NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Looking back eastwards from White Downs earlier this week and already this autumn's birding was on my mind. Set out before us are the three 'peaks' on the North Downs that are within my uber patch. I have vis-migged from all three, but not often enough to be able to have a firm idea as to where is best. Obviously the time of year and the weather conditions play a part in which one demands my attention. Last autumn I spent more time at Box Hill and had some success (with thrushes) whereas Colley Hill fared better for finches. Ranmore didn't perform well at all. I plotted the main flight lines at the time and repeat them below. October 2019 - Box Hill migrant flight lines (mainly thrushes) October 2019 - Colley Hill migrant flight lines  The questions that are really taxing me at the moment are these. Colley Hill is further east than Box Hill. Have all (or at least most) of the birds that pass Box Hill westwards along the scarp passed Colley Hill on the way? ...

Two identical images of a Corn Bunting appear below. Both have been loaded onto this post, with Blogger's automatic default settings imposed. The bottom picture has gone through a simple manual tweak which I hope you can see has improved the image greatly. This is how you can improve the quality of your images on Blogger. As you are composing your post, and have uploaded your image(s), click on the HTML tab (arrowed below). Now you will see the underlying HTML code (below). All of your written words still appear as you have typed them, but the pictures that you have uploaded appear as code. The code contains numbers that are instructions as to how large, and at what resolution, the picture will appear and where it sits on the page. I have highlighted each of the Corn Bunting pictures with a red box. Everything is identical bar one thing - which I have circled in purple - the 's' figure. Blogger will set this at a bog standard 640 or 400. All you need do is al...

My first Large Skipper of the year came courtesy of this male at Headley Heath two days ago. I was quite pleased with these images, capturing him basking in the sun. Today I added Meadow Brown to the year's butterfly list, a single at Canons Farm, my earliest ever by four days.

I do love the colour variation in the flowers of Scarlet Pimpernel, with the intense blue being a firm favourite. However, on farmland at the base of Denbies Hillside I came across a plum - or mauve - coloured flower, the first ones that I have seen. The photos most probably do not do it credit, but it stopped me in my tracks. It was so good I went back for seconds later in the visit. No colour correction has been made to the images, the bottom photograph has a 'normal' coloured plant alongside for comparison.

An afternoon visit to Headley Heath was fairly uneventful, although a couple of Garden Warblers were seen and heard in amongst the many Blackcaps, at least four Willow Warblers were on territory, my first Large Skipper of the year was on the wing and, at the 'Starfruit Pond', there were many Broad-bodied Chasers in action, including one that kindly kept posing for me on a close branch.

For the past six years, a group of mid-Surrey birders, loosely based along the River Mole valley, have held an annual bird race in late-May. Due to the ongoing lockdown it looked as if this year's bird race might fall by the wayside. However, David Stubbs (now of Norfolk, formerly of Buckland) stepped in and put together a rescue package. Instead of teams madly thrashing around the defined Mole valley area for the day, individuals were invited to bird from midnight to midday, on foot or on bicycle, venturing no further than 5km from home. Many took up the challenge and a number of teams were then formed, with the final competitive totals being derived from the member's cumulative score. I found myself together with two Surrey stalwarts - Steve Chastell and Robin Stride - under the name of The Three Tringas. It would be grossly unfair to Steve to suggest that this was a coming together of the old boys, but it was not too far off the truth. This morning was a cool and bluste...

My year's aim of finally getting to grips with the 'microlepidoptera', and in the process record my 1,000th species of moth, has taken a bit of a hit owing to the Covid lockdown. Now that travel restrictions (within reason) have been loosened, I feel able to visit sites within the county. I also dusted down the MV last night and ran it for the first time this Spring in the back garden. This striking Tortrix, Ptycholoma lecheana was the highlight, a new species for me. It is not uncommon, so I would suspect that I've overlooked it in the past. Is the 1,000 target still on for 2020? I doubt it.

