NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Any regular visitor to this blog will know that I extoll the virtues of local birding, yet on the other hand moan about it in equal measure. This is a post of positivity. Yesterday saw me at Canons Farm, where a swarm of 220+ Swallows were feeding over the large bean field. They eventually headed off south-westward, with two Hobby, a Swift and a House Martin in tow. A juvenile male Peregrine was also present, trying its luck with some of the 850+ Wood Pigeon on site. This morning I met up with Steve Thomas, he of Ewell 'nog-mig' fame. Before we retired to the Wheatsheaf in Ewell for an afternoon snifter, we strolled around Priest Hill and uncovered a Wheatear, three Whinchat and three grounded Yellow Wagtails. A tidy return.

This morning I embarked on a six hour walk along the western bank of the River Arun, starting at the Black Rabbit Pub, Arundel, stopping at the A259 road-bridge, then retracing my steps. Apart from a brief stretch through Arundel, this is a walk in the open, with the billiard-table flat flood-plain open to the big skies and intensively farmed, although there are many reed-fringed dykes, small copses, hedgerows and rank grassy fields dispersed across the agriculture. Whereas the river banks are reed-fringed north of Arundel, the river to the south looks altogether more estuarine, with open muddy slopes contrasting with concrete banking. My birding highlight was a flock of 40 Yellow Wagtails (two of which above), that were found in a field south of the railway bridge. Another five were recorded back towards Arundel. Migrant passerines were thin on the ground, with a handful of commoner warblers being joined by a single Common Redstart and small numbers of Swallow and House Martin...