Blustery Beddington!

Sunday 4th August 2013

There are a few Wood Sandpipers in the country at the moment. Beddington usually features at some point as a stop off for this species. Could today be that day?!  I also wanted to carry out an early afternoon Timed Species Count for my species survey so it was off to the Farm at an unusual time of day (2pm)!

The afternoon was sunny with up to 60% cloud with S to SSW wind 12 - 15mph which had some heavy gusts attached to it! This was particularly evident if you were stood on the top of the mound & what was named Mount Beddington.

(Common Kestrel)

I started on the lakes noting 14 Mute Swan & cygnets a Cormorant & 4 Tufted Duck. There were a few Lapwing dotted about on the S Lake. 4 Kestrel were busy hunting over the margins of the S lake & on top of the Mound. I noted 5 Little Grebe which was an improvement on my last effort a couple of weeks ago.

(Canada Goose)

Totally windswept I left the Lakes & made my way through to 100 Acre. If there was a chance of a Wood Sandpiper then this was a good area to find one with the Green Sandpipers. Only 3 of the latter were seen along with 2 Sand Martins who were hawking the almost dry beds near the Go-kart track.

The final area to be covered in my survey was the public footpath. I didn’t have any great expectations as the path runs roughly N to S therefore the wind would sweep through a lot of the path keeping birds low in the vegetation. A single Chiffchaff & Blackcap were the most notable species seen.

(View of South Lake from Mound)

Despite the wind 24 species were recorded on the Lakes +1 difference to my last count. The public footpath 12 species were noted -1 difference to my last count. 100 Acre showed the most change with 19 species -8 difference to my last count.

Having completed my survey I yomped back over Mount Beddington to check the lagoons just in case a wader had slipped in unnoticed but the beds were devoid of waders on this occasion.