Beddington farmlands is a nature reserve near Croydon, London which is around 1hr 20 away from Egham by train. Over the last week and a bit one of Knepp's white storks (GB35) has been seen frequently on the northern 'wet grassland area' with good viewing from a hide. On the off chance that it was still there, and to get a bit further out, Tom headed there today and was not disappointed.
 |
Beddington Farmlands 'wet grassland' area.
While not exactly salubrious, there was a fantastic number of birds.
|
 |
A juvenile shelduck and grey herons. Also present were greater black-backed gull, common gull, black-headed gull, Canada goose, Egyptian goose and mute swan.
|
 |
But the real treat had to be the white stork!
I'll do a subsequent post on the stork as he really was a fantastic bird.
|
 |
The reserve: left: the tracks surrounding the ponds, right: the northern lake. On the northern and southern lake/southern reed bed there were tufted duck, pochard, shoveler, lapwing, cormorant and little egret.
|
 |
On a return visit to the wet grassland area, some friendly birders were discussing the identity of an unusual gull (seen mid LHS with a particularly pale head and underparts as well as a slim bill). After some discussion it was settled that the individual was a first winter Caspian gull- a new species to Tom, although that is not much of a surprise as the juveniles of the species are rather cryptic- especially when put among several hundred other gulls!
|
 |
Some more photos of the Caspian- in the LH photo the gull is looking directly ahead just above a carrion crow.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment