NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

If you are a regular sufferer of this blog, you may remember that I spent quite a bit of time at Gander Green Lane last season, home of Sutton United Football Club. My season ticket, apart from allowing me to watch the footy, also opened up the sideline of birding during moments of non-activity on the pitch. There were three notable sightings - Little Egret, Common Buzzard and Lapwing. With the new season having started last Saturday (and a new season ticket safely in my possession), it was time to launch a new initiative - The ND&B Gander Green Lane 2017-18 season list! My efforts during Saturday's match (a friendly versus Coventry) were half-hearted, although I made a special effort to get Common Swift onto the list. I also noticed a Blackbird and Collared Dove, so, with a shaky start, the bird list is currently on three. I also  witnessed three species of butterfly - Large White, Comma and Small Tortoiseshell - so it would be rude not to start a butterfly list as well. The...

Venue: Gander Green Lane, Sutton Event: FA Cup second round, Sutton United v Cheltenham Town I was standing with fellow birder Frankie Prater and his son James. As normal, if the three of us are watching Sutton play, our conversation is a mixture of football (when James gets involved), or birding (when James glazes over). This afternoon was no different. Yesterday's Cattle Egret was a conversation piece, as was my observation of a Lapwing flying over last Saturday's Sutton v Aldershot match. We joked that if the football was boring we could always revert to sky watching for birds. "Maybe even a Cattle Egret" quipped Frankie. Twenty minutes later we were watching a Little Egret sail over, low and to the west... Frankie wasn't far wrong with his prediction! The score? 2-1 to Sutton, the winner scored deep into injury time. Not a bad afternoon all round.