NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Our great friend Gordon Hay reaches a significant age tomorrow, so to mark that occasion the pencils came out and he was, this evening, presented with the artwork above. It is of the Holmethorpe Black-throated Diver that, back in February 2019, provided him with his 200th species of bird at those very same sand pits. Happy Birthday Gordon!

It would have been rude not to pay my further respects to the Holmethorpe Black-throated Diver, which is now in its third day of residence on Mercer's Lake. It stayed close to the south-western corner this afternoon and spent quite a bit of time quietly floating just off-shore. Other highlights included a Kingfisher, one Jack Snipe, 16 Common Snipe and the mixed gull roost that, although numbering c2000 gulls (almost half and half Herring and Black-headed) did not include the second-winter Glaucous. It was also great to catch up with long-time Holmethorpe stalwart Dennis Moore - long time no see!

Gordon Hay started birding at Holmethorpe Sand Pits back at the end of the 1980s. It was a different place to what it is today - the only appreciable waterbodies were to be found at Mercer's and Glebe Lakes, sand was still being commercially extracted (from where Spynes Mere and Mercer's West are today), and access across the Moors was unrestricted. It is fair to say that the site had just come off of the back of a 'golden period', when extensive workings had created a mosaic of pools which provided rich pickings for the small band of birders. Mercer's had then been subsequently flooded and the sand extraction reduced. Gordon found an area where the birding was on the wane. Although never the sole birder, for much of his 30+ years covering the site, he has been the only ever-present and the most frequent - and the most frequent by some way - in fact almost daily, and at times several times a day. He has had great successes, finding Hoopoe, Red-rumped Swallow, Y...