NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Northern France, last spring. A Bluethroat sings from the top reaches of a bush on the edge of a marsh. I forgot that I had taken this photograph until looking through a whole raft of images today. Regardless of the distance of the bird, and its lack of detail, I was at once warmed by the visual, so thought I would share it.

Part 14 September – October 1976 The settling beds at Beddington Sewage Farm were in good condition to entice passage waders down to feed, the effluent being not too wet and not too dry, and when seen from above they mimicked small inland estuaries. The star birds were a Spotted Redshank, a Little Stint and a flock of Ruff that, over the course of a week, built up to 17 birds. House Martin numbers were also increasing, and it was not just passage migrants that were swelling the numbers, as those that had been locally fledged were also taking to the skies. Up to 600 were feeding above Beddington in mid-September and a faithful group of 100-200 birds remained above Sutton town centre well into October. There were still young in some of the nests, these muddy cups being a common enough sight under the eaves of houses in many suburban streets. Another species gathering in numbers was the House Sparrow, with gangs of 30+ being found with regularity in the neighbourhood front gardens, th...

The 1976 Beddington Bluethroat - the stuff of legend October 10th 1976 will always be a special day for me. It was a Sunday, and I spent the day at Beddington Sewage Farm. During this time I was a keen bird ringer, under the tutelage of Ken Parsley and Mike Netherwood. If I remember correctly it was a mild, overcast and dry day. We had set up a number of single panel mist nets in an area of fat-hen, that was attracting finches to feed upon. We had got into our normal routine - a couple of us would go and check the nets every ten minutes or so whilst the third would sit guarding our rucksacks and ringing equipment a short distance away. By early afternoon we had enjoyed moderate success, mainly trapping Greenfinches. I was left back at base, Mike and Ken having gone off on a net round. After a few minutes they returned, Mike holding a single bird bag and with a big grin on his face. "Bet you can't tell me what species of bird I've got in here?" "Bluethr...

Recent events have reawakened the birder in me and has led to a certain amount of looking back through my local ornithological record, now grandly christened the 'NDB uber archive' - yes, I know, the stuff of children, but us blokes never really grow up, do we? It is surprising what constitutes a birding highlight. Rarity or being self-found need not necessarily add weight to a species right to become a cherished memory. Time and place can have such an effect however. In chronological order I would like to present my ' Top 10 North Downs and Beyond Uber patch ' highlights. May 1974 Jay, Sutton The bird that started it all. I could only identify the improbably coloured bird on the back garden lawn because a fellow pupil at school had recently painted a picture of one in art class. At the time I asked him if it was a parrot. His answer that I could see this bird in my back garden was met with much scoffing. I can still clearly see this particular Jay, 39 years later,...