Stones and Darts

The last 10 days has seen me become obsessed in scouring the local patches for large, open, weedy fields and scanning them for Stonechats - the reason? - we are experiencing ridiculously high numbers of these charismatic chats at the moment. Prior to this, my highest local day total for a single site was 10. And as will be shortly revealed, that day total has been smashed, several times over.

The first inkling that something unusual was happening occurred on 30th September when I was skywatching from the base of the scarp slope just east of Box Hill. I was aware of three, maybe four Stonechats in front of me, but was more interested in the small number of birds passing overhead. Now and again I would take a break from looking up and scan the fence lines close by. And that was when I was confronted by a loose flock of 17 Stonechats, 10 of which I managed to capture in the image above (one of them is hidden on the bottom wire). Now this was unusual! I returned three days later to find that the numbers had swollen to 25. On a very local level (within 15-20 minutes walk from home) Priest Hill (9 Stonechats) and Howell Hill (4 Stonechats) were not remarkable, but still high counts.

A morning visit to Mogador on 4th October revealed that the Box Hill numbers were not a freak. At least 30 Stonechats were scattered across the area, including a group of 10 that were feeding in a grassy meadow that had recently been mown, using the low mounds of grass cuttings as lookout perches. They would frequently fly up into a line of mature trees before once more descending onto the shorn vegetation.

Things became ridiculous on 6th October. A six-hour search of the adjoining Epsom and Walton Downs was remarkable, as I clocked up groups of 6, 1, 7, 9, 8, 2, 13, 7 and 11 to create a grand total of 65+ Stonechats! Almost every weedy, open field held birds. Each group required time to ascertain just how many birds were present, as each scan with the binoculars would reveal differing counts. A firm grip on how many males and females were present, plus the presence of any particularly bright or pale birds was required. I could scan and count five birds (four males plus a female), then scan once more and count five again, but this time there would be two males and three females, so already I would be able to confidently say that there were at least seven present. Doing this for 20 minutes would build up the group size, plus make me aware that some birds must have moved on - a particularly pale bird might have been seen just the once. A large field, with thigh-high dead thistles, wild carrot and grasses, is an easy place for Stonechats to go 'missing' - even though this species habitually perches high to gain a vantage point, sometimes these were hidden from my view, and quite a bit of time was spent low, foraging. At times, a group of birds would just disappear, for them to reappear, as if by magic, 100m behind me. I returned to Epsom/Walton Downs on 7th (55 present) and 10th (42 present), so there does appear to be a lessening of numbers, unless these birds have just moved on to populate other local sites.

Peak Stonechat counts from sites across the Uber-patch

A by-product of checking Stonechat groups is coming across that well-known infiltrator, the Dartford Warbler. There must be some sort of quid-pro-quo arrangement going on here (Stonechat acts as Dartford's look-out, Dartford disturbs insects from within the vegetation for the Stonechat). It is not an easy bird to find away from the breeding grounds of the Surrey heaths (all being to the west and south of me), and although I have seen several on my local patches over the years, to find four in a matter of a week is unprecedented - Mogador (4th), Walton Downs (two on 6th) and Walton Downs (a new bird on 10th).

The Mogador Dartford Warbler