An Eventful Morning!

On Sunday I decided to head down to Beddington Farmlands very early in the morning. This was the first time that I had done so since I decided to step back from birding and focus on preparing for my A Level exams. The weather conditions looked decent: rain overnight, north easterlies switching to northerlies as the morning progressed, low cloud cover and the threat of more rain.

I got to the Farmlands at 04:15. I instantly found a pair of juvenile Tawny Owls. Before this I had only ever had two previous records of Tawny Owl within the Farmlands boundaries and both of these were heard only birds. The shock of finding young birds on the site actually meant that I originally thought that I had imagined their calls in my head. Luckily, they called several times, which confirmed to me that they were not in my imagination. I managed to catch a glimpse of them flapping around as they moved along the treeline. They seemed to follow me for a while as I crept along the treeline sound recording them, before I decided to leave them alone to minimise any potential disturbance I was causing (I did not want to prevent an adult bird from coming and feeding them etc).

Sound recording of the young Tawny Owls:

I moved on to look over the Phase 3 Wet Grassland as the sun began to rise, although it remained dark for a long time due to the cloud cover. I went to my usual viewing corner to set up my scope to scan the islands and edges of Phase 3 for waders. But before I even started to set up my scope, I realised that one of the fence posts further along the path looked a bit odd. As the light levels were still low I couldn't quite make out what I was seeing. I raised my binoculars and found myself looking at a fox. Rather ironically, it had managed to get its back left foot caught in the 'fox-proof fence' that surrounds the Phase 3 Wet Grassland! After several attempts to gain its trust and get close enough to it to help I managed to rest some unused fence posts that were to the side of the path against the fence for the fox to rest its front legs on in the hopes this reduced the weight pulling down on the stuck foot. Whilst I did this, my mum managed to go up to it and carefully release its foot from the fence. The fox didn't hang around and hastily ran into some nearby vegetation. I can only hope that it copes and recovers from its injury. My mum and I did the best we could in the situation and I am glad that we could free it otherwise it faced a certain and rather slow death. At least now it has a better chance of survival.

The strange position that I found the fox in!!

After freeing the fox, I finally set up my scope and scanned for the Ringed Plover that I had heard calling whilst helping the fox, which was my first at Beddington this year. Sadly I could not see it and I did not hear it again either. A Little Ringed Plover and a few Lapwings were the best I could pick out. So my mum and I headed around Phase 3 and headed off to the 2nd Development Area.

Earlier in the spring, the 2nd Development Area was the favourite area of the whole site for migrating Wheatear and Whinchat. I know it has good potential for something rarer to turn up so I did a walk there and back just in case. I thought I heard one distant call of a Grey Plover but decided it wasn't quite enough to go on to claim it. Nothing of note other than 2 more Little Ringed Plovers that have taken a particular liking to the flattened earth where many members of the bird group walk and diggers and tractors also sometimes drive along. We then continued on over the mound. Instead of cutting through the centre of the mound, we decided to go around the edge, which would take us round to look over the South Lake. As we walked, I mentioned to my mum that the lack of 'decent' sightings on the South Lake in recent years may be due to the lack of people that actually scan it thoroughly. It is always easy to neglect areas that don't seem to get much and head off to the known 'hotspots' of the site. I knew if a rarity ever decided to show up on the South Lake it could easily be missed. I scanned the South Lake from the mound and as usual there wasn't anything other than the usual suspects. Some of the Grey Heron chicks that were still in the nest last time I had looked had fledged and were on the outskirts of the Southernmost Lake (the Southernmost Lake is supposed to be developed into a reedbed but for now is separated from the main South Lake by a narrow causeway). On we went towards Mile Road gate. My mum was going to leave after I'd done a quick scan of the North Lake.

