Well, what with my week away and various other bits and bobs it's been over three weeks since my last patch diary post.
Typically for the time of year things have now quietened down somewhat with the resident and migrant breeders all largely getting on with the task at hand. Aside from the usual common Tits and Mallards it's been good to confirm plenty of other species as breeding at Shalford, some more common than others. The first Mandarin ducklings were found by Kit Britten on the 13th while family groups or juveniles of Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch, Goldcrest and Mistle Thrush have all been seen recently. The regular Stonechat pair, meanwhile, are apparently still feeding nestlings at St Catherine's Lock. Surely they should be fledging any day now.
Mandarins
Stonechats
Best of all though has been confirming Sand Martins breeding in the railway cutting on the east side of St Catherine's Hill, with three birds regularly seen going into a hole here recently. Like so many places in Surrey this was once a regular breeding site for this declining species but had apparently been abandoned for many years so it's great to see them back. I suspect the tree and scrub clearance carried out on the embankment has opened the area up enough to encourage them back.
Sand Martin
The only patch year tick since my last round-up came on the 27th when I stumbled across a pair of Spotted Flycatchers in the wet woodland on the west side of Shalford Park. This is a part of the patch I've not explored much previously and I went to investigate it on this day with this exact species in mind. Only my third patch record of this species following on from singles in spring and autumn last year, and particularly encouraging to see a pair. I do hope they stick around and breed. Spotted Flycatcher is the 103rd species recorded at Shalford this year and my 101st.
Onto warblers and there are now at least four Garden Warblers and two Sedge Warblers holding territory on the patch, one of the latter near St Catherine's Lock proving particularly showy on recent visits (see video below!). Reed Warblers have been rather scarce this spring with just singles on the 20th and 31st the only ones recorded since my previous patch round-up. The first juvenile Chiffchaffs of the year were seen in the Broadford area on the evening of the 30th.
Swift numbers have been really increasing in the last couple of weeks, with a conservative count of thirty noted on the 29th, at least some of these presumably local birds but others still clearly moving through. At least a couple of pairs have been dashing around over Shalford village with the House Martins recently; the latter were busy working on their nests on the 21st, I noticed, when a Hobby appeared low over the rooftops and sent them all into a panic! A regular sight over the village recently via Kit which is good news as I only had a handful of patch records of this species in 2016.
House Martins
A Kingfisher carrying a fish through Broadford on the 29th was, remarkably, only my second patch record of the year while a Water Rail alarm calling in Mill Mead Meadow early on the 31st was only my third record this year and my first ever breeding season record here. This species famously bred, or possibly still does breed, at Unstead SF and Sam Jones has recorded breeding at Firs Bridge down towards Godalming but this would seemingly be the closest breeding site to Guildford town centre on the south side at least.
The only other bits of note recently have all been flyovers with three Lapwings south-west on the 16th, a 3cy Great Black-backed Gull east and two Mute Swans south, both on the 25th. Also on the 25th a Skylark flew west over St Catherine's Lock, singing, while one flew east over the same area on the 29th. I would guess these are birds either breeding at Loseley and commuting to the arable fields south of the Chantries or vice versa.
Mute Swans
One last little nugget I thought I'd share: I mentioned in my previous patch diary about a Bullfinch plucking seedheads off Dandelions along the Railway Line Walk, well I saw another one doing the same on the edge of Shalford Park the other day. Presumably just feeding on the seeds but not behaviour I've seen before this year anyway.
Bullfinch
Away from the patch it was great to notch up my hoped for 90th species on my Chilworth garden list, with a Nightjar churring somewhere to the south towards Blackheath on the evening of the 21st. This was followed closely by two Curlews which flew east/north-east this morning. I'm working on a garden list special blog post which I'll post when we eventually move!
Aside from two trips to South Africa I've done very little birding abroad, so when my girlfriend and I decided to book a few days in Sardinia to use some of the air miles we'd accrued from our SA trips I was excited to see what new birds we might encounter.
