Guided tour 13-12-2009
Meeting at 09.15 in a cold and rainy car park at Hackbridge train station it was good to see that there were some people waiting to go on the tour of the Farmlands. We waited till 09.30 and with a turn out of 12 people we started the tour. First bird of the day was a greater spotted woodpecker in the trees at the station. Carrying on the tour along the old mile road our first port of call was the permissive path over looking the southern and northern lakes. These two lakes have been drained over the last week so didnt really expect to much to be about. A few lapwing, shoveler, teal, tree sparrows, and gulls were present so not bad. Continuing along the permissive path towards 100 acre other birds seen included - bullfinch, redwing, fieldfare, kestrel, long tailed tits and goldfinches. Entering into 100 acre more lapwing and teal were seen and on the eatern edge of ' jims bed ' a snipe flew from the bank. The kestrel continued to show well as it hovered at various places over 100 acre. Continuing through the maze of sludge beds more snipe, teal and wigeon were seen. A water pipit was heard in flight but never seen on the ground. We walked through the middle of the farmlands back to the northern lake where there was a redshank and a close scan of the reed bed revealed a water rail.
In total 48 species of bird were seen or heard during the tour. These were greater spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, black headed gull, herring gull, lesser black backed gull, carrion crow, magpie, jackdaw, wood pigeon, ring collared dove, feral pigeon, stock dove, grey heron, teal, mallard, gadwall, coot, shoveler, moorhen, little grebe, wigeon, tree sparrow, robin, blue tit, great tit, long tailed tit, dunnock, wren, bullfinch, starling, parakeet, jay, chaffinch, greenfinch, goldfinch, fieldfare, redwing, blackbird, song thrush, pied wagtail, snipe, lapwing, redshank, water rail, water pipit, cormorant, kestrel and sparrowhawk.
Not long after i went back to the hide Keith appeared. He to had come from 100 acre where he had also had chiffchaff and reed bunting.
Beddington Farmlands and the Beddington Farm Bird Group
