NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

For the past two early-autumns I have visited a small section of the Sussex South Downs to get a birding fix. In a vague rectangle, between Burpham in the west, Steyning in the east, Chanctonbury in the north and Cissbury in the south, there is a delightful mix of chalk grassland, pasture, crop, copse and hedgerow, all with a good track record for birds in number and species of some repute. In my previous visits I have come to expect some big passerine flocks and migrant choked vegetation, but today was a bit of a disappointment. Passerine numbers were much depressed, especially warblers, and it was, at times, hard going. I did end up seeing a Marsh Harrier, a Hobby, four Yellow Wagtails, 13 Wheatears, five Whinchats, a Spotted Flycatcher, a Common Redstart, a Sedge Warbler and 50 Corn Buntings, so I cannot really complain. I will try and get back before September passes the baton to October, as this land is excellent for chats.

It's been a quiet couple of weeks locally. Canons Farm, Walton and Epsom Downs, Priest Hill and Headley Heath have all been visited. Passage migrants were thin on the ground and the number of warblers much depressed - I do wonder if the breeding season has been poor, and this is why I am not seeing (or hearing) many locally-bred young birds. Bucking the trend, however, was a count of 60+ Chiffchaffs at Headley last Wednesday. This morning's wander across the farmland at Mogador was better - straw bales that had been left in a recently harvested field were acting as convenient perches for three Whinchats and two Wheatears. I stood and watched for awhile. I will never tire of chats.

Another grey, dull morning. My check of the garden MV came up with a decent moth, as the migrant tortrix, Cydia amplana (above), was sitting on one of the first egg boxes checked. This is the second garden record, and although a good inland record it was not surprising, as they have been recorded in good numbers down on the coast over the past few days. I was at Canons Farm by 07.00hrs - bad mistake - it was birdless. I haven't known this site to be so poor in the twenty years that I have been running an ornithological ruler over it. Once upon a time I would have stuck at it, but instead I went over to Headley Heath, hoping to at least find a large tit flock in which I might be able to prize some migrants from. It worked, to a fashion. Within 10 minutes I was watching a mixed passerine flock of 120 birds, mostly Blue Tits, but, within it were four Willow Warblers and 12 Chiffchaffs. Over the next three hours the Chiffchaff count rose to 65, but migrants were largely absent. There w...

With several ‘local’ sites reporting their first autumn chats over the last couple of days, and being a self-confessed ‘chatophile’, I went on the hunt this afternoon. From home by foot, I first pitched up at Canons Farm, a bit of a gamble as the fields are still with crop and there would be little decent habitat for any chat, and so it proved. However, there was a plan B! Making my way through to the paddocks to the north of Banstead village, the very first one that was checked, adjacent to the cricket club, held a Wheatear. Even after 47 years of birding, and having seen thousands of them, this species still brings so much joy to me. I watched it as the bird made its way along the fence line, dropping down into the paddock every now and then. The chat hunt had been successful, and my afternoon was made. Simple, modest stuff, but that is one of the pleasures of being at ease with birding locally. It’s the gift that keeps giving.

As part of a writing project, I have been trawling through my notebooks from the early 1980s, having just completed a similar exercise for the 1970s. It makes sobering reading. Back then, I was still able to go out locally (in northern Surrey and south-west London) and see Turtle Doves, Willow Tits, Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers and Spotted Flycatchers with ease and certainly not need to comment on seeing them as anything other than normal. At Beddington, one July day in 1980, I recorded a flock of 400 House Sparrows, and saw 800 at Dungeness the following October. These are counts that seem incredible now. It is all too easy to think of such figures as remarkable - but, in reality these were massive decreases on what had gone before. Close to my home, on Banstead Downs, 18,000 were counted coming into roost in 1960, with over 10,000 at Dartford Marshes, in Kent, up until 1974. By 1984 the same roost could only boast a maximum of 2,000. It is easy to allow 'shifting baseline syndrome...

At last a bit of dry and sunny weather! I hot-footed it off to Colley Hill where the butterflies were on show, with 350 Meadow Browns, 175 Chalkhill Blues and 10 Silver-spotted Skippers the highlights from the steep chalk slopes. A couple of Hobbys spent a bit of time sparring with the local Kestrels. The afternoon was spent at Holmethorpe SP, with the vegetation between the M23 and Spynes Mere busy with Small Red-eyed Damselflies (at least 60) and two Willow Emerald Damselflies (both species pictured below.) A pristine Brown Hairstreak was in the same area, but didn’t settle to have its picture taken.

I don't know what has sparked it off, but a number of birders on social media have voiced their dissatisfaction about the way in which certain organisations are managing nature reserves. Along with my thoughts about the Surrey Wildlife Trust's custodianship of Holmethorpe (see last post), there have been missiles lobbed at the Kent Wildlife Trust (Oare Marshes) and the RSPB (Dungeness). I can add my two-pennies about the latter... The reserve at Dungeness has come on an awful long way since my first visit in 1976. There has been much beneficial habitat creation, with 'new' reed beds that now support Bitterns, Marsh Harriers and Bearded Tits, and a mosaic of water bodies that are excellent for wildlife beyond birds. The visitor centre, when it was opened, was a massive step up from the wooden hut that used to stand there. And where there was just the one hide, at least nine are now scattered across the reserve. So, what's not to like? If I were being uncharitable, th...

I have been engaged in a lot of huffing and puffing around the local patches for little birding reward - however, the inverts have saved recent days, with a male Lesser Emperor at Spynes Mere (Holmethorpe) yesterday afternoon, and a smart Dewick's Plusia (above) in the garden MV this morning. This is the third Banstead record in 12 months, leading me to suspect that it is now established in the area. I haven't had a rant on here for a while, as the solidity of my inner calm defences has been strong enough to deflect all of the negative bullets and arrows that have been fired my way, but yesterday's visit to Holmethorpe tipped me over the edge. For those of you that have not visited this group of sand pits before, let me give you a bit of background. The area has been plundered for sand and Fuller's Earth for many years. There are two substantial waterbodies, Mercer's Lake and Mercer's West. The former used to be viewable from a footpath that runs around its circ...

At some point during the past week, Summer yawned, had a stretch, and turned into early Autumn. There were signs in the flowers that were in bloom - Red Bartsia, Hemp-agrimony, Common Toadflax, Common Fleabane, Harebell - all pointers to the season coming to its long goodbye. And as if to confirm such suspicions, today we launched into August. To most birders August is, without doubt, the autumn. My short walk to Priest Hill this morning was taken with a little bit more of a spring in my step, buoyed by the burgeoning season. I would have been happy with a passage Willow Warbler, but as it happened there was a modest movement of Common Swifts to count. I say modest, but over the two and a half hours I was present a noteworthy 633 moved south-westwards. They took their time, a slow, circuitous meander through the air space, only a few making a dash for it. This afternoon up at Walton Downs was quieter, with a few Common Swifts loafing about, and a scruffy adult Willow Warbler calling aw...