Sunday 4 October 2009

Whopper Gropper

I woke up to a fairly nice morning which was a far cry from the buckets of rain that I was expecting. At 8.30am I was at Hackbridge Station, outside Beddington Farm, awaiting the first participants of the bird walk that I was fronting. I say 'fronting' because after the initial introductory speech I gave to the assembled crowd that had gathered for the walk, I handed the reins over to Beddington Farm regular and flag flyer Peter Alfrey.

It was a pleasant walk for the 35 people involved and we all saw some of the work in progress including freshly dug pits and early creation of an lake island. Hopefully, it is a sign of good things to come.

Meanwhile, over at Wormwood Scrubs, our second ever Grasshopper Warbler had just been flushed in the grassland by fellow Scrubber, Roy Nuttall. Indeed, he got on the phone to me whilst I was on my walk miles away in south London for me to confirm its identity. By the time I made it to The Scrubs, later in the afternoon, it was like searching for a needle in a proverbial haystack. How was I to find a small skulking Gropper in acres of grassland?
Northern Wheatear (Dean Eades)
Juvenile Red-fronted Serin (Dean Eades)
I'm still reliving some of the great moments that I had last week in Turkey and you will be seeing the occasional picture sneaking into my blog for some time to come. I especially want you to see the amazing pictures of the adult Red-fronted Serins that Dean took.

Hurry up and ship them over to me Dean!

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