NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Common Redstart, Priest Hill, April Well I did put a lot of effort in locally, honest! For a change and to 'bird off piste' I adopted an area of abandoned playing fields between Banstead and Ewell known as Priest Hill. It has recently been handed over to the Surrey Wildlife Trust to manage, although there is not an awful lot that can be done bird-wise, save fence off areas from the hordes of dog-walkers and their canine friends in an attempt to protect the handful of Skylarks that breed there. Almost daily visits throughout the spring did produce a few passage migrants, most notably Jack Snipe, Common Snipe, Ring Ouzel, Grasshopper Warbler, several Common Redstarts, plenty of Wheatears and a very healthy population of Common Whitethroats were in song throughout mid-April and into the summer, with the odd Lesser Whitethroat for good measure. I neglected Canons Farm, but did manage to bump into a Ring Ouzel on May Day. Northern Wheatear, Priest Hill, May Common Wh...

I arrived at Priest Hill by 05.30hrs, full of hope for migrants seeing that the wind and rain had got together to promise us birders some action. To cut along story short I left the site by 07.30hrs sans passage migrants... BUT... it was an atmospheric couple of hours. The low cloud and calm conditions gave everything a slightly 'cotton woolly' feeling and the stillness was dominated by the scratchy warble of Common Whitethroats. There was barely a moment that I couldn't hear at least one in song, and at times up to four were assaulting my ears. I reckoned on a minimum of 32 present. Trying to gatecrash in on the act were four rattling Lesser Whitethroats. It was all quite delightful. I ventured over to Canons Farm (09.30 - 12.30; 14.00 -15.30hrs) where a further nine Common Whitethroats were recorded (including the individual above). However, they were upstaged by a mid-morning female Ring Ouzel, that flew out of the hedgerow by Canons Farmhouse and crossed the field...

Priest Hill had the feeling of early-summer this afternoon - the Whitethroats (above) and Linnets were busily singing and squabbling amongst themselves; the bare earth was parched and showing cracks; the water levels of the small ponds are receding by the day. There were some indications of spring passage however, with a Lesser Whitethroat that sang as it (quickly) made its way along a hedgerow and out of the recording area, plus two male Northern Wheatears in Big Field - and I resisted the temptation to take any more photos!

Gromwell. Sounds a bit miserable, doesn't it, like 'grumble' I suppose. Predictive text tries to turn it into 'growler'. But Gromwells are smart plants and not at all common. There are three species in the UK -  Common, Field and Purple. I've been lucky to see all three and have the first two quite close to home. I saw both of these today. First up is this Common. A few plants, not yet in flower, were found in a small copse at Walton Downs. It's the closest to home that I've seen them and was quite pleased with these. I'll go back to take some pictures of the flowers, not that they are showy, just neat. Next up is Field (also known as Corn) Gromwell, a decreasing plant and one that is a real find. One of my personal highlights of last summer was finding a large colony along the edge of a field at Langley Vale, on the edge of Epsom Downs. This was the first Surrey record for 25 years. Today several hundred were on show, many starting to f...

The heavy overnight rain had weakened by dawn, but it was still necessary to don the wet-weather gear to go out into the recording area. The hoped for grounding of migrants was modest to say the least, but not without its highlights. In the trapping area a very close, head-high owl, was flushed from a sallow bush. It alighted some 40m away in full view, looking at me with blazing orange eyes and raised ear-tufts - a Long-eared! A couple of hours later a Woodlark flew south, tail-less in silhouette and yodelling of call. A hat-trick of highlights came courtesy of a late Common Whitethroat, that stayed loyal to a particular bank of brambles, although I didn't see it until my fourth attempt. No two days are ever the same here...