NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

It must have been some time in the early 2000s that I first counted up all of the life forms that I had identified and recorded in Britain. This fledgling list was largely made up of birds, moths and plants with a few large, colourful and obvious insects thrown in for good measure. I thought of it as an enjoyable sideshow in my natural history studies, and, as a maintainer of lists rather than a chaser of them, it kept itself firmly in the background, coming out to play whenever I had a few ticks to add to it. I'm at a loss to remember the precise moment that I discovered that there were others out there that kept a similar list - maybe through an internet search or a discussion while out birding, but I soon found myself in touch with Mark Telfer, who was organising a web-site devoted to such matters with an accompanying league table of recorder's lists. I needed no second invite to post my efforts and, very briefly, found myself in the top 10 of the innaugaral table. I soon st...

Gardens, and the views to be gained from our windows, are going to become increasingly important for the birder in the weeks to come. The area that directly surrounds us will become the provider of what species will come our way, in tandem with the weather conditions, local fly-lines and our own effort. The map above shows the proximity of my home to open areas. To give some sense of scale, I can clearly hear Skylarks in song as they display over the small holdings to the north of me. I've been preparing for the forthcoming 'garden birdathon', self-imposed or not. A Kent birder of my acquaintance and I have agreed to a friendly challenge, starting today and finishing whenever this dreadful virus is deemed to be under control, which may, unfortunately, be some time. The challenge is simple, keeping a count of how many species of bird we record from our gardens. The winner will be the person who records the highest percentage of their historical garden list. My garden to...

I don't know why it has taken me until now, but I have never before assembled personal county plant lists. 90% of time spent botanising has been in my home county of Surrey, with most of the remaining 10% being in Kent and Sussex (with Dorset and Hampshire deserving an honourable mention). I have just completed the Surrey list (below), which has had the affect of inspiring me to seek out a few of the many glaring omissions! I still need to add precise data for the first date of recording to some species, but that can wait. It is also enjoyable going through old notebooks to check such mundane things as to whether or not I have seen Lesser Swine-cress in Dorset. I have hours more fun ahead of me to get the other county lists under way. Above is another one of those naturalised species - Californian Poppy at Priest Hill - used here as an excuse to pretty up an otherwise monochrome post and act as a red rag to those who believe such species to be a blight on our landscape. Me? I lo...

There will be a number of birding listers who are currently salivating with the expectation of New Years Day lifers. You see, they will be guaranteed British ticks on that date, regardless of whether they go out birding or not. Because it is then that the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) adopts the International Ornithological Congress (IOC) World bird list - and with that comes a handful of taxonomical splits that are not currently recognised here in Britain. Isabelline (Lanius isabellinus) and Red-tailed Shrikes  (L phoenicuruides) are to be considered separate species, as will Taiga Bean (Anser fablis) and Tundra Bean Goose (A rossicus) . Fea's Petrel (Pterodroma feae) loses its umbilical chord to Desertas Petrel (P deserta) and Thayer's Gull (Larus thayeri) is cut adrift from Iceland Gull (L glaucoides) . Want more? Well here you go then - Two-barred Warbler will no longer be lumped with Greenish; Eastern Yellow Wagtail and Stejneger's Stonechat will no...

Last night Katrina and I joined a few thousand other souls up on Epsom Downs racecourse to (a) watch a few horse races and (b) attend a Culture Club concert (I don't like using the word 'gig' - we never called them that 'back in the day'). In fact, come to think of it, I don't like using the term 'back in the day'... I must admit to two things. Firstly, I don't like horse racing. And secondly, I've never been a big fan of Culture Club. But when an opportunity comes along it seems churlish to turn it down just because you're not that keen on it! I could have stayed at home and cleaned the moth trap, or daydreamed about what rare birds I am going to miss this autumn, but no, Mrs ND&B has a soft spot for Boy George, so off we went. We only caught the last couple of races. Neither of us bet, so we just both chose a horse from each race and stood to gain nothing but bragging rights if either of them won. My two horses were chosen on name a...

