Empty?

Birding in the Surrey hinterland, particularly during the winter months, can be hard work. Frustrating. Soul sapping. Even depressing. Today was one such day, when a combination of drizzle and a lack of birds turned me from an enthusiastic birder to a crumpled heap within an hour.

I was walking across Walton Heath when it occurred to me that not only could I not see a single bird, I also couldn't hear one. I stood still and looked harder. I made my ears work overtime. Nothing. For maybe 20-30 seconds (it seemed like an hour) there was not a single avian tickle to be felt. And then four Wood Pigeons flew into view. Followed a further thirty seconds later by a Carrion Crow. And then a Herring Gull. I could have predicted those three species, the 21st century birders staple diet of pigeon, crow and gull. 95% of the Surrey bird biomass is made of that triumvirate I can confidently claim. It wasn't it always like this - or was it?

When I returned home I picked up my notebook from February 1977, when I knew that I had visited Walton Heath (dipping on a Great Grey Shrike). Did I see more back then - well, sort of... I recorded 2 Stonechats (missing today), 2 Willow Tits (extinct in the county now) and a flock of 50+ Redpolls (none today). My species list was still poor on that day 38 years ago but undoubtably I had seen more. Was that the proof that I needed to laud the past as better for birding? Not quite. My notebook reveals that a return visit a fortnight later was pants - no Stonechat, no Willow Tits (but a single Marsh) and only one Redpoll. Maybe my past is being viewed through rose-tinted glasses.

PS: I hope that the title of this post is not a true prediction of my garden MV haul tonight. The trap is on, the night is cloudy and mild and my expectations are for a handful of moths. Any species will do...

Comments

Warren Baker said…
Yep - I certainly have had a few days like that !!
25 February 2015 at 20:06
Steve Gale said…
Kent hinterland no better then Warren... :-(
25 February 2015 at 20:19
Unknown said…
I too have the trap on in hope but have so far consoled myself with a few trichoceridae and a cranefly.

Should have gone to the woods I think.
25 February 2015 at 20:24
Steve Gale said…
The woods are always a better bet at this time of year, but our gardens are so convenient
25 February 2015 at 20:50
Derek Faulkner said…
As someone who has lived on the marshes of Sheppey in Kent all his life and brought up with large flocks of waders and wildfowl all the time I have to say that my regular visits to Surrey to see my girlfriend are always very disappointing wildlife wise. I walk my dogs round the huge expanse of Hawley woods and heathland at Yately and always find them frustratingly quiet bird-wise.
26 February 2015 at 06:03
Steve Gale said…
Which, Derek, may go some way to explain why I need to get down to Dungeness now and again.
26 February 2015 at 07:06
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Goldfinches and Lavender

Image
We have three medium-sized Lavender bushes in our back garden. Throughout the summer the flowers (which last for several months) are a magnet for insects and give off a most restful aroma. As tempting as it is to cut the dead stems in the autumn, we always leave them, as we know that during the late winter we will get visitors to feed on the seed heads... This video was taken from the kitchen window this morning. We will normally see one or two birds over a few days, but have had up to 14 at once. We never tire of watching them. Lavender is a wonderful plant to have in the garden, with year round natural history benefits. So what are you waiting for? They are readily available at a garden centre close to you right now! There is an historic association with Lavender in this part of northern Surrey and south London. Lavender fields have been harvested for many years, with one particular field close to Woodmansterne being very popular with day trippers. A significant proportion o...
Read more

Welcome back!

Image
In November 2005 I purchased a pair of Swarovski 10x42 EL binoculars from The London Camera Exchange shop in Guildford, for the then princely sum of £899. These bins have served me well, with almost daily use in all types of weather, testing their durability to the maximum - salt water spray, deluges of rain, 38C temperatures, dust, dirt, slight knocks... and apart from the armour coating that had started to bubble and come away from the body, nothing to be alarmed about. Then, in the summer of 2022, I noticed that I had a problem when close focusing - the outer focusing wheel would lose grip and it would take me an age to regain a middle-ground distance of focus - plus, over the next few weeks this outer focusing wheel became loose. I resorted to the use of tape to keep it all in place, but realised that I had to do something about it in the long run. For a while I did consider buying a new pair - after all, they were then 17-years old - but they were still optically superb. It seemed...
Read more

A special day

In birding, timing can mean the difference between an average day in the field and that of a spectacular one. Good timing can be helped by reading the weather conditions correctly, or understanding local conditions but it is more often down to pure luck. In this case, I just got lucky... I had not visited Dungeness since March 2022, quite a gap for me. It was high time that I once more trod the shingle and my timing of a visit was down to several factors, mostly a personal liking for mid-late autumn but also because I needed to be at home until September 20th and could not make the journey south until then. I also chose to stay at the bird observatory for a few days rather than make it a day trip. All this conveniently found me stepping outside the observatory's back door in the breaking dawn of Sunday 22nd September, quickly making my way to the fishing boats, an area I prefer to stand to best appreciate any visible bird migration, an aspect of birding that I find exhilarating.  A...
Read more