NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

I have settled on my 2013 'Natural History' project and am already looking forward to it with great excitement. I am going to take that ultimate birding vicar, Gilbert White, as my role model, and immerse myself in studying the natural history of the hills and fields of north Surrey. There are a few rules that I am going to impose on myself however: At all times I will wear a dog-collar and tri-cornered hat, breeches and buckled shoes. I will shoot anything that I cannot identify, or if I come across a flock. I will travel everywhere on horseback and stay in an inn each evening. I will refer to all birds in their original state - such as Wood-Wren, Fern Owl, Bramblefinch - and if I come across such species as Water Pipit, Caspian Gull and Willow Tit refuse to recognise the modern interlopers. I will employ a man to climb the dizzy heights of such peaks as Box Hill to collect alpine specimens for me. I will correspond only by post and let interested p...

Today I visited Selborne in Hampshire. This is woodland at the top of the hangar, made famous by a naturalist clergyman, who, among other things, was the first person to use field skills to identify our commoner phylloscopus warblers. Here he watched and listened to Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and Wood Warblers.  This is the front of his house in the village. Today it was closed. Therefore I cannot tell you much about it. Try Google...  The parish church of St. Mary is where he had four spells as curate. He was buried here in 1793. This is a detail from a modern stained glass window in the church that depicts his life through natural history images and as a celebration of his world famous book 'The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne'. In the churchyard is one of the 50 designated 'Great Trees of Britain' - or, more accurately, what is left of it after the 1990 storm - the famous Selborne Yew.