NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

The belated 'Waxwing Winter' continues in Surrey, with birds on offer at places such as Farnham, Carshalton, Wallington, Redhill, Ashtead, Bookham and Leatherhead. Some of these may be the same flock meandering around the local berry crop, but it would be fair to say that there must be at least a couple of hundred in the county. At most sites the birds are keeping fairly faithful so that any observer wanting their Waxwing fix is able to do so. During the week I went along to Leatherhead to see the 50+ birds which were feeding on (and in) Mistletoe behind the leisure centre. There is plenty of Mistletoe in the area (as can be seen in the pictures above) and the birds spent a lot of time perched out in view, their soft trilling competing with the nearby sub-singing Redwings. A Mistle Thrush did decided to confront the flock, harshly rattling in warning, no doubt defending its patch of Mistletoe. Quite sensibly, even though they outnumbered it 50 to 1, the Waxwings decided to vaca...

After a fairly featureless wander around Holmethorpe Sand Pits with Gordon Hay this morning - our time being spent under a dull dark-grey blanket of cloud, and wondering where all the birds had gone - we decided to make the short journey to the Frenches Road area of Redhill, where a group of Waxwings had been found yesterday afternoon. On arrival just the one bird was present, perched high in a Silver Birch before it descended onto a pale-orange berried Sorbus tree to feed. After 20 minutes a further 28 Waxwings decided to show. They were wary, keeping high and away from the Sorbus berries. Our patience was rewarded as they came down to feed several times. Their location of choice was unfortunate - a small, neat cul-de-sac of modern houses - an area in which I would feel awkward loitering even without a pair of binoculars and a camera around my neck. There is no way that you can blend into such surroundings. I was, without any doubt, intruding on the resident's space and privacy. A...

In the last post, I eluded to spending some fruitless time trying to track down my own Waxwings - but what I didn't admit to was that I was also wasting minutes by dipping on other peoples, including a brief flock in Epsom 12-days ago. Since then there have been a rash of sightings in the Ashtead area, the birds never settling for long, at least not long enough for others to join the original observer in watching them. Yesterday saw a flock of 60+ fly over the area, but not settle. Us local birders needed a break and this morning that came courtesy of Andy Holden, who, after searching the area for several days, found a flock of c20 Waxwings feeding on Mistletoe berries in Greville Park Road. The alert from Andy came just before 10.00hrs, and, needing to be elsewhere by lunchtime, gave me just  a brief window of opportunity to see them, but, happy to say, I was successful. The birds were keeping to the top of a tall tree feeding on the berries of several large clumps of Mistletoe. L...

A bit of a 'mash-up' this post - that's youth-speak for 'mish-mash', or I could liken it to the contents of a jamboree bag, being a bit of an old duffer. And if you are unaware of what a jamboree bag is, then ask your parents, or if they are still too young to know, ask Google (there are other search engines available). Item one - the Dungeness Stonechat (you know, the grey, odd, putative Stejneger's) has been retested owing to too many birder's saying that they just didn't believe it was a rare one. The results are in, and it is... a COMMON Stonechat! I did have a little chuckle about that. Apparently the poo sample got muddled up with some from a Spurn Stejneger's. Simple mistake. Maybe, in this age of the blame culture, Dr Collinson will now receive compensation claims from angry birder's for fuel costs, stress, food, etc. Glad I didn't go. Item two - the Surrey Wildlife Trust is apparently making all of its rangers redundant. Cost cut...

I finally caught up with some of the 'Waxwing Class of 2012' yesterday morning. Up to 34 birds were taking advantage of a 'champagne-pink' berried rowan in Ewell. I bowled up, found them sat at the top of a conifer, took up my position perched on a low wall and then had close encounters as they came down to the rowan tree to feed. A Carrion Crow spooked them off and I was flushed away by twitching curtains in a nearby house - I hate birding in residential streets. Lee Dingain's blog has been added to my list of 'worthies'. He only lives about three miles from me but I don't know if we've ever crossed telescopes before - ridiculous really, seeing that we share so much common interest. Where as I'm becoming more sedentary, Lee seems to spend as much time in South America as in North Surrey, so vicarious thrills for us all! It also came to my attention that I hadn't put  Benny 'Boy' Mothman's blog on my list even though I regular...

I haven't posted for almost a week, a long gap for me. So, I hear you ask, what have I been up to Steve? Not a lot actually. In fact, it's been bloody frustrating. First up is the snow. All the main roads are now clear, but the side roads in hilly Banstead are another matter. Then there's the lack of birding due to me having to work. I've been getting texts from plenty of local birders picking off Waxwings, Mealy Redpolls, Iceland Gulls, Firecrests - the list goes on. And when you are stuck in an office, sans any of that lot it can be quite depressing. Plus, the Perth test match didn't exactly fill me with the joys of the season either. However, there was good news. My wife spoiled me rotten and gave me a new mobile phone for my birthday (the one with an apple on it) and I immediately went to Bird Guides and downloaded the 'Birds of Northern Europe' app. I now spend most of my time playing the songs and calls of almost 400 species of bird. A great way to w...