Saturday 9 July 2011

And more Blackwits



The Enclosed Beds- accidental wetland and wader habitat

2 more Blackwits today- feeding on the enclosed beds (above) with the Redshank. It's been a good autumn so far for Blackwits- coinciding with this anticyclonic weather, storms and showers. These Blackwits are making their way from Iceland to the South and Southeast Coasts and July to August is the peak time at Beddington. The average is four or five records a year and the record year was 1996 with 13 records. The highest day count was 23 on July 9th 2996.

It's interesting to see the enclosed beds attracting waders. Unfortunately there is going to be some infilling of these beds which will reduce the wader habitat at the farm. Hopefully if the restoration progresses further the planned wet grassland will compensate for this loss.

A few other bits including a female type Ruddy Duck!- one of the last few survivors in the UK, our first juvenile Mediterranean Gull for the year, the Great Crested Grebe and 1 Common Sandpiper.

2 comments:

Mark James Pearson said...

Pete, I know your work on the Birds of Beddington was thorough, but didn't realise you'd time-travelled just to count Black-wits. That's real dedication to the local patch.

Peter Alfrey said...

There's no limits to local patch obsession :-)