Beddington Farm - Hanging on By a Thread!

The Tree Sparrows are amazingly enough still hanging on at the Farm but only by the thinnest of threads. I recall the days of flocks of birds that were taken for granted by the regulars at the hide. Nowadays they are harder to find as are gatherings of group members in the hide. I wonder if the opening of the public hides will bring in a wave of regular birdwatchers or will attendance depend on news of a rarity!

The closest shelter from the rain is the green corrugated hut on the north lake and I was about a mile away when the heavens opened up. The public hides are not accessible from the inner sanctum so an umbrella and cover of low scrub was the only other option available. I was however ideally placed to watch our few remaining Tree Sparrow visit one of a few robust feeder stations that is on site.

100 Acre held the majority of the shorebirds with several Common and Green Sandpiper and an LRP which flew over the wet grassland to join another I had seen on the north lake. An additional Common Sandpiper was seen later in the morning on the tern raft on the north lake.

The birds of the day were flushed from the overgrown path on 100 Acre by Andy a couple of Red Legged Partridge. The last sighting of this species was in 2005 which officially makes it a Beddington MEGA much to the dismay of the finder! I did chuckle at his reaction to this revelation. 

A Little Egret joined the gulls and wildfowl on the lake. The Shoveler was still present amongst a small army of Coot and a small group of Lapwing flew in late morning.

Nothing found of note within the gulls the rain put pay to a full count but more juvenile Herring Gull are now present.

A Sparrowhawk sent the Linnet and Goldfinch into a flying frenzy on the east side of the lake. A Kestrel and Peregrine were the other raptors seen. The latter causing gull chaos around the incinerator, which turned out to be a bad bit of timing for the camera and I.