NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

You can never have too many chats. The past month at Dungeness did not see particularly good numbers unfortunately, and it was a case of appreciating them all the more when they did appear. Black Redstart on the power station boulders. I have seen an arrival of 100+ in the early 1980s Northern Wheatear - very few around, and none of the hoped for rarer species A male Stonechat, outside West Beach on my last morning

What could my best bird of the year be? To be honest I've most probably done less birding this year than any other, concentrating as I have on other natural history orders or watching the many sporting events on offer (Ashes tests, Lions tests, Premiership footy). Spectacle of 2013 would probably be awarded to the 110+ Hawfinches at Mickleham, but they come in as runners-up to this little beauty... For a number of days in mid-March my wife had reported seeing a strange bird in the back garden. She knows most of the commoner species, so the fact that this baffled her had me wondering what on earth it could be. After interrogating her with a blow-torch whilst I was wearing a Bill Oddie mask, she confessed to seeing red flashes somewhere and white in the wing. I suggested Redwing - no, smaller than that. Brambling? A proffered illustration drew a shake of the head. I then showed her a picture of a male Black Redstart and she exclaimed "That's it!". Totally gripped o...

This picture might not win any awards, but to me it is 'garden gold'. I glanced out of a window this morning and was delighted to see that 'our' Black Redstart had returned. After hopping about on the front lawn in perched on a neighbouring wall and allowed me to grab the camera and take a few record shots - against the light unfortunately. This bird has now been in the area for 10 days (seen on only three of those days). My wife and I have been keeping an eye out for it since the last sighting (Monday afternoon and evening), so I think it's fair to say that our garden is but a small part of its regular routine. As far as we're concerned, it's welcome to drop by whenever it wants!

Last Thursday, my wife told me that she had seen an 'interesting' bird in the back garden. "It was grey", she said, '"with white sides and showed some red when it flew". Although she is not a birdwatcher, her knowledge of common garden birds is pretty good, so I was intrigued. A non-birder is never specific, and their colour descriptions can be misleading - was her 'red' in fact 'bright chestnut'? Exactly where on the sides was the area of white?  After showing her images of such species as Fieldfares, Bramblings and Waxwings, she was adamant that these were not her mystery bird. It didn't re-appear so I then forgot about it. Yesterday I returned home from work and, after a few minutes, she mentioned that the 'interesting' bird had been back again. She had seen it not only in the back garden but also hopping about on the front lawn. This time she could be more specific. It was smaller than a thrush (but larger than a finch), w...