NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

On the edge of Ranmore Common, at the very bottom of Denbigh's Hillside, you will find this charming wooden carving. It depicts the life cycle of the rare Adonis Blue butterfly, a species that can be readily found on the chalky slopes above. It was created by local artist Iain Hamilton Crafer, from a two tonne piece of felled oak. Below is a detail from the sculpture of an ant tending a caterpillar. On chalk downland it is usually the Red Ant that 'looks after' the caterpillar, offering it protection from predators in return for a fix of honeydew that is secreted by the larvae. If you would like to see the butterfly for real - and not just a giant wooden facsimile - go along on a warm day in May when the first brood should be on the wing. The food plant of the caterpillar is Horseshoe Vetch, so you will often see the adult butterflies flying around this flower which is easily found across the open grassland. It was a good day to be out. Despite a bit of a breez...

A dawn arrival at Juniper Bottom saw a keen frost and good visibility. I trudged up the open slope towards Juniper Top but found my passage halted several times by flocks of Redwing that were passing overhead in an easterly direction. Half way up I stopped to witness (and count) what was obviously a heavy thrush movement. And here I largely stood for the next four and a half hours. All the birds were arriving from the west and following the line of the valley (running from Norbury Park to Headley) and leaving east to north-east. They were generally in good sized flocks (20-200). A few Fieldfares were with them, with some flocks being mixed. The only other species seemingly involved were Chaffinch (55) and Brambling (10). After 09.30hrs the movement lessened but was still obvious. Visibility started to worsen, with a misty horizon and pockets of light fog. And then, as if an agreement had been reached by the thrushes, the flocks, instead of moving on and out of the area, started ...

The forecast of a very wet dawn had postponed my planned visit to Bramblehall Wood, but the rain had abated by 08.00hrs so the decision was made to check on Juniper Bottom. This was mainly due to my having seen at least 115 birds there two days ago and the suspicion that the enormous flock from Bramblehall Wood, (once it has headed up the slope and onto Ashurst Rough and Juniper Top) was then spreading out into Juniper Bottom (and beyond). And so it proved. By 08.45hrs I had taken up my position allowing clear views of the banks of Yew, and the bare deciduous tree-tops, on the eastern flank. Hawfinches were already on show. For the next hour flocks were largely spilling over into the valley from the high ground to the south-east (Juniper Top). They were making their way either northwards along the eastern ridge, or flying across the valley and up onto the western ridge (Box Hill and Lodge Hill). In between frequent showers I was able to witness a number of sizeable flocks on the mo...

Bored of Hawfinches yet? Thought so. Never mind, they'll soon be gone. This morning I arrived on the footpath opposite Bramblehall Wood just as it was getting light. I walked all the way down to the southern end, seeing no Hawfinches at all until I got there. Maybe 20 were perched up high, and over the following few minutes I was able to watch birds join them, surprisingly from all directions of the compass, in singles and small flocks. Most of them arrived from the south. They quickly built up and peeled off, flying across the field and into a Yew that I was standing underneath - my positioning was not down to luck as I had observed their preference of this particular tree yesterday. The calls above my head grew in volume - other birds must have been joining them from behind me. And the calls were not just confined to the normal 'ticks' and 'seeps' but also all kinds of 'squeaks', 'hisses' and 'warbles'. The birds across the field in Bra...

Images courtesy of Peter Alfrey I do apologise. Another Hawfinch post on another day when I've been able to go galavanting about birding when some of you are having to work, but please bear with me. Katrina was keen to see some of 'those birds' that I keep going on about and suggested taking a walk along the Hawfinch-haunted slopes of Juniper Top. This happily coincided with the presence of Peter Alfrey and Kevin Guest, as they had elected to take a birding away-day from Beddington. The observers were all present and correct, but would the birds play ball? Kate and I took the lower footpath that runs parallel with Bramblehall Wood and soon started to pick up small numbers in the general area. We began to hear birds calling and, at times, the 'ticks' and 'squeaks' were as loud as I have heard them over the past few weeks. More birds were arriving into the treetops directly above us and started to move between here and the wood opposite. There...

