NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

JANUARY A murmuration of Black-tailed Godwits over Pulborough Brooks FEBRUARY The basis for a future painting - male Reed Bunting and buds at Holmethorpe MARCH The early promise of the summer to come in the form of a Small Tortoiseshell at Canons Farm APRIL Lilliputian flora at Dungeness - Early Forget-me-not MAY Green Hairstreak warming up in the morning sun, Chipstead Bottom JUNE A day at Box Hill with the DSLR camera capturing Sainfoin on the southern slopes JULY The Boquer Valley spills into the Med, with Balearic Warblers and Eleonora's Falcons to ease the journey AUGUST Perennial Sow-thistles at Langley Vale Farm - the commonplace becomes art form SEPTEMBER An orthopteran snacking Stonechat, Canons Farm OCTOBER Adult Caspian Gull at Dungeness NOVEMBER Golden dawn at Dungeness DECEMBER It's either a Robin or a clump of Mistletoe...

One of my favourite views - looking eastwards from the moat, Dungeness Bird Observatory 2016. Not yet with us, but undeniably casting a shadow upon all that we do. Over the years I have found that the days between Christmas and the New Year to be irritants, hours that get in the way of reaching the 'brave new world' that is the coming new year. But it hasn't happened this year. I have been quite content to live in the present and not project myself into some unknown future. It's maybe because I really haven't committed myself to any great plans or aims for next year. I do have stuff that will bubble away in the background. A repeat of the Surrey v Northumberland patch birding competition has been agreed, with baseline figures in place (mine lowered from last year). There are a few species of plant and moth that I have yet to see that I quite fancy seeing, but these will happen (or not) in a laid back style. I have, for a while, annually visited the Pulborough...

Walton Downs, looking across Langley Vale Farm. What odds for Red Hemp-nettle or a Stone Curlew in 2016? So 2015 is starting to wind down. The hustle and bustle of Christmas might be upon us, but for the birder, mother and botanist (not to forget all those other naturalists looking at all sorts of other wildlife), it is time to get all those records sorted out, sent off and start planning for the new campaign that is, and will be called, 2016. A few years ago I would have been rummaging through my notebooks, retrieving those observations that seemed worthy enough to send to the recorder (of Surrey, London, Kent and, sometimes, Sussex). Nowadays it is much simpler process, at least for the bird records, via the BTO’s Birdtrack service. Some birders cannot get enough of it, and send in tens of thousands of records each year from across the UK. My own efforts are on a smaller, more parochial level. The only non-local record that I needed to do anything about was the Bonaparte’s G...