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