Juniper Top eastern slope - home to Hawfinches The morning started well, as only a few minutes after leaving the car I looked up at the steep wooded slopes of White Hill to see a flock of 15 Hawfinches fly through and alight upon Silver Birches. A good omen! I took my usual route, picking up the lower Juniper Top - Ashurst Rough path, keeping a firm eye on the edge of Bramblehall Wood across the narrow field. It was quiet at first, but soon enough I started to hear Hawfinches, most of them on 'my' side of the field. Stealth was not necessary as the birds made their way towards me, and I was soon looking directly up into a dazzling blue sky through a crazy-paving pattern of twigs and branches. The birds were very difficult to see, but vague shapes then morphed into Hawfinches and small groups flew through the lower reaches of the canopy and dived deep into Yews. I was but yards from them, teased by the incessant calling and able to witness the Yew branches being bent and sha...

Another day, another dose of Hawfinches, but what a dose! With birds being faithful to Bramblehall Wood I returned this morning and immediately found up to 30 perched on top of bare trees, which quickly built up (with some birds flying across to Juniper Top). From my position on the 'Juniper Top - Ashurst Rough' lower footpath I became aware that I could hear Hawfinches calling above me. They were noisy and easy to track as they moved along the tree tops. It was a large flock, but numbers were difficult to assess due to having to look through a tangle of twigs and branches. However, the flock built and got an awful lot noisier - it soon became apparent that a minimum of 110 birds were involved. After ten minutes or so they moved up the slope towards Ashurst Rough. Some of these birds may have doubled back, as a scan across the field towards Bramblehall Wood revealed a handful of perched birds on show. Slowly but surely, over a half-hour period, birds appeared out of nearb...

Warning: if you have had enough of these big-billed finches, do not continue reading... After yesterday's delights I was up for some more Hawfinch action, and arrived at Juniper Top just after 08.00hrs. The birding started well, with two Hawfinches flying up from Juniper Bottom and alighting in the area of woodland that was so productive 24 hours earlier. After waiting for twenty minutes (to see if any more birds came up from the valley) I entered the woods and headed a short way in to where most of yesterday's birds had performed so well. Although there was little calling, a tight group of 60 birds were located sitting passively at the top of several beech trees. They slowly started to drop down into neighbouring Yews, then proceeded to move away. By now they were calling frequently and were easy to follow. Some 100m further on a stand of Larches had attracted the flock, and now it became obvious that the original 60 had joined others. The calling became incessant, a whit...

Surrey Hawfinch real estate I was pleased to learn that c50 Hawfinch had been seen at Juniper Top yesterday. It is a place that I regularly visit, and one that during this current Hawfinch invasion I have been checking in the hope of finding them - up until this morning my rewards had been of just two birds. I arrived just after 09.00hrs and walked up to the top via the Juniper Bottom path (scene of the 2013 large Hawfinch flock). I took it slowly, scanning the top of the valley, stopping and listening, but without success. Once I reached the top I then turned left and travelled along the flat path to the open and grassy heights at Juniper Top. Just before I reached the gate that takes you onto the chalk downland I heard a Hawfinch. I stopped and waited. Nothing. A few steps on I heard it again - no, maybe more than one - but deeper into the woods. I wandered into the undergrowth for maybe 25m and was aware that the vocals were getting stronger and more numerous. The odd shape wa...

I took myself off to Juniper Top and Bottom this morning, still nursing a sore throat and head cold, although it does finally seem to be on the wane (I'm not expecting any sympathy by the way). My walk was circular, taking in plenty of dark footpaths that were swaddled in yew, ivy, moss and fern. There were plenty of birds, mainly marauding flocks of tits (which did include 11 Marsh, spread out along the route) and thrushes (110+ Redwing were the most numerous). One particular Yew was huge, the photograph below does not do justice to its size, although to help I have added three green dots which mark the six foot point from the ground. Yes, it was big! There was little in the way of fungi, although one smart fruiting body caught my attention, which if I'm not mistaken is a Trooping Funnel (below). I attach a caveat to all my fungi identification - it's a bloody minefield...

This is a very healthy Spurge-laurel at Juniper Bottom (between Box Hill and Mickleham Downs). Most early springs will see me posting an image of one (or several) of these plants ... and there I am cracking on about people posting images of Wheatears! Pots and kettles indeed... My wandering up the Juniper Bottom valley was rather good, with a fly-over flock of at least 12 calling Hawfinches, up to seven Marsh Tits, a few Siskins and, icing on the cake, a Raven flying over Juniper Top itself - a NDB uber patch tick no less. I think this is how I ought to approach my birding in the coming months - don't actually go out with the intention of doing so, but carry my binoculars just in case.