Chris Janman posed this question when commenting on a recent post. It got me thinking... I have long advocated the setting up of a system where we can barter our spare species, such as me being able to put up my second Wallcreeper for bids from interested birders. I'd reckon on being offered a right old fistful of rarities in a straight swap for that one, (maybe a Thick-billed Warbler, Black-billed Cuckoo, White-throated Needletail and a whole load of spare Fair Isle semi-rare dross). But what happens to our hard-earned lists when we die? Do they have to stay in a notebook or spread-sheet, hidden from view and gathering dust (real or virtual). Why can't we pass on the value of our lists to those that we have left behind? In my case I reckon my wife and daughters could encourage avid listers to pay at least £1000 for each Wallcreeper. Maybe someone would buy up both of them to stop another lister from getting them, or use the spare to swap at a later date? And how much is my...

At Dungeness Bird Observatory, one September afternoon in 1981, myself and a group of young regulars sat down in the common room and worked out how many species of bird we had each seen there. A few ground rules were forged that day, the main one being the extent of the countable area. Some argued for the inclusion of Walland and Romney Marsh, but this was quickly torpedoed. A compromised was reached, too convoluted to go into here. I had been visiting the shingle for five years by then, but hadn't given such things any thought - that surprises me now, seeing what a rabid list maker I was back then. From that afternoon onwards, the most important birding list was my Dungeness list. Until 1992/3 that remained firmly the case, and I would drive the 90 miles from home just to add one more precious species to it - a ridiculous state of affairs that I had to knock on the head. I went into a self-imposed exile from then until fairly recently, visiting infrequently and never twitch...

It's all out there - you've just got to open your eyes and LOOK Lists. I've never hidden my fascination with them, my upkeep of them, but have always pointed out that I'm not a chaser of them. Maybe this is unusual, in as much as if you are nerdish enough to list all that you see, then it is highly likely that you will also go out of your way to keep on adding to them with a manic need. Maybe my need is purely passive - having a list to record my efforts is enough in itself. My biggest list - both in scope and number - is my pan-species list; that is ALL of the living things that I have seen in the UK. As a listing project this is about as wide-ranging and challenging as you can get. It has become my one and only list in a way as it comprises all of my other lists combined. So I have to service all of the 37 sublists that feeds it.... confused? Don't be... go online and visit the new pan-listers website and take a look. You can find it at  http://www.brc.ac.u...

There will be species that, no matter how many years you have been looking, still evade you. These are mine: Birds For all of the hours spent seawatching I have not connected with either Cory's or Great Shearwater. The more pragmatic amongst you might point out that SE Kent is not the best place to see either of these species, and I'd have to agree with you. My seawatching time in Cornwall has been limited - a concerted late summer blitz to that fair county should supply me with them if I so desired. Corncrake for the 'southern' birder is unlikely, unless you are the holder of a 'golden ticket' and manage to flush one of these skulkers on passage. I've not been to the breeding stronghold of the Western Isles, although the introduction programme might just up the chances of a chance encounter. The same might be said of Capercaillie - I'm not going to bump into one of these on Leith Hill (Surrey) and if I did I would expect to have my optics confiscat...

I've made no secret about liking lists, and that doesn't just apply to birds, moths and plants. Because I'm a sad person with more time on his hands than is healthy, I put together my top 50 albums (after seeing several Top 100 album lists online) - I just had to have a go. If I did this tomorrow a few of them might change positions. I will apologise to Dean Stables in advance - there's nowt here to tickle his musical palate I'm afraid. Don't be shy, there's more to life than things that fly, come up with a few of your own choices and share! They are, in descending order (ie Number One first...) David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust David Bowie – Hunk Dory Neil Young – Everybody Knows this is Nowhere Lou Reed - Transformer Primal Scream – Screamadelica The Who - Quadrophenia Radiohead – The Bends The Doors – LA Woman Queen – Queen 2 Undertones - Undertones Joni Mitchell – Court and Spark Spirit – The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sa...

At the annual North Downs and beyond outing to White Hart Lane (where we watched the mighty Spurs overcome a skillful Swansea City), the natural history radar was still switched on. I can now add Grey Wagtail and Brimstone butterfly to the Tottenham Hotspur football ground list. On the same day, back at Beddington Sewage Farm, the latest evolution of the ringing group was being unveiled. My early bird ringing training was under Ken Parsley and Mike Netherwood during the mid-1970s in the latter days of the then BSF ringing group. After Ken stopped ringing, Mike (and Mickey Cook) set up a ringing station within the storm tanks, where they practiced their art for close on thirty years. Now this scientific study has come back out onto the sewage farm proper, net rides have been cleared and a number of group members are training under Mike's watchful eye. Good luck to the relaunched group! Mike very kindly reminded me of some other bizarre bird lists I used to keep as a (strange) t...

