Starting over

2023 has now greeted us, hopefully to be full of birding promise, my 49th year when clutching a pair of binoculars and a notebook. If I'm being honest, my blind adoption of ornithological positivity on the first day of the year went walk-about several years ago, but I still wander out with a whiff of 'a fresh start' in the air and the misguided assumption that this is the year when it will all come together - the falls of migrants will be spectacular, the finding of rarities effortless and the enjoyment in the field unquestioned. Well, at least the latter will come to pass, even if the other two don't...

I do like to have some sort of structure to my natural history year, so I have set myself some self-imposed targets for the next 12 months, hoping to reach the following totals across the Uberpatch: Birds 140 species; Plants 700sp; Moths 500sp; Butterflies 38sp and Dragonflies 18sp. The journey towards trying to attain these totals is the important thing, not the reaching of them! The Uberpatch is a large area of northern/central Surrey, with plenty of varied habitat. The bird total is most probably going to be the hardest to achieve as most of Beddington SF (by far the best birding site) is behind a high fence. My pickings from the public hides might just be enough to reach it though, combined with what I can see at Holmethorpe SP plus whatever comes my way on the downland. We all have our aims and philosophies intact and unsullied this early in January, and I hope that yours remain so throughout the year, but it is unusual for them to remain just so - if you (or they) fall by the wayside it is no big deal. Others will come along, or maybe you don't need to adhere to any at all, just enjoy the ride. Some of my greatest moments have come during such fallow times, totally unexpected and most probably all the better for it.

I come to 2023 on the back of a challenging couple of years, where natural history has been a great support. As luck would have it, last autumn was kind to me on the birding front, which gave my mojo a boost and a desire to keep on ploughing the local scene. As much as I love a trip (or stay) on the coast, it is hard to beat those self-discovered birds, rewards hard won at home, although in reality there is nothing 'hard' about birding anywhere - it's a privilege to be able to do so. We make of it what we want to.

So far this year, time in the field has been daily but brief - Banstead Downs, Holmethorpe SP, River Hogsmill at Ewell (where the Little Egret was photographed) and Canons Farm. No surprises, just early dips into 'what will be'. And what will be? That is for us all to discover over the coming months. Good luck!

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