It's a ND&B tradition to post musical lists now and again, so, here in all its glory is my 'Lockdown 50' - just tracks that have been played throughout this testing time, some glorious, some soothing, some... well, I'm sure you get the picture. In no particular order, no more than one per artist: Harvest Moon - Cassandra Wilson Outdoor Miner - Wire Sketch for Summer - Durutti Column Final Day - Young Marble Giants Seek It - Richard Hawley Young Love - Mystery Jets Les Fleurs - Minnie Ripperton Stay High - Brittany Howard Song 4 Mutya - Groove Armada I Just Want to Celebrate - Rare Earth Don't Talk to Me About Love - Altered Images Clarence in Wonderland - Kevin Ayers Fox on the Run - Sweet American Woman - The Guess Who Good Souls - Starsailor Spell - Hot Chip Never Let Me Down Again - Depeche Mode In The Street - Big Star I Saw the Light - Todd Rundgren The Crunch - The Rah Band Sylvia - Focus Medicine Show - Big Audio Dynamite A Kissed ...

Hot and drowsy, with just the scratching of Whitethroats and the dribbling juice of the Blackcaps to trouble the thick air. A few Common Buzzards, the odd Red Kite and a Sparrowhawk to disturb the clear, deep blue. Spring seems sprung. Summer has unfurled its intent. I had a brief encounter with a female Broad-bodied Chaser at Canons Farm this afternoon. It kept alighting on a small area of vegetation in a woodland ride, but was terribly wary, allowing me snatched images. The backlit picture pleased me, far more than a standard frame filler would have - you can appreciate the structure and fretwork of the wings to a greater degree. These ancient insects are wonders to behold, art nouveau with wings.

It's not rare, very small and hardly colourful, so Cydia ulicetana is doomed to be a moth that gets little attention, although somebody has made some effort and given it an English name - Grey Gorse Piercer. Can be found in numbers on a gorse bush near you now! I think it has a lot going for it myself...

I might not live by the sea, or alongside a reservoir, or close to a major river valley, but I cannot complain about the area around my home. Within a 20-30 minute walk I can be at Epsom Downs, Epsom Common, Banstead Woods, Banstead Downs, Priest Hill, Howell Hill, Canons Farm and the banks of the (modest) River Hogsmill at Ewell. These may not be places that are associated with birds, but at these sites I have seen Little Bittern, Ring-necked Duck and Dotterel (among others) and have experienced some amazing days of migration. However, what it lacks in birding prowess is more than compensated by the tremendous list of plants, butterflies and moths that can be found - nationally notable species in profusion! No, I cannot complain. And then there are the many areas off the beaten track, in between the named sites above - pockets of farmland, grassland, copses and horse paddock, criss-crossed by footpath and, at times, abandoned to the wild flowers and accompanying invertebrates. Bo...

ND&B can become a dumping ground for all sorts of random observations, and this post is a good example of exactly that. These striking galls on Lime caught my attention this afternoon and Michael Chinery's trustworthy gall guide tells me that they have been caused by Eriophyes tiliae , a gall mite. You live and learn...

One of the pleasures of being  - or at least attempting to be - an all-round naturalist is that you tend to nose around at anything and everything as you idly wander. In doing so you can be handsomely rewarded. This afternoon I went on a 'birding stroll', (I'm still adhering to local lockdown and not driving anywhere.) I found myself at Park Downs, Banstead, a delightful place that has a fine fauna and flora. It is also peaceful, one of my bolt-holes. As I wandered down the edge of a field I noticed several plants of White Bryony starting to unfurl across the path and into the hedgerow. My eye was drawn to a distinctively coloured insect, the unmistakable browny-red of the Bryony Ladybird. And there were more, all resting on the leaves of its food plant and a quick check of the other plants by the path revealed at least 12 insects on show. There could have been many more but I didn't want to disturb them by checking underneath the leaves. This species was not recor...

The latest 'thing' in macro-moth identification is to go through your old images of The Fern ( Horisme tersata ) and see if you might have already recorded the newly separated Cryptic Fern ( Horisme radicaria ). My only image couldn't be a more obvious tersata if it tried, lacking the very obvious apical streak with accompanying paler area above. As Shaw Taylor used to say "Keep 'em peeled..." * * If you are under 55, ask your parents who he is and why he used to say such a thing...

