A Eurasian Wryneck (Jynx torquilla) in full flight A surprise early Christmas present came my way back on one of those still and lazy September days we fondly remember now the nights have drawn in. The sun blazed brilliantly in an ever-blue sky and fallen fruit from the hedgerow attracted the fast fading ...
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A Sparrowhawk eating a Collared Dove in a Surrey garden © Mark Davis Suddenly all peace in the garden is shattered. The ever-watchful Blue Tits switch tracks from soft twittering to explosive anxious alarms – and I know what will happen next. Wood Pigeons immediately crash out of the oak trees. It sounds ...
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Bar-Tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) All was eerily quiet on a clear still night in Cranleigh during lockdown. No cars, no planes, no distant loud music, and no excited folk returning home from the bars. It was yet another strange Saturday evening. There had been no live football either so instead of Match ...
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Mediterranean Gull (Larus melanocephalus) With the arrival of August it should be holiday time in a nice hot place like Spain or Greece. But the pandemic has put paid to that. We can only dream of blue skies for days on end, crystal-clear seas, and friendly little harbour restaurants serving the freshest and ...
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Teal (Annas crecca) One bonus about birding is that you can do it almost anywhere so the Covid-19 lockdown produced an unexpected challenge. How many species of birds could keen birders see or hear from their gardens? And for those without gardens – from their windows? To find out, I was among 61 birders ...
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White-tailed Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) I was out early for something rather special. A White-tailed Sea Eagle. In Buckinghamshire. Not the place you might expect to see such a bird. But one had been seen in the vicinity coming down to a field to eat cattle cake. As we gazed over rolling farmland that ...
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Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) Early May, a Surrey woodland floor blazing with bluebells, fresh lime-coloured leaves emerging from the beeches, and rafts of sunlight shining down through the fast disappearing spaces of the canopy. And to compliment the wonder of it all, an amazing voice erupts, dwarfing the choir of ...
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Mandarin (Aix galericulata) I had a big surprise when I was checking to see if an old Tawny Owl nesting box had attracted any takers. It had never had anything trying to raise a family in it and was starting to get a bit flimsy with age. The box was about three metres up a Scot’s Pine tree on the edge of a ...
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Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis) Heads up! The troops are on their way and will soon be passing by. Those in the advance guard this month often travel solo or in pairs. But reinforcements are already on their way and we can expect a steady trickle of the cavalry over the next few weeks in the Surrey Hills. ...
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Brown Babblers (Turdoides plebejus) Many of the birds we see in Cranleigh remind me of some of us – they sensibly get away from it all and take a warm winter break further south. So I thought it would be fun to see what life is like for them at this time of the year in their vastly different environment. I ...
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