NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Denbigh's Hillside on a warm and sunny morning is a delightful place to be. It has the lot - scenery, plants, butterflies and birds. The main purpose of my visit was to monitor the butterflies that were still on the wing. We are coming to the end of many of their flight times, and, for some species, today may well have been my last chance to observe them in 2019. Numbers were quite low considering how good the weather conditions were, with the commonest 'blue' being Adonis (although they still didn't reach double figures and were by and large tatty) but in contrast the only two Silver-spotted Skippers seen were still very fresh. It was a good morning for raptors. At least 15 Common Buzzards were in the area, and among them, for a good 10-15 minutes, was a female Goshawk, loafing around before coming in directly over my head and off towards Ranmore Common. This was 'top-trumped' by a Honey-buzzard that appeared with a Common, but then peeled away an...

A lazy, yawning start to the day, with a large mug of tea and toast with honey. About two hours later than planned I arrived on Epsom Downs, took up an elevated position overlooking the southern woods and farmland, and started scanning. After half an hour it was obvious that there wasn't much doing, with a band of c10 Swallows hawking up and down the valley and just the odd Chiffchaff and Blackcap breaking cover or calling from the nearby scrub. Then at 10.00hrs a large raptor came into view and was at once identifiable as a Honey-buzzard. The light was against me so I could not attempt to age it even though it was relatively close and low. It slowly carried on southwards and out of view. A fine cameo performance. Afterwards there were 6 Common Buzzards, a Kestrel and a Hobby putting on an air show, but nothing to usurp our earlier guest. I have been fortunate in recording Honey-buzzards several times within the uber patch, not the result of great birding but testament to the fact ...

Recent events have reawakened the birder in me and has led to a certain amount of looking back through my local ornithological record, now grandly christened the 'NDB uber archive' - yes, I know, the stuff of children, but us blokes never really grow up, do we? It is surprising what constitutes a birding highlight. Rarity or being self-found need not necessarily add weight to a species right to become a cherished memory. Time and place can have such an effect however. In chronological order I would like to present my ' Top 10 North Downs and Beyond Uber patch ' highlights. May 1974 Jay, Sutton The bird that started it all. I could only identify the improbably coloured bird on the back garden lawn because a fellow pupil at school had recently painted a picture of one in art class. At the time I asked him if it was a parrot. His answer that I could see this bird in my back garden was met with much scoffing. I can still clearly see this particular Jay, 39 years later,...