Wader Day at Beddington Farmlands

On Friday I met up with Glenn at the Farmlands. He had timed his day off perfectly to make the most of the easterly winds. Most of the time, even when the conditions look good on paper, we end up standing there staring at am empty 'birdless' sky and find nothing of note on the deck. But this time were treated to a few different wader species. Firstly, Nick Gardner found a group of 4 Dunlin on the newly drained Enclosed Lagoon. Glenn and I were elsewhere on site but not too far away so we decided to head round there via Phase 3 Wet Grassland. Before we got there Nick then managed to find an Avocet on Phase 3! We had all separately scanned the area earlier in the morning so this bird was new in, which was a promising sign. It was also only my second Avocet for Beddington and the first for the site since spring 2022. Glenn and I were then shocked to find a Redshank right next to the Avocet! Where we were stood on the mound we could see the 4 Dunlin, Avocet and Redshank all at the same time. It was a great morning and it was the first time in a while were I felt a little bit anxious about having to leave the site before midday. Not much else was reported by others afterwards though. The trio of notable wader species stayed most of the day but by the evening both the Dunlin and Redshank had seemingly disappeared/ The Avocet was not present the following morning.

Avocet