Non-stop Birding X

Tuesday, 29 December 2009

NON-STOP BIRDING REVIEW 2009

2009 was all about the development of the main projects I am involved in- Beddington Farmlands, The Azores and a pro-environmental music project A good year overall with the usual disasters thrown into the mix.
The Azores

As for the foreign patch it had to be the best year yet for American vagrants and also record numbers of birders present . A September pelagic exploration trip by Simon and I was another highlight. October was incredible but despite finding some okay yanks the French and Swedes whipped our sad arses in the 'Eurovision Rare Bird Contest'.
Some 2009 links:
Corvo Blog by Olof Jonnson
http://corvo2009.blogspot.com/
Azores Rarity Photo Exhibition by Vincent Legrand
http://www.facebook.com/people/Vincent-Legrand/689917570#/album.php?page=1&aid=104065&id=1074672044
Corvo Birders Photo Gallery
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=153217&id=701232517&ref=mf#/album.php?page=1&aid=153217&id=701232517
and as always the main source of info:
http://www.birdingazores.com/
2010 Outlook: Further winter exploration, new spring seabird exploration, new publications and the overall continuing contribution to development of birding on the Azores.

Beddington Farmlands

Pretty much all good on this front. New community birding tours, the Beddington Book is in its final stages, a new improved Beddington Farm Bird Group, new promo material, visits from new groups, the odd TV personality, new bird group members and some great birds. On the other hand first year ever I haven't had a Beddington tick and haven't found anything really decent since 2005.
New promo stuff here:
http://www.beddingtonfarmlands.org.uk/

2010 Outlook: Publishing of the 'Birds of Beddington Farmlands', Beddington Farmlands at the Carshalton Environmental Fair, more birding tours and of course the continuing development of what will become London's largest urban nature reserve.

Eco-Music Project
Overall a roller coaster. This experimental pro-environmental music and art project is a rather chaotic little side line. However we got the album recorded, picked up a few fans (over 250 in total now) and by the end of the year got a new venue, new equipment and a Xmas track.
Promo stuff here:
http://www.theebryans.com/

2010 outlook: Who knows. Be warned more of this coming.

In addition to the projects also got some Middle East WP birding in. Soooooo.... the year started with my brother Paul and I on a soul searching road trip from Bulgaria to the Holy Land. We ended up falling out and he abandoned me in Southern Turkey . For the full story see this months Birdwatch supplement World of Birds 2010 from pg 11.

We spent some time in Syria including a visit to see the Arabian Oryx- looking wild in this photo but being fed like a cow in reality because its natural habitat is drying up.

We recieved a warm welcome where ever we went- this bunch of kids ended up stealing our car but in fairness to them they did bring it back- but stole our bird guide- which I didn't mind too much.

I made it back to Blighty in time for the spring. We finished stage 1 of our pro-environmental music project:

A good spring at Beddington with highlights including a Sandwich Tern, a Spoonbill and an impressive Buzzard migration. Highlight was the controversial 'white-winged Gull' which some experts believe is Beddington's second Glaucous-winged Gull.

Spent a couple of weeks of the summer back in the Middle East with Darryl. This time it was eastern Turkey on the border of Iran. Closest to death we came was not from terrorists but from the local kids, local dogs and electric storms. Photos below are Bald Ibis (more feral stuff on the verge of extinction) and Spur-winged Plover.

We started our community birding tours at Beddington during the autumn with the help of the Urban Birder- David Lindo:

In September I made the best 'move' of my life. I moved onto my local patch with a view of the northern lake and Irrigation bridge. I call it the Beddington Observatory.

Then came the autumn!! What an autumn. I spent nearly the whole of late September to October on the Azores. Highlights included the best year ever on Corvo for American vagrants and a pelagic trip where Simon and I discovered some rare seabirds including a new colony of Madeiran Petrels. Photos below are Fea's-type Petrel, Bottlenose Dolphin and Wilson's Petrel.

CORVO was mind blowing. Below are Dotterel, Yellow Warbler, Ovenbird by Rafa Armada and Bobolink and Black-throated Green Warbler by Vincent the Great.