A few weeks ago, while this blog was knee-deep in the #BWKM0 challenge, this Painted Lady alighted on a Choisya bush in the front garden. At the time there had been very few reported nationally, which made the sighting all the more notable. What was also arresting about this particular butterfly was how fresh it appeared, with hardly a scale out of place. I have seen just one more since.

Even though Red Kites have been a virtual daily occurrence over the garden since the beginning of March, they have started to ramp up their appearances elsewhere, with southern coastal counties enjoying a rush of these delightful raptors today. It has become an annual event, this late-Spring wandering of the Kites, seemingly meandering between Kent and Cornwall in ever increasing numbers. I had six over Banstead today, each and every one showing wing moult, missing their innermost primaries. Apparently second calendar-year birds moult their flight feathers earlier than adults. The birds pictured here can be aged as 2CY on plumage alone, but the question is, are all - or most - of the birds on the move at the moment youngsters?  I must read up on it.

We cannot go to the Bluebells, so the Bluebells have had to come to us, via gouache and brush. Normally a birthday walk for Katrina, but today having to make do with a view through a picture frame. Happy Birthday xxx

#BWKM0   ND&B garden challenge 49th and final day  Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who took a hold of the baton and ran with this challenge. It was started in response to the Italian ornithologists who created the #BWKM0 hashtag as a way of coping with their lockdown (by organising a coming together of birds, birders, gardens, balconies and windows.) And this is exactly what our challenge has also been about - a 'virtual' meeting of the birding fraternity during troubling times. As much as there are observers who will have recorded higher percentage scores than others, such competitiveness has been but a sideshow to the genuine spirit behind the challenge, one of camaraderie wrapped up in a celebration of our shared passion. So, to use a well-worn cliche, there are no losers here, only winners. As for the highest percentage scores - there was a flaw in my method of trying to 'equal out' the gardens - because birders who posted a low baseline score were a...

#BWKM0   ND&B garden challenge DAY 48 If you've made it this far into the challenge, then well done, 48 days is a big commitment. There is now just the one more day to go. So, give those optics one last clean, prepare yourself for one more birding session and let's see if you can add another species (or two) onto the 'lockdown list'. By 18.00hrs tomorrow evening it will all be over and we can then take a well deserved break. These 48 days have been an eye-opener for me. I've discovered ornithological aspects of the garden that I was either unaware or at least had little understanding of. There are viewpoints from the house that give me sweeping views across the neighbourhood that are ideal for vis-mig - views that had not registered as such before. My Spring Chaffinch passage is more prolonged (and heavier) than I realised. Wildfowl obviously pass over my little bit of Surrey each night at the end of March and the beginning of April. Common Buzzards and Re...

#BWKM0   ND&B garden challenge DAY 47 Having been keeping a close eye on the garden over the past seven weeks, I have quite a good idea of what is breeding (or at least attempting to breed) in, or close to, our house. I've never been one to show an interest in nests, eggs, or breeding behaviour, having firmly nailed my colours to the ornithological masts of identification and migration. However, when needs must... species observed in territorial behaviour, nest building or carrying food were:  Sparrowhawk (one pair), Common Buzzard (two pairs), Kestrel (one pair), Feral Rock Dove, Stock Dove, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Ring-necked Parakeet, Tawny Owl (two pairs), Green Woodpecker, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Blackcap, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Jay, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Starling, House Sparrow, Greenfinch (three to four pairs) and Goldfinch. I would normally expect Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Nuthatch and Ch...

#BWKM0   ND&B garden challenge DAY 46 I'm getting that 'end of term' feeling now, as we are only three days away from the 'wrapping up' of this birding enterprise. I have ear-marked Thursday as an all-day session to say farewell to the competition. Last chance for that big surprise to come along and put the icing on the cake. And somewhere, hopefully, a Whinchat will pop up and be welcomed onto our combined list. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ OUR  COMBINED TOTAL (BRITISH ISLES GARDENS) IS 185 SPECIES     Still to be recorded are: Arctic Skua, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Kingfisher,  Whinchat. Today's additional species: Arctic Tern (Alastair F) Our oversea's gardens (New Zealand and Albania) add an additional  26 SPECIES    You can find the combined #BWKM0 list by clicking on the right-hand tab above. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ENTRIES ...