We flew into Cagliari at lunchtime on Tuesday and headed to Hotel Chentu Lunas in Poetto where our wonderfully friendly host Graziella had arranged for hire bicycles to be dropped off. We hopped on and headed along the beachfront to the Parco di Molentargius; a Ramsar protected site and one of several large wetlands on the outskirts of the island's capital city. En route we saw and heard the ubiquitous Hooded Crows, Serins, Spanish Sparrows, Tree Sparrows and Spotless Starlings in the beachfront gardens.
Tree Sparrow on a lamppost! A common sight in Poetto
We had seen Greater Flamingoes from the plane as we came into land so it was no surprise to see lots of them as we entered the park. I knew Sardinia has a healthy population of this species but was still amazed to see so many: every body of water was covered in them, interspersed with smaller numbers of Avocets, Black-winged Stilts, Shelduck and Pochard. There were several Terns flying about, including singles of Gull-billed Tern and Little Tern plus a few Common Terns, while among the numerous Yellow-legged Gulls it was nice to pick out a couple of Slender-billed Gulls.
Greater Flamingo
Slender-billed Gull
Gull-billed Tern
In the vegetation around the park Reed Warblers and Cetti's Warblers were very vocal, while the scrubbier fields and hedges held Collared Doves, Spotless Starlings, Zitting Cisticolas and Sardinian Warblers. At one point we flushed a Cattle Egret as we cycled past and later a Purple Heron which flew off into one of the massive reedbeds. As we headed back past the biggest pool near the main entrance a Squacco Heron gave a nice flypast. Overhead there were large numbers of both Common Swift and Pallid Swift plus Barn Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins; so numerous their combined calls provided a constant soundtrack to our time here. As we parked up our bikes to check out one of the tower hides a familiar call alerted me to two Bee-eaters amongst the hirundine flock above us. Around the same time Kate pointed out a Crimson Speckled moth on the ground which unfortunately proved too flighty to allow good views or a photo. Molentargius is up there with West Coast National Park in South Africa as one of the best nature reserves I've visited; I wish we could have stayed for longer.
Cattle Egret
Spotless Starling - strangely the only photo I got of this common species
Sardinian Warbler - this male was busy collecting food and taking it back to a nest
The next morning (Kate's birthday) we woke to the sound of singing Serins and Greenfinches and a quick scan from the balcony produced a Peregrine flying in front of the mountain and scores of House Martins and Swifts over the water and buildings behind the hotel. After breakfast at one of the beachfront cafes we hit the road for the three hour drive up to Dorgali in the mountains up the east coast. The drive was incredible and slightly terrifying at times as we wound our way along mountain passes in an unfamiliar car on the other side of the road! There was plenty of bird interest along the way including several Turtle Doves and two Monk Parakeets flying across the road and perched on wires, a Bee-eater hawking near the road, Crag Martins nesting under a road bridge and the first of several high altitude raptors which at the time suggested Honey Buzzard but was later identified from my photos by others as a Marsh Harrier.
By mid-afternoon we'd made it to Agriturismo Canales - a charming traditional farmhouse set on a hill by the edge of Lake Cedrino and with great views across into Gennargentu National Park - our home for the next two nights. The first thing that struck us here was the overwhelming quietness of the setting, interrupted only occasionally by goat and sheep bells and bleats, and bursts of song from Turtle Doves and Cirl Buntings. We also found our first Spotted Flycatcher of the holiday squeaking away near our chalet here. It's a cliché to say it but it really is striking how these scarcer species still seem to be thriving further south in Europe, presumably due in no small part to the more sensitive way in which the land is managed; for the time being at least, intensive agriculture with its flailed hedges and monocrops sprayed within an inch of their life are nowhere to be found on Sardinia, or not that we saw anyway. It's a sobering glimpse of a landscape that is becoming such a distant memory in much of Britain.
Cirl Bunting
Turtle Doves
As night began to fall the valley below our chalet really came to life as the first Robins, Wrens and Blackcaps we'd heard during the trip, amongst others, burst into song. After dinner we returned to our balcony to the distinctive sound of Scops Owls duetting and a curious call which I soon discovered to be Barbary Partridge. I regularly heard them calling quite close to our chalet during our stay here and spent a good couple of hours or more in total trying to track them down but sadly they remained frustratingly elusive!
