NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Sometimes, birding locally can get to you. Today is such a day. It is a given that my bit of dry, northern Surrey is not going to measure up against Spurn or Dungeness (or Beddington or Holmethorpe for that matter), but when every other London park and Surrey heath is recording multiples of Pied Flycatcher - and I'm not - it starts to get personal. The last five days has seen me visit Canons Farm, working all the copses, hedge-lines and weedy field corners. The last five days has seen low numbers of migrants. A few passing Chiffchaffs, a flock of four (and a one) Whinchat, a Stonechat, a single Willow Warbler, that's about it. I strongly suspect that all of the Whitethroats and Blackcaps are locally-bred loafers. My effort has been full on, my patience freely given. But each day I've left the farm with a sense of knowing that, even if I had stayed out in the field for an extra hour or two, nothing would have happened. Sometimes it goes like that. After a barren three...

Today I renewed my long-standing 'on-off' relationship with Beddington Sewage Farm. I've returned to the farm more often than Frank Sinatra has had comebacks. A change in the policy towards visiting birders prompted this latest re-connection. The key-holders have gone, being replaced by a system where bird group members sign in (and out) at the main office that is situated along Beddington Lane. After undergoing a one-to-one induction talk, I was then issued with hard hat, gloves, goggles and a hi-visibilty vest, and shown the safe pedestrian route through the works and out onto the farmlands. Within 45 minutes I was birding at Beddington once again. It felt like coming home. There has been much change since I visited back in January. The public footpath that runs to the west of the farm has been closed while various works have been completed, which included the installation of three bird hides (below). The good news is that these will be open to the public - with grea...