ICELAND 3 HOODY 1

Over the farm this morning and one, two and three Iceland Gulls appeared early on (Old Whitey, Sooty and Kumi). Batman arrived to do a Tree Sprog check whilst I continued to scan the Gulls, nothing new. The three Curlew flew over calling, it's like being on some upland moors hearing these calls. How long will they stay? The Cetti's remains, will it find a partner? Posh arrived but I was off on a mission.

I've seen a few Hooded Merganser in the past but none have been accepted. I was surprised to see that a bird on a gravel pit in Chilham, Kent was accepted a few years back so when a bird turned up near Tonbridge, Kent, I thought i'd go and see it for insurance. All of the Hoodies were thrown out at one time then the BBRC/BOURC started the ball rolling again, wildfowl are always going to present a problem, especially if they are commonly kept in captivity. Wild birds can act tame and escaped birds can act wild etc etc.

I picked up Devil Birder, who also wanted to see this bird, and we set off. It didn't take long to get down there and as we arrived and parked at Five Oak Green we bumped into Dan 'Pointless' Pointon, who seemed to think that you could park closer to Moat Farm, from where a footpath led to the bird. It seemed like a good idea to jump in with him as we didn't know how far away the farm was.

As it turned out, you couldn't get closer so we jumped out as Pointless returned to the village to park. Now the pager says 'take the footpath to the gravel pits' but what it doesn't say that there are many footpaths and they are not in a straight line. From the farm you can take the left footpath or the right footpath and still get to the pit where the bird is. I strongly advise that if you're going, you take an ordnance survey map or get precise directions. It took us over an hour to find the pit and, if we'd known the way, fifteen minutes ! Pointless, who'd gone back to park before walking back to the farm, bumped into some birders coming back from the pit and got precise directions and arrived forty five minutes before us ! Another birder we met along the way, decided to try a different direction and we never saw him again. Ironically, as we got back to the road, we bumped into another birder who wanted to know the way and we were able to give precise directions to him, so he got there a lot quicker than we did.

The female Hoody was frequently diving on it's chosen gravel pit. It flapped it's wings occasionally and they seemed to be all present and correct and when washing and scratching, appeared to have no rings (I guess this has already been checked). It stayed mostly towards the centre of the pit (but then, so did the Coots), and never came close, but then, it never had a reason to. Time will tell with this bird but I don't know if there is much difference between it and the Chilham bird. Certainly I've seen birds with similar credentials in the past (pre re-acceptance onto the British list), which weren't accepted.

We often see Black-headed Gulls with pink flushes but this is one of the pinkest I've seen. Could this be something to do with diet ?

'Old Whitey' with the palest iris of the three second winters we've had this year

'Sooty' named after it's 'dirty' looking face

'Kumi' still noticeable in flight

The Little Owl has been showing on 100 Acre

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.

Dear Mr Canon, how about a lock on the Mode Dial so I stay on the mode I've chosen until I choose to change it ?

1w and 2w Iceland Gull close. Note how white the 2w is in comparison

The 1w Glauc returns after a week

Leith Hill. ok here's a brown bird but look at the rump. The rump and the cheek has a pink tinge coming through

A 'greyer' bird

A nice white base colour to the rump

Same as above. A pale head with a trace of a pink flush coming through on the cheek

Same as above

Same as above

Same as above. It can be difficult to see the rump

How about this one ? A very brown bird but look at the rump

Same as above. A brown wash on the coverts

Same as above. One central 'lanceolate' streak and a few very fine streaks. Is this bird Common or Lesser ?

Check here:

http://redpolls-worcestershireredpolls.blogspot.com/2011/09/worcestershire-redpolls-and-guide-to.html

Discussing the finer points of Redpoll ID in the hand

One of the nets

This Pecker drew blood !

A nice Bullfinch

Siskin

THIS WEEK

The new 2nd winter Iceland Gull 'Latest Whitey', which turned up on Monday, settled down and showed better on Tuesday

'Latest Whitey' is the whitest we've had so far with pale grey mantle and scapular feathers

Here is a Pochard with a nose band, banded in France

The 1w Iceland Gull showed reasonably well on the south lake

The 1w Iceland Gull in flight. Compare these pics with the Kumliens's in flight here:

http://surreybirding.blogspot.com/2012/02/kumliens-flypast.html

We've had three Curlew on site for nearly three weeks. They arrived in the cold spell and stayed. Here you see one bird with the high rises of Croydon. Beddington is a green oasis for birds and other wildlife surrounded by Sutton, Mitcham and Croydon.

ICELAND GULL NUMBER SIX !

I arrived late at the farm today but it wasn't long before I picked up an Iceland Gull on the main lake. It was very white and not too close so I assumed it was 'New Whitey', the bird that looks like a second winter but has a dark eye. It was quite bright so I thought I'd go for a pic, I did note that it looked particularly white on the coverts whereas I knew 'New Whitey' (pic here) had some brown tips but I put this down to the light and distance.

I managed to squeeze off one digipic and it took off and flew to the tip, no matter. Later on Devil Birder joined me and we scanned the Gulls without much success. After a while, Devil Birder picked up an Iceland Gull which was much closer but face on. As I looked at it, I noted a paleish iris which wasn't as pale as 'Old Whitey' but more reminiscent of 'New Kid on the Block' (pics here). I expected the bird to be the latter but as it turned three quarters on, I realised it was the bird I'd seen earlier and, being a second winter, different to the other birds. It then flew away from us and stood face on again and then disappeared altogether so I only managed to get one record shot of it. I hope it returns for further scrutiny and, ironically, it was the only large white-winger seen today.

Not a great pic but the only one I got before it flew. We had better views than this later and it had a pale iris. The plumage does not match either of the second winter Iceland Gulls we've had 

This Med Gull has less of a Hood than some of the Meds we've had recently. Like Black-headed Gulls, they abrade at different rates

KUMLIEN'S FLYPAST

The first winter Kumlien's Iceland Gull gave us a flypast today giving good views of the 'venetian blind' effect on the primaries caused by the darker outer webs to the outer primaries, which also gives the wings a concolorous effect compared to a first winter glaucoides Iceland Gull. We had four out of five Iceland Gulls today, the fifth was on an awayday to Holmethorpe  http://holmethorpe.blogspot.com/