NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

On August 14th this year I found a bright green Shieldbug in the MV moth trap which I was pretty sure was a new species for me - not the common Green (Palomino prasina) but the far more localised Southern Green (Nezara viridula), a species that has been increasing in eastern and southern parts of England since the turn of the millennium. The photograph below illustrates nicely the presence of white dots at the front of the scutellum, an identification pointer for viridula . Then a few days ago an unfamiliar insect landed on my arm as I was making a cup of tea in the kitchen. After quickly potting it up I was able to identify it - with old-fashioned perusal of field guides (albeit on-line) - as a mid-instar Southern Green! I think you might agree that this younger stage knocks its final appearance into a cocked hat.

It is just over a year since I took possession of my hearing aids - obtained because I had lost the ability to hear high-end frequency sounds which includes the calls of Swifts, Redwings, Tree Pipits (all unless they are close) plus most grasshoppers and crickets - and if I want to be completist, also some annoying human-manufactured bleeps and pulses that accompany certain electrical goods (but thankfully not fire or smoke alarms!) I only use them when vis-migging where the ability to hear calls is quite a plus point. However, since using them I am just as mindful to leave them in their cases. Here's why... When I first tried my hearing aids out in the field it was really eye-opening (or should that be ear-opening). I could hear sounds that I didn't know existed. I stood at the top of the garden and marvelled at the bird calls that were audible. I took the ear pieces out and was at once plunged into a muffled semi-silence - yes I could hear a Robin calling and a nearby Great T...

The rather grandly named 'Uberpatch Meterological Autumn Birding Blitz 2026' - or 'UMA26' for short - kicked off at 05.40hrs at Reigate Hill on Tuesday 1st September. Since then I have had five days worth of the project, with most of them providing a good eight-nine hours of birding. The next few days will see a slight lessening of hours in the field as I still need to conduct a 'normal' life alongside that of trying to wring out plenty of ornithological action. However, spare moments will see me staring skywards and there will still be plenty of local excursions. The birding has been undeniably slow, which is to be expected, any days of action more of a welcome bonus. The real aim of this folly is to prove to myself, and interested others, that wherever you look, if you look regularly and diligently enough then rewards will come, be those rewards in the guise of scarcity, number or just the pleasure that such an undertaking can bring. So far there has been no c...

I've mentioned this saying several times on this blog, but it is one that I come back to time and again. It is: 'Comparison is the thief of joy' When I first heard it I wasn't really sure what it was on about. Then I gave it a bit of thought. Then I got it. We are easily persuaded that what is going on elsewhere is better than what we are experiencing in the here and now. The birds that are being seen. The moths that are being trapped. The weather. People having a good time. You get my drift. What you have set out before you can then lessen in quality and shrink in meaning - if you allow it to do so. After having been on a short holiday with my wife last week I was planning on going down to Dungeness for 10 days, staying at the Bird Observatory. Everything was lined up. At the last moment I pulled out. I still don't know why, but I didn't have the drive, the oomph, the wanting to. So I stayed at home. I then decided to book into the said observatory for a three ...

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...