After a hearty breakfast on Thursday morning we drove down to Baunei as Kate had suggested we try the walk from the Golgo Plateau down to Cala Goloritzé – a picturesque beach only accessible by boat or by hike, and reputedly a good site for Eleonora's Falcon. No sooner had we got out of the car at the Golgo Plateau than one drifted overhead; a good start! The hike down took us through deeper and deeper vegetation, soundtracked almost constantly by Firecrests and occasional Sardinian Warblers. At one point I heard a Dartford Warbler calling as well.
A little clearing halfway down dotted with Holm Oaks produced at least two Spotted Flycatchers, a Pied Flycatcher and a Wood Warbler while our second Eleonora's Falcon powered overhead. Nearer the beach we saw Crag Martins and Alpine Swifts flying around the cliffs while down at the beach itself a couple of Ravens and another Peregrine flew over along with another high altitude broad-winged raptor which I judged to be a Honey Buzzard from its shape and 'whole wing' wingbeats.
Spotted Flycatcher
Pied Flycatcher - sadly the only picture I got as it wouldn't stop moving!
The hike back up proved challenging and during one of several hard-earned rest stops we were rewarded with a little group of Corsican Finches flitting about in the bushes quite near the path in the aforementioned area which I nicknamed 'Flycatcher Corner'.
Corsican Finch
Overhead a couple of soaring Common Buzzards were joined by another Marsh Harrier which drifted east, as did another Eleonora's Falcon. On the way back to the main road we were drawn to stop by a gathering of pigs and donkeys on the dirt track ahead and it was here we heard our only Cuckoo of the holiday.
Back at Canales we had dinner on the balcony again to the sound of Scops Owls and Barbary Partridge plus a brief burst of churring from a Nightjar.
Our fourth day in Sardinia saw us again on the road for a long drive down to the south-west - Portovesme to be precise - from where we caught a ferry over to Isola di San Pietro. Though this holiday was primarily about having a few days away for Kate's birthday I made a special request that we go and see the Eleonora's Falcon colony on the island. I wasn't sure they'd be back on territory yet but having seen three the previous day my confidence was bolstered. The ferry over to the island proved productive with two Scopoli's Shearwaters flying past, one very close, plus two flyover Little Egrets, several Shags and two Black-headed Gulls: the only time we saw this species during the whole trip.
After making shore and indulging in a bit of tapas we headed over to the west side of the island and the LIPU reserve at Faro di Cala Sandalo, the most westerly point of Italy and home to the Eleonora's Falcon colony. As soon as we'd got out of the car I spotted a couple of them sailing about over the cliffs. A friendly chap showed us a mouthwatering photo of one of the birds he'd seen earlier perched on a crag and pointed us in the right direction. Within a few minutes we were sat on the cliff edge watching in awe as at least four of these magnificent birds - both pale and dark morphs - put on an incredible display right in front of us, sometimes cruising about amongst the gulls and Alpine Swifts, at other times dashing and diving at breakneck speed towards the ocean before veering back up, almost looping back over on themselves, calling excitedly as they did so. Breathtaking. Sometimes in life and in birding you sense that a moment will live with you forever. To top it all off Kate spotted a dark morph individual that had just alighted on the cliff less than 50 metres below us. Magical.
I could have stayed there for hours but unfortunately we were rather short of time as we had to catch the ferry back to the mainland and check in to our B&B in Portoscuso. A quick check of one of the stagni (saltwater lagoons) near Carloforte on the way back produced more Greater Flamingoes, Avocets and Black-winged Stilts, lots of Little Egrets, a single Grey Heron (our only one of the trip!), a couple of Slender-billed Gulls and Common Terns and a very vocal Zitting Cisticola carrying food.
