Raptors!

With the NW winds and warm sunny weather today I was expecting some good raptor activity at Beddington Farmlands. A Crane spotted by Dave Harris to the west of us sadly did not make an appearance here but there were plenty of Buzzards, 3 Red Kites, Sparrowhawks, Kestrels and a Peregrine all giving us something to watch in the skies. Then at 12:31 a Marsh Harrier came in low from the south and quickly gained height as it circled over Mile Road gate before flying off WNW. My mum had literally just started walking off to go home so I had to shout to get her attention and then run to her to get her on it. It was actually 7th April last year that I patch ticked Marsh Harrier here! 18 minutes later as Duncan, Glenn and I were talking about Ospreys I picked up a raptor flying high north west and interrupted the conversation by saying, "speaking of which..." and pointed them both onto the bird. Interestingly four minutes later one was reported at the London Wetland Centre but this must have been a different bird. So that's my third record of Osprey at the Farmlands just a week and a day after my second. The Buzzard activity continued further into the afternoon but I reluctantly decided to leave at 14:30. Full eBird list here.

Marsh Harrier below:

Osprey above and below

Rook above and below

Greylag Geese above and below

Red Fox

A Good Start to April

The first week of April at Beddington Farmlands has produced some quality birding. On April fools day I was leading a guided walk on site for the Friends of Beddington Park so when Dodge called me explaining that he had a Crane circling over Coulsdon (not an April fools prank) I unfortunately could not just run up to the top of the mound and try and scope it in the distance. On the 2nd I found Surrey's first Yellow Wagtail of the year, which I have now done for three years in a row, and I had my highest count of Willow Warblers so far with a total of 6 across the site. However, quite annoyingly 2 probable Kittiwakes were ones that got away. They were circling over the mound with 2 Black-headed Gulls before flying off north west but unfortunately Dodge and I failed to get enough on them from the pics to confirm. On the 3rd I found a male Gadwall in Beddington Park (first one there this year) on route to the Farmlands. At the Farmlands a count of 94 Black-headed Gulls was the highest in a while and 2 Common Gulls were my first for a week. Three Yellow Wagtails flew north, 31 Chaffinch flew east and there was quite a bit of Buzzard activity.

Little Egret

Female Great Spotted Woodpecker

Male Gadwall in Beddington Park above and below

The 4th was by far the best day of the week (so far). On route to Charlie's office to check the moth trap for the very first time Jack and I had 3 Rook fly south. It was a very cold -1°C overnight so we were not surprised to find just one moth in our rather frosty trap - a Brindled Beauty. Charlie and I then went out in the vehicle to do our usual morning site routine and I ended up finding a Spoonbill flying high(ish) north west over Phase 1 Wet Grassland. This was only my 2nd Spoonbill for here after having one fly south in October 2021. Later on when Charlie and I were doing some habitat management in the South East Corner, Jack and Steve Thomas had a flock of 14 Mediterranean Gulls flying over the mound. About five minutes after they had reported them on the group chat we finally heard one of them call but failed to spot them. Two more flocks of 4 came over and we managed to spot them. I was taking photos of the second group of four as a test to see if my camera could lock onto something so high up. As I was doing this I caught a glimpse of an Egret flying past us in the corner of my eye. It was a Great White Egret! Steve had just reported it flying past him but we had it in front of us before we saw his message. It began to circle over Phase 3 Wet Grassland and drop down but eventually decided to instead just fly off south east. Charlie and I then did the first Butterfly survey of the year as conditions were favourable. Overall that day I ended up seeing 6 Brimstone, 1 Comma, 3 Peacock, 3 Small White and 1 Speckled Wood. Whilst carrying out the survey a Red Kite circled low over our heads and a Raven flew over calling and then began to circle and gain height over Bikers Field. It just continued to get higher and higher until it eventually vanished to the naked eye in the cloudless sky. Full eBird list from the day here.

Brindled Beauty

Immature Spoonbill above and below

Med Gulls - these were the lower ones!

Great White Egret above and below

Female Brimstone above and below

Dark-edged Bee Fly

Red Kite

Raven

Yesterday was quiet overall but highlights were a surprise Goosander (the 5th record of them here since I started patching and I've had four of those records), which thankfully for Arjun flew over 100 Acre late morning after he'd missed it by less than 10 minutes earlier on, plus the site's first House Martin of the year that flew west with a Sand Martin.

Goosander

Red Kite