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