Beckton Sewage Works - Latest

 

It’s been an exceptionally busy last couple of months, lots to blog about, getting the time to do it has been another matter.

Peregrine ringing and we are now DNA swabbing has tied up a lot of mine, Shaun and Pauls time, add to this, the ringing of multiple Barn/Little Owl and Kestrel boxes and it has added up to a very busy couple of months. It’s been a topsy turvy year for all of the above species, however I will touch on this on another post.



Beckton – another good year with all of the usual Raptor species again breeding, the Kestrels have fledged 3 chicks from the usual box. Not such a big brood so there is the possibility that the female may be getting a little long in the tooth with a reduced number than normal.

Obviously, speculation, as one or 2 eggs/chicks, could just as well have been predated by Crows, the local unpaired yearling Crows give the Kestrels a torrid time with the usual bully boy stuff.

There is a 2nd pair of Kestrels on the eastern side of the sewage works, a fairly newish pair, plans are afoot to give these their own nest box as well.

Both Common Buzzard and Sparrowhawk nests are marked, difficult to see, but I know where both species keep dropping into.

Also great to report that Raven has bred at the Sewage Works fledging 2 juveniles, a monster of a nest produced 2 of the big Corvids, some of the sticks they used for the nest were enormous.

They are annual and fairly certain they may have bred in previous years, just never able to confirm it with this every increasing Corvid.

However, the best news is that Barn Owls have again bred in 2025 on the Sewage Works, a superb effort by Thames Water, the last breeding being in 2020.

The year list to date stands at 87 so a little way to go to achieve the ‘ton’ which I aim for annually; Autumn migrants will hopefully bolster the numbers.

Skomer Island

 

June 4th 2025



As a surprise for Christine’s 70th birthday, I had organized a week away and one of the things I know, that had always been on her bucket list, was to see Puffins.

Obviously having never been to Skomer Island myself either, it was a fantastic spectacle and experience for both of us and thoroughly lived up to its reputation.

They give you 5 hours a trip, you need it as well, everywhere you walk there are Puffins, as I understand it the official recent count is 43,626.The island itself is 1.5 miles wide and 2 miles long, it’s not always easy walking, rocky here and there and a few good gradients, however worth every step.

The views you get of the colourful Puffins are quite incredible, sometimes down to as little as a meter, Chris absolutely loved it as did I, you get held up so much by watching them, you could easily just stand/sit in one position and watch them for an hour or 2.

A large presence of Great, Lesser Black Backed and Herring Gulls, are a constant threat to them, especially tuned in to mugging Puffins arriving with Sand Eels, they are also constantly checking holes for unwary or exposed chicks. We saw a couple of chicks get dragged out and then swallowed whole.

It is nature however and you will get mortality amongst this many birds, this was also evident in the number of Manx Shearwater remains around the Island. A nocturnal breeding species on Skomer, all the corpses had been picked clean by the Gulls/Corvids. The number of Manx’s breeding on the island is incredible, its estimated to be around 350,000 pairs so there will be mortality, one of the reasons no doubt that they appear nocturnally. They are vulnerable on land to the large Gulls, so understandable that they only appear at night.

In regard to raptors, I recorded a Peregrine and 2 Common Buzzards but managed to avoid seeing a number of Short Eared Owls that breed on the island.

Common Guillemots, Razorbills and Kittiwakes are everywhere on the cliff faces and the noise from this alone puts a smile on your face, visually it is staggering to see the numbers involved.

A fantastic day and we were so lucky with the weather, the previous day had been cancelled unfortunately for many people.

However, the day was Christines and worth every step to see her enjoyment of at last seeing a Puffin.