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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

White-tailed Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) I was out early for something rather special. A White-tailed Sea Eagle. In Buckinghamshire. Not the place ...

Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) Early May, a Surrey woodland floor blazing with bluebells, fresh lime-coloured leaves emerging from the beeches, and rafts of ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla) If you had your eyes set on a 2020 vision this month, and want to see something often overlooked, then why not kick ...

Robin (Erithacus rubecula) Birding can have its laughs and crazy moments. Sometimes it’s truly crackers. Like the time I was on the Isles of Scilly and ...

Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris) The apples are ready and now I’m waiting for the ‘chock-a-chock chock’. No, it’s not some sort of sweet fireworks night treat ...

What a pretty, innocent, and fresh-looking face. There I was, only feet away from a Redwing on the pavement. The ‘go faster’ white stripe above the eye was ...