NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Gavin over at the excellent ‘Not Quite Scilly’ has just posted about the use of bird names. I would have ordinarily commented about this on his blog, but I have a reoccurring problem with Blogger in not being able to leave comments, so thought that I would reply with a post of my own. And expand a bit... Gav has used, as his main example of alternative bird names, that of Thrush Nightingale and Sprosser, both out there as identifiers of Luscinia luscinia, He uses several more examples, primarily of abbreviation, such as Lesser Spotted Woodpecker becoming Lesser Spot. Although he finds most of these acceptable to use he quite rightly observes that to some birders they are anathema. He’s not wrong there! Where do I stand on this? I’m glad he (sort of) asked. Spot Fly, LRP, Pom Skua - all these abbreviations are good for me. The ornithological equivalents of ‘don’t’, ‘shouldn’t’ and ‘thanks’, particularly when writing them down in a notebook. But when the bastardisation of bird nam...

Common Redstart, Priest Hill, April Well I did put a lot of effort in locally, honest! For a change and to 'bird off piste' I adopted an area of abandoned playing fields between Banstead and Ewell known as Priest Hill. It has recently been handed over to the Surrey Wildlife Trust to manage, although there is not an awful lot that can be done bird-wise, save fence off areas from the hordes of dog-walkers and their canine friends in an attempt to protect the handful of Skylarks that breed there. Almost daily visits throughout the spring did produce a few passage migrants, most notably Jack Snipe, Common Snipe, Ring Ouzel, Grasshopper Warbler, several Common Redstarts, plenty of Wheatears and a very healthy population of Common Whitethroats were in song throughout mid-April and into the summer, with the odd Lesser Whitethroat for good measure. I neglected Canons Farm, but did manage to bump into a Ring Ouzel on May Day. Northern Wheatear, Priest Hill, May Common Wh...

It would be false of me to suggest that a visit to Dungeness is not about rare and scarce birds. Although they are not a prerequisite in delivering a successful stay, they do help! Thankfully the rare and scarce birds did come, and I was lucky enough to see them all. Two Bee-eaters (including one circling just feet above Mark H and me), a Serin, a Black Kite, a Honey-buzzard, an adult male Rose-coloured Starling and two Black-winged Stilts -  a tidy return for 14 day's worth of birding in the same place, and on top of that other highlights included Sooty Shearwater, Great White Egret (2), Garganey, Velvet Scoter, Marsh Harrier, Hobby, Peregrine, Avocet, Curlew Sandpiper, Mediterranean Gull, Iceland Gull, Turtle Dove, Barn Owl, Black Redstart, Cetti's Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Bearded Tit, Raven and Corn Bunting. 120 species were recorded, without the need to break into a sweat. Black-winged Stilt, most probably a male, at the Midrips Black-winged Stilt, a likely fema...

Two consecutive days, two notable birds. It has become a Dungeness mantra that, this late in the spring, each birding day will be about that one solitary highlight - and so it has been. Yesterday it was Martin C's Honey-buzzard that took the plaudits. Today, with due respects to that raptor, it fell to a far more exotic bird to take centre stage - an exquisite adult male Rose-coloured Starling, all pale salmon pinks, shaggy crest and pink-tipped bill. After giving us the run-a-round for most of the afternoon it decided to show well this evening, near Hooker's Pit on the RSPB reserve. A truly stunning individual. And there was another rarity at Dungeness today - a genuinely hot and sunny day without a breath of wind... scorchio!!