The London Natural History Society, that was formed in 1545 to enable King Henry VIII to keep tabs on his moth and beetle list, has always maintained the same recording area, that of all places within a twenty mile radius of St. Paul's Cathedral. This was pretty clever of those 16th century naturalists as construction of the cathedral was not started until 1675... Recently there have been a number of high profile birds that have had the bloody nerve of appearing in places that may be, or may not be, within the LNHS recording area. The most famous is the singing Savi's Warbler at Amwell Gravel Pits, which decided to confuse all comers by taking up position in a bush that stradled the invisible recording area boundary. Confusion reigned. I can exclusively reveal, via a source close to the LNHS hierarchy, that to stop such confusion in the future the society are going to ammend the recording area into one that is perfectly easy to see. As from January 1st 2012, and in celebration ...

There I was prostrate on the sofa, re-watching Series One of Mad Men with man flu as company when the communication system went into overload. Texts from Johnny Allan - 'Common Crane landed on lake at Beddington' - followed moments later by a phone call from David Campbell - "Are you going?" - convinced me to rise from my sick bed, Lazarus-like, and hotfoot it to the sewage farm. I collected David from his aborted Canons Farm stakeout and we arrived promptly at Beddington without any negative texts being received or accidents on the fast melting slush and ice. A brief jog onto site (yes, I can still run if prompted) saw us feasting our eyes upon a fine juvenile Common Crane (pictured above). It seemed in good condition and stayed for the rest of the day. This was a big bird for London and Surrey listers, the first truly twitchable wild one. Most of the Beddington crew were fairly blase about it (they had seen an adult fly over the farm back in the spring) and I ha...

When something 'big' turns up, if you want to see it, 90% of the time you can. Eastern Crowned Warbler, Citril Finch, Purple Martin, if you had the time, money and inclination, and didn't sit on your hands for 48 hours weighing up whether to go for it or not, then it would be on your list. Most serious listers have all three (and then a few more). Most of the 'part-time' listers of the UK mainland might not island-hop, but will still take a long drive to Flamborough or Nanquidno to knock-off that missing warbler, pipit or yankee warbler. This means that we have a large pool of birders with almost identical lists (most will be missing at least one mega that arrived when they were on holiday abroad - and 550 ticks in Uganda still don't make up for that Long-tailed Shrike). We do now have a number of extreme seabird records that have meant major gaps appearing in the listers list (Tufted Puffin anyone?) As for me, I have plenty missing from my UK list. A veritable ...

Inspired by the writings of other blogs that I have had the pleasure to read, I decided to work out what my own 'Total UK list' is - that is, how many living species have I recorded within these isles? My total - 2599 - elicited neither disappointment not pleasure in me, as I had no idea what the total may be. My breakdown, for those of you that have read this far, or have the slightest interest is: Flora: 1359 Moths: 675 Birds: 370 Butterflies: 50 Dragonflies: 33 'Other' insects: 35 Mammals: 31 Fish: 17 Fungi: 15 Amphibians: 5 Reptiles: 4 Marine life: 5 I have not claimed any mosses, liverworts or lichens. My general insect score is low, but has plenty of scope to increase. Some of you may wonder at the depresed bird total for someone who often waffles on about great twitches from the 1970s. My listing has slowed dramatically (300 up in 1981, 350 up in 1990, but only 20 ticks in the past twenty years), which shows how little chasing I now get involved with. My only new...

9868 - that's the species total of all the wildlife seen in the UK by one Jonty Denton. He is top of the pile for such full on listing and you may wonder how he finds the time to sleep, breathe and eat if he is identifying every rotifer, smut and beetle that he comes across. This is impressive enough, but get this - he also has 1540 model aircraft, 100 British railway locomotives and has visited every English Cathedral. Obsessives? Don't you just love 'em. If you want to read more about Jonty and those other big listers visit http://markgtelfer.co.uk