Managed to get a main article in the Local Guardian about Beddington but failed in getting my photo in there. This is an old enemy after a friend of mine called Squeaky got his photo into our local paper after spending two months in our family home and I have still failed to achieve that- despite living here forever.

And the year ends with the beginning of stage 2 of our pro-environmental music project and a flop of our first track cyber-release.
http://www.theebryans.com/

And the plan for 2010- full steam ahead into the unknown.

Sunday, 27 December 2009

HARD WEATHER MOVEMENTS AT BEDDINGTON FARMLANDS

Looks like things have calmed down out there but..... the cold weather is set to return later on in the week.

Its been an interesting little spell of bird displacement. Typically Lapwings, Golden Plover, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Redwing and Fieldfare have been the main species affected with day highs of 181 Lapwing moving south and west, 24 Golden Plover moving west, 40+ Skylark (on the mounds as well as similar numbers flying over), 150+ Redwing, 75+ Fieldfare and 80+ Meadow Pipit.

We haven't seen these kinds of movement at Beddington since the early 1990's which could be attributed to a general warming of the climate. If regional temperature rise continues this could be the last one of these movements that we experience for a very long time.

Through most of the recording period of Beddington Farmlands, hard weather movements were a regular feature. On January 17th 1932 1215 Lapwings were recorded in hard weather. In 1955 over 3000 were present following heavy snow and on February 1st 1956 2000 Lapwing were part of a cold weather displacement that also involved 170+ coastal waders including 5 Sanderling, 23 Knot, Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, up to 54 Curlews, 57 Ringed Plover and 22 Dunlin. The same day Beddington's first and only Purple Sandpiper was found.

Skylarks have featured strongly in past hard weather movements. During a severe cold spell from December 17th to 26th 1938 several thousand were present on the farm and many hundreds died. In 1963 between January 23rd to 25th there were 3000 present but the largest hard weather concentration occurred on March 8th 1970 when over 5000 were recorded.

There are some interesting points here. Firstly it is interesting to see how Lapwing and Skylark numbers were so much higher in the past hard weather movements. These birds are from the north or the near continent and the much lower numbers involved in our recent movements reveal how although these birds are quite capable of surviving the worst conditions that our bleak northern winters can throw at them- they cannot survive environmental changes which are human induced. Both of these species are farmland birds which have suffered severe declines in the recent past decades due to agricultural intensification. I guess one saving grace is that due to human-contributory temperature rises these species don't suffer so much in hard weather. Could be nature's life line- keeping these populations going while we sort our act out.

Thursday, 24 December 2009

HAPPY XMAS DAY

Here's an alternative Xmas song from our music project 'Thee Bryans'. The projects' concept is to highlight that humans are part of Nature and to display the critical connection between awareness/acceptance and environmental/social decay- (or put another way- the connection between 'ignorance' and environmental destruction). This song is an attempt at 'a Christmas song for everyone' which both offends and celebrates differences between human groups, trying to make the point that reality does not have to be offensive or a cause of conflict between groups once differences are accepted. The ultimate acceptance is being able to mock something without offence caused. In a wider theme this is relevant as unmanaged conflict (personal and inter-personal) is suggested as a root cause for social and environmental decay and awareness and acceptance holds part of the answer to social and environmental improvement.

Lyrics to this song here:
http://theebryans.blogspot.com/2009/12/blog-post_24.html

Here's a website: http://www.theebryans.com/

HAPPY XMAS FROM THEE BRYANS!!!!!

Monday, 21 December 2009

Participation Government

We all know that our modern democracies are not democracies at all but are indeed elected aristocracies. As a consequence, interests of a minority are expressed at the system level, resulting in an unfair and uneven playing field- rigged against the masses and the 'common good'- one symptom of which is environmental destruction.

Everyone knows that the answer lies in people empowerment to stand agaisnt tyranny but the problem of mobilising that power has always been the limitation on fulfilling that ideology.

Technology is the major driving force behind revolution- ideas have to wait until the technology has arrived.
The technology has now arrived.

This okay film helps to explain:
http://watch.usnowfilm.com/