Before we got close enough to the North Lake for me to scan it, I pointed to a heron that was flying very directly towards us heading south west over the North Lake. I don't always look at and scrutinise the herons at Beddington because they are 'always just!' Grey Herons. But for some reason on this occasion I was drawn to it. I raised my binoculars and something didn't quite seem right. I debated whether to get the bird in my scope or get some photos. I chose to get some photos as the bird was about to pass us relatively closely. Once it had passed it started to circle over the Southernmost Lake (back where we had just looked over!). It was at that point when I had more time and got the bird into my scope. I expected to see in the scope a normal Grey Heron and that what I had seen in my binoculars was me just going insane. But that wasn't the case at all. I had a full scope view of a Purple Heron flying around! The face and neck pattern was striking, as was the long spread out toes. It began to lose altitude and I realised it was actually going to drop down on the Southernmost Lake. I lost it as it plummeted downwards because the mound obscured my view. I sprinted back towards where I had stood only 5 minutes before. At this point, my mum realised that I wasn't just having one of those silly moments when I joke about a common bird being a rarity. When I got into a position where my view was no longer obscured I was relieved to see that it had perched right out in the open on some netting that is partly submerged in the Southernmost Lake. My mum was still back where I had just sprinted from but I waved back at her to let her know I could still see it. I got a few rushed phone-scope shots and then put the news out on the appropriate WhatsApp groups (of which there are now many). Instantly I got a call from Ian Jones who asked whether it was showing still. I explained where it was and then he rushed down. I then started to call some other Beddington birders. I couldn't remember who needed it for Beddington, or how many previous records there were (I now know that this was the 4th site record and first since 2005 - I was born in 2004!).

By the time Ian, Glenn Jones and Duncan Bulling managed to join us on the mound it had moved from its original perch and gone into hiding as a result of all the Grey Herons that gave it weird looks and stared it down. Dodge was down by the corner of the lake where it had disappeared into and called me to say he could hear it having an argument with one of the Grey Herons. Shaun Ferguson and Steve Gale were down in the public hide. Eventually they all managed to see it but only as it circled and gained height before flying off south east about an after after I had first spotted it flying in. Happy with the end to my morning I headed for the exit and went home to do some revision.

Ebird list from the morning here.

Purple Heron photos below:

Above pics all of it as it flew in

Rushed phone-scope of it on the deck

Pics below all taken as it left the site...

The casual manor in which I put out the news was not reflective of the level of excitement in the moment 😂

Beddington Yellow-legged Gull

Yesterday evening I went down to Beddington Farmlands as the local WhatsApp groups had been quiet. Ebird list here.

The biggest highlight of the evening was finding only the second Yellow-legged Gull at the Farmlands this year, after an adult bird Dave Warren and I found back in January.

2nd cycle (2cy) Yellow-legged Gull below:

Looks like p1-p5 are growing and p6 has been dropped

Phone-scoped pics:

Non-birding highlights below:

Blue-tailed Damselfly by South Gate

My first Cinnabar Moth of the year was around Phase 3 Wet Grassland:

This Snout Moth was on 100 Acre (thanks Jack Oughton and Finley Hutchinson for the identification)

Black-winged Stilt at Beddington Farmlands!!

Yesterday I had a day off of sixth form (every other Tuesday I have no lessons) so I decided to make the most of one of my last opportunities to go birding this spring - upcoming A Level exams mean that I temporarily won't be birding as often as usual - and headed down to Beddington Farmlands. I met up with Dodge early morning and Anand joined us a bit later. Once Dodge had gone home around midday, Anand and I stayed on the mound for about another hour before heading for home via the Phase 3 Wet Grassland - a massive scrape that is still progressing in its stages of development on a private part of the site. As we went round Phase 3, we took a quick detour so I could show Anand an area of trees that is starting to grow back after being cut down many years before our time at Beddington. We were cautious with our approach because the surrounding space is a sensitive area for breeding Lapwings. We both simultaneously looked left onto a bed of water (Bed 53) and what we both instantly locked onto shocked us totally. We were is disbelief! Feeding actively right in front of us was a female Black-winged Stilt!! We took a couple of snaps on our cameras and then backed away so that we were out of sight and not bothering the bird. The last thing we could do was flush it. Immediately the panicked calls started. I phoned Dodge to come back, whilst Anand phoned other Beddington birders too. Thankfully, the bird showed consistently well on Bed 53 and every Beddington Bird Group member that came to twitch it connected, including my mum who was absolutely delighted. Many of us had predicted one would turn up this year but we all thought it would appear on Phase 3. Once everyone had got the bird, Anand and I could attempt to get some better pics of the bird. Unfortunately, once most people had left again, my camera broke. The on off switch snapped off! So no more pics of the Stilt for me, but still enjoyable to watch nonetheless. There has been no sign of it today per other Beddington birders. The only other record of a Black-winged Stilt here at Beddington Farmlands was on the 17th of August 1955. So, unsurprisingly this was a patch tick for possibly the entire current BFBG (Beddington Farmlands Bird Group). So glad to have shared this experience with Anand and to see the Beddington Legends come and twitch our find. Just a shame it was not in an area where the public could have accessed. I wonder when the next one will be?

Female Black-winged Stilt pics: