Surrey 5 km bird race challenge

On Saturday [7 May] Sam and I took part in the Surrey 5 km bird race challenge, joined at times by Dave and Matt. The idea of the challenge was for teams of birders to see how many species they could record within a 5 km radius of their home or patch. Emphasis was on going as green as possible (i.e. car sharing, using a bike etc) and a finish time of 18:00 was agreed. Our team (Teal Madrid) opted for a 5km radius of Eashing.

The Eashing 5 km ...

Having done a bit of prep, we agreed pre-race we'd be happy with 85 species. Anyway, Sam and I met at the heinous time of 02:45 and we headed to the Peperharow in search of owls. Moorhen was weirdly the first bird of the day at the former site but we only scored Little Owl and, having dipped Tawny Owl and Woodcock at Puttenham, we moved south to Milford Common, where three Nightingales were giving it welly in the darkness.

We then headed to Thursley, arriving just before 04:00. It was quite atmospheric watching the sun rise and the site light up as birdsong commenced all around us. We knew we needed a decent session here if we were to have a good day total and thankfully the common delivered. Key species that we logged included Water Rail, Nightjar, Lapwing, Curlew and Snipe, with Wheatear and Siskin very welcome 'bonus birds'. A Sedge Warbler singing at Pudmore was a surprise as well.

Curlew and Wheatear.

After three-and-a-half hours here we moved on to Tuesley (scoring Swift and House Martin in Milford en route), where two Common Sandpipers were very welcome. Lesser Black-backed Gull – a potentially slippery customer – was also logged. We added a few common waterbirds at Enton afterwards, as well as our only Reed Warblers of the day.

After dipping Yellowhammer near Hydestile we headed to Witley Common, where the sole male was in song. Garden Warbler and Jay were also added. It was then on to Eashing, where we ticked Red-legged Partridge without getting out the car. 

We then walked the river at Eashing, with Marsh Tit the target. We eventually scored our quarry but also left with two more bonus birds: Surrey's first Spotted Flycatcher of the year (a 1 km tick for me!) and a flyover Little Egret.

Spotted Flycatcher (Matt's photo).

A pit-stop for coffee at mine saw Grey Wagtail added to the list while in the garden. Shackleford was up next and we got a few smart bits here, not least two Yellow Wagtails. Hobby, Kestrel and Wheatear were also noted. Still needing some common waterbirds we headed to Cutt Mill – we didn't get said common species, but drake Teal and Gadwall were most unexpected on the house pond.

Needing a rest, we headed back to Thursley for a long lunchbreak and skywatch. This added Sparrowhawk and Grey Heron (!) but not much else, despite promising showers and cloud. We still didn't have Cormorant – by now our only obvious omission – so headed back to Enton. None there, but three Sand Martins were another bonus. 

The Lammas Lands delivered Kingfisher but Broadwater failed to produce Cormorant, so we hastily headed onto Loseley, where Raven was easily added: number 96. Desperate, we went back to Enton where, at last, two Cormorants were on the island at Johnson's. With about two hours to go and lacking energy we decided to go back to Shackleford and stake it out, in the hope of perhaps a Whinchat or Peregrine. 

Unfortunately we didn't add anything here, though the Wheatear, two Ravens and only our second Green Woodpecker of the day were present. Knackered, we dragged ourselves to where we started: Peperharow. Here we finally heard a couple of Ring-necked Parakeets – number 98. We still had the best part of an hour to play with but were happy to call it a day, very pleased with our score (which proved to be the winning score out of 19 teams). We'd walked more than 30,000 steps by the end of it as well!

Our only obvious omission was Woodcock – I'm not sure how we didn't get one at Thursley or Puttenham. Only one of us saw Barn Owl, so we couldn't include it. Cetti's Warbler never seemed on the cards this year alas, with other possibilities we didn't get including Peregrine, Crossbill and Lesser Redpoll.