NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

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 ...

The local birding scene is being very good to me at the moment, with plenty of interest and the odd surprise ready to leap out and take me unawares. This morning had me visiting the River Hogsmill in Ewell, which was sandwiched between two brief stops at Priest Hill. With all things being relative, it was a case of time being well spent and rewarded. The Hogsmill at Ewell is a narrow, winding watercourse that is shallow and well vegetated With several Moorhens was this furtive, camera-shy Water Rail. A Common Snipe had just been flushed from a bed of Water-cress. Grey Wagtails are commonplace along this stretch, sharing the area with Kingfishers and Little Egrets Mistletoe at Priest Hill - well, it is almost Christmas! Let it never be said that I ever pass up the opportunity to pap a Stonechat - this female at Priest Hill

A bit of an experiment here - the first time that I have uploaded a video, filmed using my trusty Coolpix P600 camera at Pulborough Brooks RSPB reserve this afternoon. For a full account of today's trip, see tomorrow! If you want to re-watch the video (and why wouldn't you?), click on the 'Water Rail action!' heading to refresh the link.

January 1st means one thing in the birding calendar - year listing! Even if you don't keep lists, this is the one day that is the exception to the rule, and even then this particular list may only last for 24 hours. Think about it, we get up with more than the usual amount of enthusiasm and are fully aware of what the first species of the year will be - in my case a Robin. I have metaphorically painted myself into a corner for 2015 by announcing to blogland that this is the year that I stay local. Very local. Walkable local. So this morning I left the house without car keys and walked to Ewell village, then along the watery LNR via Bourne Hall lake. And I quickly struck patch gold, (please remember that for me, 2015 patch gold will not necessarily contain many carrats)! First up was the semi-resident Little Egret, followed in quick succession by a showy Water Rail (I didn't even think that I'd see this species this year) and a bonus Common Snipe. All three were along this...

I thought it about time that I went along to Beddington SF to join in the 'white-winger' festival that is currently on tour there. Yesterday there were 5 Iceland Gulls (including a Kumlien's) plus a Glaucous Gull, making this England's hot-spot for such beauties. If you want a feather-by-feather account of them, visit Johnny Allan's blog . Today we managed to locate three Iceland Gulls, including the Kumlien's. Numbers of gulls at Beddington are boosted by the operations taking place on the refuse tip - Monday to Friday being good for numbers, Saturday not so good because the tip only operates for half a day, and Sunday normally poor as it is shut. Today's haul was, therefore, commendable. By the hide is a feeder set up for the Tree Sparrows. This Water Rail has taken a liking to the spilt seed beneath it.