Muddling through midwinter

Midwinter is upon us – my least favourite time of year and following an underwhelming 11 months of local birding. Patch efforts have been a little reduced during the first half of December and have rarely produced much of note. However, something I'm writing (see here) has taken me to parts of Surrey I'm not familiar with – and this has provided a refreshing element to an otherwise uninspiring period. On the subject of writing, the 2020 south-west Surrey big year article I wrote in the February edition of Birdwatch is now up on BirdGuides here.

Little Egret at Waterloo Pond.

Wednesday 1st

No observations of note today.

Thursday 2nd

It was bright and chilly at Frensham Great Pond first thing, where a skittish drake Goosander highlighted. Three Shoveler and 15 Pochard, as well as singles of Kingfisher and Firecrest, were also noted.

Kingfisher on a railing.

At lunch I joined Kit, who was seeking Surrey ticks, on a trip to Thorpe Park. A quality suite of wildfowl was on offer here including a drake Ferruginous Duck and female Scaup, both found by Josephine in recent weeks. We got good 'scope views, even though the birds were distant. Apparently the fudge is unringed, which would make it my second in the county (and only my third Scaup!).

Wretched wildfowl shots.

Other bits of note included two drake Goldeneye, a drake Goosander, 45 Pochard, some 220 Tufted Duck, 40 Wigeon and 14 Snipe.

Friday 3rd

No observations of note today.

Saturday 4th

I visited a few more waterbodies in the Blackwater Valley early on, following on from my first recce on 30 November. First up was a very quiet Mytchett Lake; Frimley Pits (the fisheries) were not heaps better afterwards, with difficult viewing, but three Shoveler, four Gadwall and a Kingfisher were of note on Hatches.

I then headed to Ash Ranges, where the flags were down and the sun was out – as well as a stiff north-westerly. The wind kept passerine activity to a premium, with three Dartford Warblers, a Stonechat and a Woodlark the best I could muster during a two-hour, 6.5 km walk. A Raven flew over as well. This vast site is impressive visually – there's absolutely no doubt many good birds are never found here and at Pirbright Ranges (which is even less accessible).

Female Stonechat.

I ended the morning at Lakeside NR, part of Ash Vale Pits, a pleasant but limited site I'd never heard of until recently. A vocal Firecrest was a bit of a surprise and a hunting Kingfisher was of note, but the most pleasing observation was a Carrion Crow carefully revamping a nest.

Saturday 5th

A cold, grey and wet morning checking out some more new Surrey sites, this time in the far east of the county – an area pretty unknown to me. First up was Hedgecourt Lake, an impressive waterbody near East Grinstead (about the furthest away part of Surrey from home) that gets decent birds despite poor coverage. In totally grim conditions the best I managed was 19 Pochard and some friendly Mute Swans.

Mute Swan and Pochard.

Nearby Wire Mill Lake was up next but it was very quiet, save a flyover Lesser Redpoll. Open farmland and a couple of sewage works between here and Oxted seemed interesting enough to tempt me back in the future in better weather. The finale 'eastern' locale was Bay Pond in Godstone, where a Little Grebe was the most notable waterbird.

On the way back, a quick look at Postford and Waterloo Ponds at Chilworth produced three Little Egrets and 23 Mandarin. In all, not a bad way to spend a dull midwinter's morning, seeing new parts of the county and birding as I went.

Little Egrets.

Monday 6th

I walked the Lammas Lands in the morning, where Snipe numbers continued to be incredibly low – nine the maximum count, though it may have been as little as five. Other bits included Little Egret, six Egyptian Geese over, 50 Siskins, 18 Meadow Pipits and two Reed Buntings.

Tuesday 7th

No observations of note today.

Wednesday 8th

I ventured to the water meadows around Unstead and Peasmarsh in the morning, in case Storm Barra had topped up the water levels (it hadn't, and it's still really dry along the Wey this winter). However, a surprise awaited me at the flood at Lower Trunley Heath Farm: five Wigeon. 

Drake Wigeon.

As mentioned before on this blog this species is rare and localised in south-west Surrey and is most notable in the Wey Valley, especially the further away from Guildford you get (a flock winters at Burpham Court Farm). Amazingly this was my first record along the Wey since 2003. Other bits of note included 12 Teal and a juvenile Mute Swan.

