Stonechat sweep

Over the past couple of days, fellow north-Surrey birders have been returning some tidy counts of Stonechats. Now, I love Stonechats, so today was turned into a 'Stonechat Sweep Day' where all of my most chatty patches were visited - all being within five miles from home. It turned out rather well.

Fist up was the grandly named Mogador, open farmland/pasture with ribbons of hedgerow and several scrubby corners - Stonechat score: 7 (4 males). Next up was Canons Farm, always a favourite with our chat friends, and so it proved again - Stonechat score: 7 (3 males). Epsom Downs played hard to get, with the most chat-tastic areas disappointingly devoid of them, but when I gave them all another search they came out to play - Stonechat score: 5 (2 males). The last stop was Priest Hill, scrubby ex-football pitches and this site stole the show, with guest appearances as well - Stonechat score: 11 (3 males) + 4 Whinchat. This gives a combined grand Stonechat total of 30, quite remarkable really. This was very much a minimum count as well. It was interesting while spending the 90 or so minutes with the Priest Hill chats (all keeping together in a loose flock). I saw three males together only once throughout that time, and a particularly well-marked Whinchat just the once as well. How many of the females were just bit part players as well? I did actually count eight females together, but the chances of there being more than that must have been high. Each of the four Whinchat were remarkably different, with a couple of 'drab' types, a bright peachy bird and a most arresting pale individual that was almost cold grey.

By-products of the 'Chatfest' were a Tree Pipit, 50 Meadow Pipit, eight Redwing, 25 Chiffchaff, 100 Linnet, a Reed Bunting and 18 Yellowhammer.

Comments

Stewart said…
Thats excellent Steve, I love it when a plan comes together...great birds.
28 September 2020 at 18:51
Gibster said…
Seems odd to me for there to be so many chats in your neck of the woods. It would take a Frensham/Thursley/Hankley effort (or, oddly, Richmond Park) for me to see double figures of Surrey Stonechats when I lived there. Have they become more prominent? Was I just a crap birder? Did I concentrate on areas too heavily vegetated? Who knows, but I'd certainly never have envisioned seeing 30 odd Stonechat in a day away from the Surrey/Hants heaths.
29 September 2020 at 01:20
Steve Gale said…
Stewart - a modest plan, but it did come off!
Seth - there seems to be an unusually high passage across a number of sites.
29 September 2020 at 10:25
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