BEDDINGTON, SURREY AND BEYOND: GOOD LUCK / BAD LUCK

I've said it before, luck is everything in birding. Now you might have noticed that I spend rather a lot of time at Beddington, I'm not doing a Surrey year list this year so less reason to go elsewhere. Today, I finally got around to attending a ringing session at Leith Hill as I'd been keen to see some of the Common Redpoll which they'd been regularly ringing this winter. I was kindly given permission, to visit and observe, by Sam 'Leithal' Bailey, Warden at Leith Hill. Ringing with him was Martin 'North Ron' Gray, Paul 'The Rocket' Stevenson and Claire ''The Scribe'. I noted on arrival that phone reception was poor and recalled the problem it had caused me when I was birding in Tugley Wood last year (missed and couldn't direct others onto two Avocet at Beddington). Surely nothing was likely to happen today?

After a while, I received a cryptic text from Devil Birder at 9:25 "Andrew Verral had Great White Egret at 8:30-8:50 then flew NNW" I couldn't place the name and no location was given so I texted back "At Canons?", thinking it had flown over Devil Birder's other patch, Canon's Farm. I was out of service and didn't get a reply straight away but it it didn't matter as the bird was in the air (although I mentioned to the ringers that I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up at Beddington and recalled a bird which flew east from QE2 Res last year (towards Beddington), when I was birding down at Newdigate.

There has only been one record of Great White Egret at Beddington, in 2008, and I was on North Ronaldsay at the time, watching a Cretszchmar's Bunting, so I've been keen to get one back ever since. I thought no more about it and enjoyed discussing the ageing and separation of Common and Lesser Redpoll in the hand with the ringers. At 9:55 I received a call from Dodge, "The Great White Egret is still here on Jim's Bed!" WHAAAAT???!!! Unbeknowing to me the bird had been found on the main lake at Beddington by a visitor and had been relocated on 100 Acre. Several phone calls had been made but they couldn't get hold of me. Shiiiiit!!! I made my excuses and departed fairly rapidly from Leith Hill, still having trouble contacting other birders and spreading the news.

It was a harrowing drive back, Great White Egret and Spoonbill have a track record of not lingering too long at Beddington. I roundly cursed every red light and every slow driver which made my journey longer. A half an hour later and I even had trouble finding a place to park. I legged it to the farm, no further news so it must still be there. I entered the farm and was racing up the bridge when a text came through, I looked down at my phone "GWE flying high west", I looked up and in the sky above me was the Great White Egret ! Thank f*ck for that, it couldn't have been a closer shave. The bird did turn back but then finally headed off south and disappeared to view.

On seeing the bird, I'd pulled my camera out and rattled off some shots but I have one big complaint about my Canon 7D which has irritated me from the start but is now severely pissing me off. The Mode Dial shifts position far too easily so putting the camera away or even wearing it over your shoulder means, all to frequently, that the mode is not the one you selected when you take a shot and you end up with a crap shot (as you'll see below. I shall be contacting Canon about this as it means poor pics which shouldn't happen, happen.

Anyway, at least I saw the bird so it's a fine Beddington tick for me but if only I'd been at the farm early morning, I'd have got more people onto this bird. If Devil Birder hadn't turned up and bumped into the finder, who casually mentioned he'd seen one, I probably wouldn't have seen it. However, in his hurry to alert me, DB didn't put the location of the GWE, which also could have been costly. Still, it all adds to the excitement. Apart from the 1w and 2w Iceland Gulls from last week, 'Old Whitey' turned up again plus the 1w Glauc last seen over a week ago. Where are these birds going ? An adult Kittiwake also put in a brief appearance, our first since 2010 and the Curlews are still present. Beddington takes a lot of beating for quality birds in London/Surrey.