Monday 18 March 2024

Early Oak Gall Moth Lifer

I put out the new MOL lure yesterday in the warm afternoon conditions and within a few minutes got the target species this time of year, Early Oak Gall Moth. My first moth lifer of the year in the UK. 

The new rental moth list is now on 28 with a few more early Spring additions.  About 40 individual moths today mainly Hebrew Character and Common and Small Quaker. 

Early Oak Gall Moth Pammene giganteana
Tawny Pinion (above) and Pale Pinion (below)- typical early spring additions to the new garden moth list. We are only here until early June so it will be interesting to see what we can get in that time.
Pale Pinion
Herald- this was a bit of a surprise 
Narrow-winged Grey I presume although in this resting posture I would have probably called this a Marsh Grey if it was summer 
Twin-spot Quaker
Early Reveller- a daily feature here unlike down the road at the Old Vicarage where they were pretty rare
March moth 
A bit of Clouded Drab variation (above and below) 



Thursday 14 March 2024

Otmoor RSPB

It's hard not to get a bit excited about spring migration even if it is just the slow start at the moment.  I did a couple of hours at Otmoor this afternoon, the only hint of migration was good numbers of Chiffchaffs including a group of six together. Ebird checklist HERE . The highlight was two booming Bitterns, 3-4 Marsh Harriers , 20 Dunlin, 1 Black-tailed Godwit and looks like breeding waders are in with up to 10 Curlews singing, a few Redshanks and 3 Oystercatchers. 

The leucistic Pochard was out from the first screen amongst 32 Common Pochards which were very vocal (for Pochards)- recording below. 

The usual leucistic Pochard 
Vocal Pochards 

Beddington Farmlands- Caspian Gull

Did a few hours at Beddington yesterday after work, 50 species was not a bad haul in a couple of hours, Checklist HERE

Highlight was a first-summer Caspian Gull, a species which is no longer regular at the farmlands following the closure of the landfill site. Once the premier site in Surrey and a top site in London to see them yesterday's bird was only the second bird this year and the last one was on 8th January. The historical high count Ebird data HERE compared to last year's six bird days HERE shows the scale of the decline. 

Super-sharp Zach recognised the bird as the same one that Richard Bonser had at Thamesmead on 2nd March HERE. The unusual fine streaked mantle and scaps and the large white area on the tertials and base to primaries is pretty distinctive. 

Other highlights included up to 10 Chiffchaff along the path with some singing and migrating groups of Black-headed and Common Gulls. 






First-summer Caspian Gull (pics above) 
Summer plumaged Black-heads were migrating with some flocks dropping in 

Tuesday 12 March 2024

Beddington Farmlands New Planning Application

Tree Sparrow. The last remaining stronghold of this species was at Beddington Farmlands. Due to delays in habitat restoration they are now extinct on site. Furthermore Yellow Wagtails and Redshanks  were also driven to local extinction and Reed Buntings and other target species have significantly declined. Lapwings are the last important species to remain on site and their population is reducing and threatened with local extinction too. 


After nearly two decades of restoration delays which have resulted in a local ecological meltdown, the company Valencia have re-applied to Sutton Council to get planning permission for a re-visioned restoration plan. As of 31st December 2023 Valencia are now in breach of extant planning permission and are thus in an illegal position and are seeking to re-legitimise their position and have submitted an application which is ecologically inferior to the extant permission. 

The full planning application can be found HERE

My full objection to the application can be found  HERE  

We are encouraging members of the public to also object to this application. A summary of the local community objections are as follows:  

1) Enforce current planning conditions as per Condition 42 and enforce immediate increase in public access- a further five year delay in public access is completely unacceptable and there is legitimate expectation from the public to have more access. Paragraph 59 of the National Planning Policy Framework states that ‘Effective enforcement is important to maintain public confidence in the planning system’. 

2) The loss of acid grassland has created a biodiversity net loss from the original application which is contra to the Environment Act 2021 and national, regional and local planning policies. If acid grassland and heathland cannot be created then ecological mitigation measures need to be provided with a biodiversity net gain set against the 1995 ecological baseline. This can be achieved by developing habitats to Save the Lapwings in 100 acre and Southeast Corner. 

3) Lack of mitigation in the s106 for the investment reduction between the applications. The loss of acid grassland has created an enormous financial saving for the applicant. Acid grassland and heathland creation was a multi-million pound obligation- that precise investment saving should now be diverted to investing in other areas of the Beddington Farmlands project such as better public access facilities to the reserve including a new pedestrian bridge at the former site of the Irrigation bridge and a visitor's centre

If you haven’t submitted an online response before, it is relatively easy. You need to register before you can comment.

·       Click on the link : HERE

·       Click on ‘register’. Once you have registered, click on ‘login’

·       Click on ‘search’ – ‘planning’ – ‘simple search’

·       In the box entitled ‘enter keyword, reference number etc’, put in the planning application number. DM2024/00199

·       Near the top right is the button ‘make a comment’. Click on it and you should find your details already there.

·       Click on ‘commenter type’ and pick ‘member of the public’

·       Pick whether you object, support or neutral

·       You can then add your comment text. 

·       When you have finished, click ‘submit’ and you should receive confirmation of your response by email. If you have issues, check to see if you have used any special characters like “%” and remove and try submitting again.

Back to reality

In between the virtual birding of re-living past glorious trips I have been getting on with the daily slog too. I had a good session at Lower Cuttlebrook recently HERE, a few moths in the garden trap and also met up with Sue with the family at Rainham Marshes HERE.  

The hardest slog has been responding to the Beddington Farmlands application which is now at official public consultation stage, more from the Hackbridge NDG HERE. We had a meeting with local councillors and the NDG last week to discuss the community response. Will update when more comes in on this.

Merlin over Cuttlebrook- another patch tick. Also Red-legged Partridge as a patch tick too. 
Raven mobbing Red Kite over Cuttlebrook 
The female Stonechat is still present by the SUDS
Red Fox (above) and Reeve's Muntjac (below) at Cuttlebrook

Good numbers of Avocet at Rainham - I wondered whether numbers had increased recently reflecting the inland migration that occurred last week but according to Ebird (which is glitching on high counts) the abundance at Rainham has declined from a peak in mid-winter HERE
Dotted Border- a new for year. Now on 18 species for the new rental. 
Early Grey- NFY
Early Reveller Diurnea fagella- NFY
Jacob at Rainham
Good to see water levels have recovered (beyond the call of duty) at Rainham after the whole reserve dried out last autumn