NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Yes, another one of those North Downs and beyond posts that goes off-piste. This time I give you my favourite song intros, apropos of nothing other than celebrating the great music that is out there. At the moment, these are my top five: 5) Powderfinger - Neil Young One lazy chord strum and then, unaccompanied, the great man himself - "LOOK OUT, MAMA, THERE'S A WHITE BOAT COMIN' UP THE RIVER!" - cue Crazy Horse. Enough said. 4) Heroes - David Bowie A beautiful swagger of synth and guitar, forged by the hands of Carlos Alomor and Robert Fripp, promising the grandeur about to be let go by the Thin White Duke himself - "I, I will be King" Goosebumps kick in. 3) Pyjamarama - Roxy Music A stuttering chord forged from guitar and Eno synth, repeated four times with dramatic pauses, a simple drum roll, repeat said chords and then enter a dreamy Bryan Ferry who "Couldn't sleep a wink last night", See, some good did come out of the early 1970s!...

I've been keeping notes since 1974. A field notebook as a starting point, then the days counts, highlights and descriptions being transferred into a 'posh' hard-backed volume. Or computerised. I've switched between using the computer (soulless) to paper (organic) a few times, but ease and laziness has dictated that, for the moment, the keyboard and screen wins. My enthusiasm of youth spawned rambling narrative over several pages. My impatient middle-age can turn a day into a list of names and numbers. Most unsatisfactory. I've even considered giving up taking notes - but this knee-jerk reaction has been kept at bay so far. After all, I don't want to lose my 40 years of consecutive record, even if, when I die, it is all consigned to a skip. But I am still questioning what I write (or type) and why I do it. The internet has made the sending in of information much easier. I no longer refer to my notes at the end of a given year to collate the records to send to...

I was clearing out a drawer at home this afternoon and came across another one of my lists - that of species of bird seen in the hand. Most of these came about through my time as a bird ringer (1976 - 1983) but also as a hanger-on at bird observatories where injured or sick birds are regularly deposited, sometimes some rather surprising ones. My total currently stands at 125 - not too shabby, but a season on Fair Isle would most probably take it close to 200! Looking through the list can conjure up some vivid memories: Little Grebe (rescued from a sludge lagoon at Beddington); a waterlogged Grey Heron in a dyke; both Gannet and Shag at Dungeness Bird Observatory that had become caught in fishing line; a female Common Scoter that had become caught in weed along a coastal dyke; a Hobby that had been picked up by a roadside but flew away high on release; a surprise mist-netted Grey Partridge; waders from various sites (Dungeness and The Wash) including Grey Plover, Sanderling, Curlew Sa...

"It's all about the list" I have heard this little gem from many birders over the years. At times I've even agreed with it. But age has mellowed me. A list is just a number and that number is meaningless. It really is. What is your British bird list? How many species of butterfly have you seen in your home county? And what of orchids? If you know the exact numbers (which I'm sure many of you do), does that make you a better person than somebody with fewer? A higher number doesn't even suggest somebody with more experience or more knowledge. It is, after all, just a number. A bit of fun. My time spent in the field is increasingly one of enjoyment in marvelling at what I come across. I get more pleasure in seeing something on my doorstep than I do a proper rarity miles away. It's a good place to be. Pan-listing, rather than being at odds with this, actually helps my state of mind. It's enough to come across a beetle, realise it's a click beet...

I have to admit to 'ticking' a terribly common micro-moth today, one that swarms on gorse and of which I most probably saw three figures worth this morning - Cydia ulicetana . I can almost feel the mocking looks coming my way from fellow lepidopterists and pan-listers who find it hard to believe that someone - such as me - who pretends to have at least half a finger on the pulse of our wildlife can have got so far in this game without knowingly having clapped eyes on something so hideously common. I saw it on Banstead Downs by the way... Later in the afternoon I joined David Campbell for a most agreeable wander over Canons Farm, Banstead Woods and Fames Rough. The birding was hard work, but we did see Dingy Skipper and Green Hairstreak at Fames Rough. Green Hairstreak, on Wild Strawberry at Fames Rough Cydia ulicetana - shame on you Gale... Gorse Shieldbug - dig the red antennae!

Last night seemed mild enough to expect a bit of moth action in the garden, so out went the MV and down came the rain. It was still bucketing down when I stirred in the early hours and was still raining when I switched the MV off at about 07.00hrs. The total catch was poor and lacking in variety, not unusual for the garden when it doesn't stop raining. Best of a poor bunch was this Mullein, always good to see. So far, whereas other Surrey gardens have been pulling in Blossom Underwings and Dotted Chestnuts, I have been under-achieving here in Banstead. But it only takes one moth to turn that scenario around...

It's all out there - you've just got to open your eyes and LOOK Lists. I've never hidden my fascination with them, my upkeep of them, but have always pointed out that I'm not a chaser of them. Maybe this is unusual, in as much as if you are nerdish enough to list all that you see, then it is highly likely that you will also go out of your way to keep on adding to them with a manic need. Maybe my need is purely passive - having a list to record my efforts is enough in itself. My biggest list - both in scope and number - is my pan-species list; that is ALL of the living things that I have seen in the UK. As a listing project this is about as wide-ranging and challenging as you can get. It has become my one and only list in a way as it comprises all of my other lists combined. So I have to service all of the 37 sublists that feeds it.... confused? Don't be... go online and visit the new pan-listers website and take a look. You can find it at  http://www.brc.ac.u...