Thursday 9th

Another duo of new Surrey sites this morning: Old Woking and Wisley sewage farms. I'll always enjoy birding sewage farms (sounds grim I know!) due to cutting my ornithological teeth at Unstead in the early 2000s when I was a young boy – there's something I find personally nostalgic about the pungent smells, gentle whirrs of machinery and general quietness of them (lets be honest 'normal' folk don't hang out at sewage farms!).

Anyway, Old Woking is famous for Surrey's only Marsh Sandpiper, found by Jeremy in 1994, during perhaps the last decade in which sewage farms were superb birding sites. Nowadays most are modernised, with the sludge beds and pools drained. I nonetheless found Old Woking to be an impressively large and promising site. Three Teal, singles of Little Owl and Kestrel and two Chiffchaffs highlighted. At Ripley and Wisley sewage farms, which weren't as good, single Chiffchaffs were the best I could muster.

Friday 10th

An early check of Frensham and Cutt Mill didn't produce much, save a Goosander pair and 17 Shoveler at the latter site. On the way home, a Ring-necked Parakeet (one of three) excavating a hole and chasing off a Starling near Shackleford village was very notable – the first proper evidence of parakeet breeding I've witnessed in south-west Surrey. A female Kestrel mobbed a Buzzard nearby.

Saturday 11th

A red sky greeted me at a frosty Thursley Common first thing – my first proper visit to the site in over a month. Some 38 species were noted during a 7 km stroll, the best of which was a Lapwing on Pudmore. Two Water Rails and a Snipe were also present there, while Forked Pond produced a Kingfisher and a flock of 70 or more Siskins. Other bits included a female Kestrel, an unseasonal Skylark and a Mistle Thrush, but passerine numbers on the common – especially finches and pipits – were really quite low.

Red sky at Thursley.

Sunday 12th

I haven't used my WWT membership enough this year so, as I was in London in the afternoon, I headed to the wetland centre at Barnes in the morning. My first visit since I dipped a Little Bittern in June 2016 saw me notch up 56 species, the best of which was a first-winter Caspian Gull that dropped into Main Lake. It was a bit of a mucky 'German-type' (I think it might have been a bird recently at Beddington) but fine for cachinnans and was seen better afterwards by Oscar D who rated it.

Other highlights included a Bittern picked out from a reedbed with the thermal imager (I'm not sure I'd have located it otherwise), a Water Pipit on Grazing Marsh, a female Goldeneye and a Shelduck pair. Adult and first-winter Great Black-backed Gulls, Water Rail and four Cetti's Warblers were also of note, as was a surprise male Blackcap outside the main entrance.

Goldeneye, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Shelduck, Lapwings and Bittern.

Monday 13th

On Saturday Matt E found a Little Bunting at Iping Common near Midhurst – shades of the Thursley occurrences last year. There was no news on Sunday, but I figured it was probably still about so headed down first thing. It was grey and drizzly, but my quarry gave itself up quickly – and how nice it was to spend some time with a species now somewhat special to me, and in a location and habitat so similar to Thursley.

I haven't visited Iping for many years and, despite the weather, the rest of the walk was good fun. A flyover Hawfinch was a treat, while decent numbers of Brambling and Dartford Warbler were seen along with two each of Marsh Tit and Yellowhammer.

Tuesday 14th

No birding today.

Wednesday 15th

A very mild morning – 11°C, seven species in song and winter birds at a premium – for a quiet couple of hours of ringing at Shackleford with Steve. Lots of gulls, including 170 or more Herrings, streamed in from the north to feed in the alfalfa, where a solitary Lapwing was present. A flock of 30 Skylarks and a Stonechat pair were also noted, while four Dunnocks made it into the nets.

On the way home I checked the Stakescorner Road fields at Loseley hoping for Lapwing. There were none, though a calling Little Owl was a relative surprise and decent goose numbers included 86 Greylags. Perhaps there are no wintering Lapwings in the area this winter – grim times indeed.

Thursday 16th

Another mild morning, so I checked out some new sewage farms. While scanning OS maps down the years Cranleigh SF has often caught my attention – it was the best one I visited today and, while access was a bit tricky, it showed potential. An impressive 60 or more Pied Wagtails were on the beds (three Greys also), but better still was at least three Chiffchaffs along the east side. A small flock of Lesser Redpolls, four Bullfinches and Marsh Tit were also of note. 

On the way back I passed Dunsfold Aerodrome, which is the third regular site for wintering Lapwings in south-west Surrey. Nine were seen in their usual field, meaning visits during the last two days to each of the three locales (Shackleford, Loseley and here) produced a grand total of 10 birds …