NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

A week to go until the launch of my 'meteorological autumn birding blitz' and since I committed myself by announcing it on social media I have been humbled by the response - OK, maybe not hundreds of correspondents but at least a dozen birders have commented on the undertaking and all have sent words of kindness and encouragement. In fact one of them (north-Kent's very own Kevin Thornton) even wrote a poem/hymn in its honour, which I share with you below - with the author's blessing. Something that I am eternally grateful for is that even after 50+ years of birding I can still get excited and enthusiastic about local, simple birding. I know plenty who cannot stomach time with their optics unless they are at a hotbed of ornithological action. I do get it, I have slipped into this mindset myself in the past. That I have chosen to plough a relatively lonely and local furrow rather than hit the Kent shingle this autumn was actually an easy choice in the end. In all honesty ...

Fate has spoken - presumed plans for this autumn's birding have not gone according to said plan - so I find myself cooking up a project which, although modest, has got my juices flowing. A local 'meteorological autumn' birding blitz will be undertaken, all ornithological effort to be committed across the downland areas of my self-proclaimed 'uberpatch' - in effect the scarp slope of the North Downs between Ranmore and Reigate Hill plus the northern spur that runs up to Banstead. This removes Beddington Farmlands and the Holmethorpe sand pit complex from my orbit, both areas that already receive decent coverage. Meteorological autumn runs from September 1st - November 30th. During that time I will endeavour to cram as much birding in as I can considerately do, keeping to the areas defined above. To many birders this will be an act of folly - committing yourself to cover a largely waterless area which is not heavily birded because it is not, to be brutally honest, all...

A short non-birding break in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire was based in the small but charming village of Newnham, nestled on the western bank of the River Severn. The accompanying watery images were all taken from there on one of our wanders along a very short section of its length. A morning yomp through a tiny part of the Forest of Dean (4 miles of trail close to Speech Hall) was most enjoyable and enlivened by a group of six Wild Boar which we happily let forage and pass before we continued on our walk - one off them posed for the camera (above). Two Clouded Yellow butterflies in one of the few clearings was a surprise. We also visited Ross-on-Wye and crossed the Welsh border to look around Monmouth - mainly in search of coffee and cake under the disguise of culture.

The vegetation in the region of Banstead (Surrey) can best be summed up by using the following adjectives - crisped, wilted, stressed, exhausted; and the same exercise for flowers throws up spent, sparse, finished and missing. The 'fifth' heatwave across our country has done in a lot of the greenery (have you seen the colour of grass recently?) and dried out the rest to a point where a stray spark can ignite a major event. This seems to be the first year in which many people have finally climbed down off of the 'climate fence' and have started to take the whole subject more seriously. Many will climb back up on to it if we get through the remainder of the summer without further drama, especially if we have a wet autumn. Worrying times. The hot weather has been responsible for a large number of migrant insects to appear in the UK in numbers that were previously the stuff of fantasy. A few sites have clocked up 500-1,000+ Small Mottled Willows in a single night and - reme...

I really haven't got my act together since I returned from Dungeness at the end of May - besides a family holiday to Cornwall at the beginning of July my time in the field has been woeful. A lack of oomph, missing mojo, the relentless heat, you name it and I'll re-christen it as an excuse. Last Friday I decided that enough was enough and I was long overdue some time out 'in the wild'. Surrey Hills? No, no way, parched dry and lacking in birds at the best of times, I needed a bit of an ornithological shot in the arm and my destination was to be a little further afield.  I settled on the Arun Valley in West Sussex. I've searched the river valley either side of Arundel before and have always had a great day out. PLUS... Arundel FC were playing at home to Ringmer AFC in Division One of the Southern Combination at 3pm on Saturday afternoon, so I put one and one together and came up with a big fat two (birding and football!) - what wasn't to like? I arrived at Arundel...

We all need our happy places. These happy places become our mind's bolt-holes, a mechanism to reset, good for our mental wellbeing and act as refuges in times of trouble or uncertainty. They can stabilise our thought processes, remove us from the present if the present is somewhat unpalatable or, if we just wish to embark on a bit of happy time-travelling, are a ready made destination to do so. And - because they exist in reality, are beacons of calmness to be visited when time and logistics allow. Fortunately I have several happy places. It will come as no surprise to long-time readers of this blog that Dungeness is one of them. To save on any repetition I will not dwell there as my reasons for its inclusion have already been shared with you down the years. But there are others. For a happy place to become a happy place can take years to be accepted as such or it may be instantaneously given the honour. Off the top of my head here is the first of my (non-Dungeness) happy places. O...