NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

The latest round of 'The Good Old Days' harps back to 1975, and is dedicated to that hoary old Welsh English birding veteran of Selsey Bill, Owen Mervyn Jones. Staines Reservoir had a reputation as one of London’s top bird watching sites. My dog-eared copy of ‘Where to Watch Birds’ by John Gooders was full of praise for it and generous in its suggestion as to what might be seen on any given visit. It was a place that boasted a list of rarities that was more befitting a coastal headland and appeared to have enticed generations of top bird watchers to partake in the ornithological offerings that would be, as far as I could tell, always available. I had successfully twisted the arm of a birdwatching friend to take me there. The drive through south-west London was a monotonous one, a flat and virtually treeless 1930’s suburbia, with the odd flyover and office block attempting to give a little height to the surroundings. We arrived at Ashford, where we parked up alongside an o...

Yes, it's time to dig up that old chestnut once again, JUST WHERE IS SURREY? For some of you it's just that sleepy county south of London where stockbrokers live, the National Trust has an exceedingly high level of membership and millions of cock-a-poos run freely alongside Labrador-doodles. All true, but it is also home to several hundred birders who have an identity crisis, and that is where on earth is the county boundary? From time to time social media reveals a spasm of collective confusion, roughly along the lines of why we should/shouldn't accept Staines Reservoir as part of birding Surrey. A SHORT HISTORY LESSON... Back in the depths of time Surrey was created, its lands running north to the southern bank of the Thames. In 1852 a geographical division of the United Kingdom was devised that resulted in clear divisions of the vice-counties, also called the Watsonian vice-counties. In 1889 the county of London was created and the boroughs of Wandsworth, Lambe...

Part 8: November – December 1975  I had fallen into a comfortable birding routine, with Beddington Sewage Farm and Staines Reservoir being my venues of choice. A visit to the latter site required two bus journeys (Cheam – Kingston and Kingston – Ashford), with departure from Cheam pre-dawn, so as to maximise birding time. Since my first visit to the reservoir, the duck and wader numbers had thankfully increased, so that the scanning of the exposed mud and water had a meaningful end result. There was one session that did not end with success, as the flat west London basin was prone to fog, and on this particular morning visibility was down to 50m. Having made the effort to travel I stubbornly remained waiting for it to lift, a lone figure on the causeway making-do with the odd Dunlin (or Tufted Duck) that wandered (or floated) into visible range. However, on most visits my observation time was unimpeded, and the monochrome waters were usually home to rafts of diving duck, with the ...

Part 6: September - October 1975  The Epsom RSPB Group held a number of field trips throughout the year, and after my successful Epsom Common excursion with them in May, I had booked myself on a further two, both to well-known sites that promised me more avian wonder. The first was in early October, to Pagham Harbour. I was picked up by car from Cheam Village, part of a convoy that made its collective way down to the West Sussex coast. The vehicles all reconvened at the Sidlesham Ferry Visitor Centre. This was just off from the harbour itself, close to a sizeable pool, viewable from a raised pavement that ran along its southern edge, butting onto the Selsey road. The water was dotted with muddy islands, with exposed mud just below were we stood. This was being criss-crossed by a number of feeding waders, at incredibly close range. I was able to examine the birds in feather-by-feather detail. My fellow-companions now showed me what experience can do, as they pointed out to me t...

Is Staines Reservoir in the county of Surrey? NO!!! It is you know, if you live in Staines your postal address is Surrey But it's north of the River Thames, Surrey is south of the river, any fule kno that* Ah, but in 1965 there was a shake-up of the administrative make-up of the county. Surrey lost the London Boroughs of Croydon, Kingston, Merton, Sutton and Richmond, and in the same process gained Spelthorne. Staines Reservoir is in Spelthorne. Hold on a minute, I lived in Sutton between 1971 - 1997 and my postal address was Surrey Er... And my beef isn't with an administrative carving up of a county, but with it keeping an unchanging biological recording unit. You mean the vice-county? Yes, or Watsonian county if you like. These were set up in 1852 to create uniform units of land for the purposes of scientific data gathering. Many were based on the ancient county boundaries. Surrey was small enough to be one vice-county (VC17), but larger counties, such as n...

Rare geese Cackling Canada, Richardson's Canada, Greater Snow - I'm struggling here to keep my eyes open I'm so underwhelmed. A small rare goose in amongst a gathering of hundreds of commoners does nothing for me. Champagne Expensive and over-rated. The bubbles get up my nose, give me heartburn and then later a headache. Non! Basketball As a spectator sport, mind-numbingly boring. A team of tall freaks run down one end and aim a ball at a hoop. Then the other team do the same but up the other end. Over. And. Over. Again. Sometimes one of them misses. Final score - who gives a damn. Motorbikes Maybe I have never been blokey enough to become a biker, either an oily rough one or a clean Goldwing owner. I just about get cars, but that is only so that I can differentiate them by their colours, not the model. Staines Reservoir . This place has received absolute devotion from regular observers down the ages, who swear by its magical abilities to entice rare birds to l...