wader I've seen here that had the attitude to fight back/scare off any corvids that got too close to it. A remarkable bird to see and yet another patch lifer here at Beddington! During the 6 hours that I watched it out on Phase 3 I also had a Sand Martin and 2 adult Med Gulls fly north. Full eBird list from today here.

Stone Curlew below:

My initial flight views

Adult Med Gull

Kestrel above and below