I have been covering several sites of late, London Wetland
Centre (LWC), Holmethorpe Sand Pits, Epsom Downs, Banstead Golf Course and of
course my back garden. These days are in total contrast to turning up at the
Farm and cementing myself for the duration of the day within the fenceline. The
problem with the former is that you cannot be at all the sites at the same time
therefore weather conditions take on a greater significance when choosing which
area to cover! I have not attempted to cover them all in a day but again there
is risk attached to moving sites.
The easterly blow in the week had me favouring the LWC and
Holmethorpe with the chance of returning shorebirds. I left LWC too early on
Friday missing a Black Tailed Godwit (Blackwit) on the main lake. The weather
today continued to be sunny but with a change of wind round to a westerly. Not
an ideal wind but there had been an increase of shorebirds at Rainham but in
these conditions I decided to attend to other matters.
The SVC whattsapp group pinged with a message from Geoff
Barter notifying the group of 22 Blackwits at the LWC and then a Common Sand at
Holmethorpe from Gordon. I had seen plenty of both species but the number of
Blackwit was interesting and close to my Beddington top count. A deep breath
later and I was off making good time to LWC. The Blackwits were still there viewable
from the WWT hide but their numbers had increased. Clicker time and a count of
39 was checked and recorded in my notebook.
Now that is my highest SVC tally therefore worth the journey,
which incidentally was again trouble free. There was a colour banded bird in
the group with white over red on the left and orange and a number 7.. on the right leg. I was
informed that this bird was banded by an Icelandic Group. Nice!
I had also noted that high tide at Hammersmith was at
1330hrs so decided to sit a while to see if anything else joined the huddle of
birds. There were other species but they were being watched from the Peacock
hide, a Common Sandpiper and a couple of snipe.
I arrived too late for the Sandpiper but sat it out in the hope the bird
would appear along the front edge of the scrapes!
Time was again running out so I left happy with my days
tally. Tices Meadow also recorded 14 Blackwits this morning. The news group is
ticking over nicely!
Geoff I know you don’t look at my blog only the pictures I
post on FB. But thanks anyway!
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