NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

This morning saw me teaming up with Beddington-birder Steve Thomas - a key-holder to the magic kingdom of the farmlands! After Tuesday's panic to see the Glaucous Gull today was a far more leisurely affair. The gull was once again present (on the tip and north lake). The morning's main quest was to hunt down a Tree Sparrow, something that could be done with little effort just a few years ago at Beddington. But times change, and the sewage farm population has fallen, and with it the number of over-wintering birds. We saw just the one, feeding on red millet at a bird feeding station (photo above taken a few years ago). Below is a summary of my personal records for the Uber-patch to add some context. First recorded at  Beddington SF  and  River Mole, Leatherhead  (1975),  Seears Park, Cheam  (1983),  Holmethorpe  (1991). The breeding colony at  Beddington SF  is (or was) well-known, and counts could be high throughout the year, with a...

There are few birds that have a better claim to be regarded as the iconic species of Beddington Farmlands (Sewage Farm) than the Tree Sparrow. It appears in the Beddington Farm Bird Group logo. It is the first place that any Surrey or London-based birder considers when planning on seeing one. And now, in early March 2014, and probably for the first time in living memory, you will not find a single Tree Sparrow at Beddington... Beddington's ornithological record is an enviable one and one of the longest in the world. Records exist from the late 19th century and regular recording started in the early 1930s. From this we can build an historic picture of the Tree Sparrow at Beddington. On a national scale, the cyclical nature of this species population level is shown, with peaks at the end of the 19th century and the 1960s and corresponding troughs in the 1930s and 1980s. This is mirrored to some extent at Beddington. As a breeding species it was at a low-level until the 1950...

After all of that pan-species malarky I thought that I'd better get back out birding before my bins and scope were confiscated and I was publicly pronounced 'lapsed'. Beddingtom Sewage Farm was my venue of choice. The birding reflected the weather, being non-descript and dull with the odd bright spell. A single Water Pipit gave itself up along with 7 Green Sandpipers. A feature of the farm these days is the gathering of feeding and loafing Grey Herons, no fewer than 88 being on show, mostly on the islands of the north lake. As always, Tree Sparrows took advantage of the well-stocked feeders. I did grill the gulls although nothing got the pulse racing. I read two colour rings - TJ6T black lettering on red, left leg of an adult Lesser BB Gull - plus AV71 black lettering on orange, left leg of a first-winter Herring - but my quick look on the European colour ringing website failed to identify where they might have been ringed. The first-winter Common Gull (above) is a ...