NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

So, you own a camera. It might be a small compact camera, or maybe you've got a SLR with a standard lens on it. You know that you can get OK results by taking pictures of things that keep still and that allow you to get close to them - such as plants, fungi and moths at rest - but as for birds... well, the bloody things won't keep still and, when you do get close enough, the results are, quite frankly, disappointing. There are many blogs out there that are full of stunning images of birds. I could name a few but I'm not going to as they make me feel impotent. But, there is a way out for the naturalist/birder whose photographic equipment is modest or who doesn't have the patience to keep still for ten hours to get a picture of a Kingfisher sitting on a stick. Sheer number. A single Black-headed Gull at this range would be a very poor shot indeed, but when it is in the company of hundreds of others, it takes on an altogether more arresting image. Like one of those...

My last post was a bit unfair - after all, who knows what solipsism means anyway? I didn't. It began when the 'Bard of Littlestone' suggested (by text) that most blogs are solipsistic. Whatever that word meant, I liked it. So, after quick reference to my Oxford Dictionary of English app, I was able to find out that solipsism is: the view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist the quality of being self-centred or selfish Blimey... Now, is the Bard correct in his observation? Let is look at the facts. Most blogs are written in the first person. They are normally based on what that person has done. Or thinks. Very few posts are written to inform the reader of something that is in some way not a part of the poster. However, what I would say (to steal from George Orwell) is this - All bloggers are solipsistic, but some bloggers are more solipsistic than others. So, at a time when there are more Yellow-browed Warblers in the UK than ever before...

Is this what 99% of blogs and bloggers are about? Discuss.

... so said Alanis Morrisette. And she could have been singing about my last post. I had been banging on about self promotion in the world of social media. I have received one comment for that post and it was - you've guessed it - comment spam, promoting a pen. Couldn't make it up...

There seems to be an awful lot of self promotion going on in the world of birding at the moment. My twitter feed is full of people boasting about their recent finds, pointing me in the direction of their latest blog posts and imploring me to buy their latest book. I suppose I should be applauding them for using social media to alert a potential audience (or customer base) to the existence of their products or the greatness of their birding prowess, especially if this is how they make a living. But I find it all a bit tiresome. I suppose that the reason why I don't buy into it is because birding to me is a means of escape from that part of the world which is ruled by celebrity and force-fed by a bloated media. To have to wade through exactly that same sort of stuff to find out what's been seen is something that displeases me. But am I guilty of hypocrisy here? After all, didn't I bathe in the small glory of finding the Surrey Hawfinch flock back in March? Am I not keen to ...

The garden MV has not been a hot bed of activity for the past few days. The catches have been OK in number but diversity has been sadly lacking. But a theme has been obvious, that of the colour brown. Each egg box has had the same old, same old... Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Square-spot Rustic, Flounced Rustic, Pale Mottled Willow - none of them moths to titillate the optic nerves. Even this mornings highlight, the garden's fifth Buttoned Snout, is brown - and it flew away before I could take a picture. But, as if to prove that all beige is not bland, the number of Lunar Underwings (above) are increasing. I don't know what has happened to all of the local 'sallow' moths, but this autumn has been poor for them so far.

It's a terrific autumn for Rowan. The image above, taken this afternoon on Walton Heath, is typical of most of the Rowan trees I came across - and I came across several hundred. So profuse was the berry crop that from a distance it looked as if the wood was bleeding. I don't know whether or not this is just a north Surrey phenomenon or if this bounty is being enjoyed across the country. Do not be fooled into thinking that the scene above is birdless. The outlying grassland of Epsom Downs is by and large of a sterile nature, with only a small amount of rich chalk downland. These poor areas have a series of 'weedy' strips (as can be seen above) that run for several hundred metres and I have got into the habit of walking along them. Most days during spring and autumn will see several chats, pipits or warblers being flushed from the meagre cover. Today I scored with a Whinchat, Stonechat and three Meadow Pipits. I still fantasise about flushing a Corncrake or a Dick...