NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

After what seems like several months of Christmas being force-fed to me, I am now happy to concede that this ‘season to be jolly’ is upon us. Not being religious means that this festival is, for me, one based on companionship, food, drink and relaxation - normally. This year will be different, whatever your take on Christmas. Reduced congregations or closed churches, smaller gatherings at home, suppressed jollity out of respect to those who have left us or continue to struggle with this virus... I sometimes think that, apart from the truly religious, anything else pertaining to Christmas this year has an air of triviality about it. I’m not going to debate the why’s-and-wherefore’s, the do’s-and-dont’s and the right’s-and-wrong’s - we will all conduct ourselves as we believe we should over the coming week or two. We can but hope that the vaccine roll-outs speed up, they work well, and that by the spring we might just be entering the start of normality, although I would question as to wh...

So the government have spoken. We are entering the second lockdown. We are being asked to make essential journeys only. Unlike lockdown during the Spring, I am not going to suggest the way that birders should act on this advice, but my personal response will be to only bird from home by foot. There is no scientific rationale behind it, but I will not be getting into a car to carry out my birding. I will start tomorrow (November 1st) and stop on December 2nd, when the projected lockdown will end. During this time I will keep a list of the birds that I record. It will be my way of helping out to the cause of slowing down the virus. During the 6-week spring lockdown I recorded 70 species that were seen just from the garden. Can I match that? Let's see... #BWKM0 became a bit of a thing back in March - started by an Italian ornithologist to gather some camaraderie amongst locked-down Italian birders, it gathered pace and was adopted across the world. This very blog hosted over 60 garden...

#BWKM0   ND&B garden challenge 49th and final day  Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who took a hold of the baton and ran with this challenge. It was started in response to the Italian ornithologists who created the #BWKM0 hashtag as a way of coping with their lockdown (by organising a coming together of birds, birders, gardens, balconies and windows.) And this is exactly what our challenge has also been about - a 'virtual' meeting of the birding fraternity during troubling times. As much as there are observers who will have recorded higher percentage scores than others, such competitiveness has been but a sideshow to the genuine spirit behind the challenge, one of camaraderie wrapped up in a celebration of our shared passion. So, to use a well-worn cliche, there are no losers here, only winners. As for the highest percentage scores - there was a flaw in my method of trying to 'equal out' the gardens - because birders who posted a low baseline score were a...

#BWKM0   ND&B garden challenge DAY 48 If you've made it this far into the challenge, then well done, 48 days is a big commitment. There is now just the one more day to go. So, give those optics one last clean, prepare yourself for one more birding session and let's see if you can add another species (or two) onto the 'lockdown list'. By 18.00hrs tomorrow evening it will all be over and we can then take a well deserved break. These 48 days have been an eye-opener for me. I've discovered ornithological aspects of the garden that I was either unaware or at least had little understanding of. There are viewpoints from the house that give me sweeping views across the neighbourhood that are ideal for vis-mig - views that had not registered as such before. My Spring Chaffinch passage is more prolonged (and heavier) than I realised. Wildfowl obviously pass over my little bit of Surrey each night at the end of March and the beginning of April. Common Buzzards and Re...

#BWKM0   ND&B garden challenge DAY 47 Having been keeping a close eye on the garden over the past seven weeks, I have quite a good idea of what is breeding (or at least attempting to breed) in, or close to, our house. I've never been one to show an interest in nests, eggs, or breeding behaviour, having firmly nailed my colours to the ornithological masts of identification and migration. However, when needs must... species observed in territorial behaviour, nest building or carrying food were:  Sparrowhawk (one pair), Common Buzzard (two pairs), Kestrel (one pair), Feral Rock Dove, Stock Dove, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Ring-necked Parakeet, Tawny Owl (two pairs), Green Woodpecker, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Blackcap, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Jay, Magpie, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Starling, House Sparrow, Greenfinch (three to four pairs) and Goldfinch. I would normally expect Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tit, Goldcrest, Nuthatch and Ch...

#BWKM0   ND&B garden challenge DAY 46 I'm getting that 'end of term' feeling now, as we are only three days away from the 'wrapping up' of this birding enterprise. I have ear-marked Thursday as an all-day session to say farewell to the competition. Last chance for that big surprise to come along and put the icing on the cake. And somewhere, hopefully, a Whinchat will pop up and be welcomed onto our combined list. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ OUR  COMBINED TOTAL (BRITISH ISLES GARDENS) IS 185 SPECIES     Still to be recorded are: Arctic Skua, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Kingfisher,  Whinchat. Today's additional species: Arctic Tern (Alastair F) Our oversea's gardens (New Zealand and Albania) add an additional  26 SPECIES    You can find the combined #BWKM0 list by clicking on the right-hand tab above. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ENTRIES ...

#BWKM0   ND&B garden challenge DAY 45 To see a scarce bird in or over your garden is the stuff of dreams. We have a few gardens in our collective that are positioned on coastal headlands, or adjacent to RSPB reserves, where there is a certain expectation that such birds will - and sometimes can -  pay you a visit. For most of us, we can but dare to daydream that it will happen. But this morning, in Capel (Surrey), happen it did. Wes A was standing outside his back door, mug of tea in hand, when a Hoopoe decided to fly across his field of view, giving time to get the telescope onto the bird as it flew off NNE. Wes could stand in that very same spot for the next 100 years, binoculars at the ready, and not be able to repeat it. That is birding, and that illustrates what rewards await the diligent birder. Trouble is, 999 times out of a thousand, the prize will not be as good as an inland Hoopoe. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ O...