NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

I had the birding-bit between my teeth this morning and was standing on Box Hill shortly after dawn. The weather forecast from the previous evening had intimated that this part of Surrey might get clipped by the odd, short, wintery shower. The large bank of low cloud that I could see quickly arriving from the west suggested a bit more than just a few minutes of sleet, and so it proved... A benign dawn, just about to give way to that bank of cloud arriving from the right... Incoming! Little visibility and certainly no birds on the move I huddled underneath a Yew tree that was able to still afford me good panoramic views, but these views waxed and waned, as did the snow fall. I stuck it out for 90 minutes, but the sky to the west remained resolutely hidden behind a low, grey, snow-filled murk. Tail between my legs, I trudged back to the car. Steve 0 Birding fail 1. The sun came out late morning, the snow did one, and even if the air temperature was still decidedly chilly, it felt spring-...

Ranmore Common yesterday morning. Four inches of snow had fallen overnight. A Christmas Card cliche of snow and crystal-clear light, the ice crystals sending sparks of brilliance into the air. The stillness was eerie, the only sound being the pattering of the melting snow as it fell from the trees and onto the white cushion below. And that was the only sound. No birds. No birds at all. I walked for miles along the woodland rides, through dense forest and across clearings. Silence. I stopped and scanned tree tops, across wooded valleys, looking for the tell-tale signs of birds on the move, of feeding flocks. Nothing. In three hours, within the wood, I recorded a handful (c20) of mixed tits, two Nuthatches, four Goldfinches and seven Siskins. And a few Robins - we need them in the snow to keep up the Christmas theme, don't we... It wasn't much better overhead, with just a single Red Kite, a Common Buzzard and a few Wood Pigeons and corvids. This lack of birds is replicat...

Here in Surrey, as promised, the snow arrived overnight, with only about an inch covering the higher ground in the Banstead area. I foolishly arrived at Canons Farm before dawn in the hope that the weather would have stirred up a few birds, but after three hours I conceded defeat - there was absolutely nothing on the move. The wintering Barn Owl was out hunting until 07.40hrs before it safely went to roost, and up to 40 Fieldfare were loafing around gardens on the edge of the farm. A check on Burgh Heath pond (frozen) could only muster up a Grey Heron. I regularly check this small waterbody in the hope of a Water Rail, but it is usually down to a handful of Moorhens and the odd Coot to give me my rail fix.

In glorious sunshine a six-mile circular walk taking in Ranmore Common and Polesden Lacey was made with eldest daughter Rebecca. There were plenty of snow pockets to walk through and the trees on the higher ground were coated in icy granules that had started to melt in the warm sun. The birding was disappointing, although at least six Marsh Tits were recorded, including two in fine song. It would seem that the finch numbers are to be found further west along the ridge - out of uber patch range! A late afternoon visit to Canons Farm suggested that the cold weather may be having some affect on the birds, with an influx of Fieldfare (70) and an increase in Yellowhammer numbers, with 42 gathering to roost. A Barn Owl was hunting across the fields and along the edge of the wood up by Perrotts Farmhouse and a Little Owl was spied huddled up in an oak tree on the edge of Broad Field. From the top: male Kestrel; Little Owl, Yellowhammers, Meadow Pipit

With the weather forecasters strongly suggesting that we could be in for a week of snow and ice, I felt duty-bound to get a Hawfinch count in before 'Snowmageddon' was let loose upon us. I arrived at Bramblehall Wood at 06.45hrs in a light snow shower which continued, more on than off, for the hour that I was present. The Hawfinches were quite lethargic this morning, with very little movement between the woods and those that were perched up in the tree tops seemed quite happy to stay put. The middle section of the wood was favoured. Of interest, a number of birds arrived high from the west - possibly indicating that they had come in directly from Juniper Top / Ashurst Rough rather than filtering down the slope - they usually arrive at a lower elevation. A total of 260 were present, although I did leave a little early, so more may well have come in after I had gone. After 3-4 weeks of observing these birds I now feel confident that this early morning gathering is of birds f...

I've had a lie down and have almost recovered from my rant. It would be easy to embark on another one, aimed at 'Flaming June' and suggesting that we could rename it 'Freezing June', but will desist. The news channels have been reminding us that unseasonal weather is not a modern day phenomena and have unearthed footage from forty years ago to this very day - June 2nd 1975 for the slow among us - when snow fell. The Met Office says: Scattered sleet and snow showers were reported in East Anglia and the Midlands and even penetrated as far south as the London area. This was the first time since 1888 that snow and sleet had been reported as widely so far south during the summer. Several county cricket matches were abandoned due to snow, the most notable were between Essex and Kent at Castle Park, Colchester and between Derbyshire and Lancashire at Buxton. Strong to gale force winds, occasionally severe on coasts, occurred in Scotland and Northern Ireland with many...

There may not be snow down here in the balmy south-east (it was 15-16C yesterday), but we do sometimes get it - just not at Christmas. So in lieu of a suitably festive image, please accept this snowy scene from Canons Farm a couple of January's ago. Whatever you are doing, may you have an enjoyable and peaceful Christmas. 224? That is the number of posts that I've inflicted upon you so far this year. It also beats last years record total of 223. Pointless statistics are a way of life for me...

The snow stopped early afternoon, so I ventured over to Canons Farm where I met up with David, Liam and Jamie. The first two named birders are very young, very keen and very proficient, but were OK with an old duffer like me wandering around with them. I was able to go into 'Father Time' mode and regale them with twitching tales from the black-and-white era - how we used to have to walk to Cornwall for a rarity, that you couldn't buy cream cheese bagels and cappacinos on site at any rare bird, that gulls were just that - 'gulls' - and that they possessed no identification problems as we didn't look at them unless they had clean white primaries. And of course I dusted down the old favourites, such as Wallcreepers, Varied Thrush, Hudsonian Godwit, et al. David has heard it all before but politely 'ooh'd and ahh'd' in the right places. Liam most probably wondered who the delusional old git was... Spring at Canons Farm... It was quiet. The res...

My perverse approach to birding surfaced once again as I elected to turn my back on multiple Iceland Gulls at Beddington and also treat the Holmethorpe Smew in similar fashion. Instead, I spent most of the day at my other local birding patch, Canons Farm/Banstead Woods. The thermometer in my back garden was registering -8.8C at 07.00hrs. Instead of driving on the icy roads I walked to the farm, which only takes 25 minutes. Once on site I immersed myself in the task of counting everything that I came across. This is the sort of simplistic ornithology that I enjoy, meandering about fields and woods with a notebook in hand, counting the mainly common ensemble set before me. There were highlights: the two noisy Crossbills flew low to the east; a Woodcock was noisily flushed from underneath a Yew tree; a loose flock of 25 Great Tits that fed on the ground underneath beech trees just like Chaffinches; the vibrance of colour in the reflected light and the fact that the birds seemed t...

Yes folks, the white stuff that our 'northern bloggers' have been telling us about has finally arrived amongst the pearly king and queens, Barbara Windsor and the Krays. Even the posh people sitting in their Barbour jackets had to put down their frappacino's to stare in amazement as flakes of whiteness, known locally as the 'northern ague', started to settle on the gold-paved streets. The 1cm deep drifts stopped traffic in its tracks, reminding us of the terrible winter storm of 2009 when several millimetres of snow ground London's airports to a three-month standstill. I can now reveal that, after several minutes of the worst London winter on record, there are 27 different words in the Cockney language for 'snow'...