Black-winged Stilt
Saturday was our final morning in Sardinia so I couldn't resist a little seawatch from our hotel window before we packed up our bags, hoping I'd be able to pick out a distant seabird or two. I was pleasantly surprised to find not just one but at least four Scopoli's Shearwaters almost straight away, feeding quite close in to the shore. After watching them for a while a smaller and more strongly contrasting black and white bird darted across my scope view: a Yelkouan Shearwater! One of two seen during this session and a very nice way to end our time here in Portoscuso.
Soon we were on our way back to the airport but the birding fun wasn't quite over as a couple of rest breaks and a petrol stop added Corn Bunting and Skylark to the holiday list, singing in the fields near the road, while birding from the car* produced another Bee-eater and two Black Kites over one of the recently cut hay meadows. If we ever come back here I'd definitely like to spend a bit more time exploring the more agricultural areas of the island as I suspect there were many avian treats hiding there. The very last bird of the holiday was a Marsh Harrier quartering over the reeds that separated the airport tarmac from the Stagno di Cagliari beyond.
It wasn't all about the birds of course. We saw a great many butterflies during our trip, particularly Clouded Yellows, but also Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Brimstone, Cleopatra, various Whites and a Small Copper. Most were too flighty to photograph, sadly, but I did manage to capture a shot of one on the walk back from Cala Goloritzé which I didn't recognise. Looking in my Collins guide when we got home I realised this was a Corsican Wall Brown which is endemic to this part of the world.
Corsican Wall Brown
Everywhere we went, particularly in the Gennargentu area and on Isola di San Pietro we saw lizards, most of which I think were Tyrrhenian Wall Lizard, like the one pictured below which scuttled across our balcony at Canales.
All in all a great few days in a wonderful part of the world. There's really far too much to see in four days though - I hope to return one day and it's certainly inspired me to do more European birding!
* If you're looking to hire a car while in Sardinia, I must just implore you not to go anywhere near Avis, they are absolute crooks who swindled us out of £300 for the tiniest of chips on the rear spoiler which any respectable hire company would have overlooked as general wear and tear. Worst customer service I've ever experienced in years of hiring cars. Avoid!
Just got back from a great few days staying on the Knepp Estate in West Sussex. Once used for intensive farming and grazing the 3500 acre estate has now been converted into one of the largest rewilding projects in lowland Europe thanks to the vision of Charlie Burrell, the owner of the estate and now chairman of Rewilding Britain. After finding the heavy weald clay tough-going when it came to producing crops, towards the end of the last century Charlie was looking for alternative ways to use the land and generate income for the estate. Having always had a passion for wildlife (he was nicknamed 'Bug' as a boy) a friend recommended he visit the Oostvaardersplassen project in the Netherlands, and it was this trip that inspired him to create his own rewilding project at Knepp.
Purple Emperor log mural at the Go-Down
Viper's-bugloss in the bank next to the car park
So it is that what were once arable crop fields are now teeming with brambles, hawthorn and wild roses. Hedgerows which were once flailed within an inch of their life are spreading and thickening, and roaming freely amongst all of this are the grazers, the drivers of ecology, as resident ecologist Penny Green refers to them. Exmoor ponies, English longhorn cattle, Tamworth pigs and Red and Fallow Deer (along with native Roe) wandering around a landscape largely devoid of fencing, just as their ancestral species would have done some five millennia ago. After just a decade and a half of this project the 'wildlands' of Knepp are already morphing into something incredible.
It really is hard to believe this was arable farmland fifteen years ago
In a way completely alien in comparison to most of the countryside of this part of the world, and yet also strangely familiar - some visitors to the estate have commented they are old enough to remember when more of the countryside looked like this. A time when Turtle Doves, Cuckoos and other farmland birds were thriving. And so far it seems these species are doing very well at Knepp, along with a whole host of other native wildlife. An estimated eleven pairs of Turtles Doves bred last year, while the estate also boasts 2% of the national breeding population of Nightingales since they returned in 2010 - the first time they'd been seen for fifty years. There are also excellent numbers of Barn Owls, Tawny Owls and Little Owls, not to mention Ravens, Hobbies and Spotted Flycatchers, to name a few. It's not just birds that are doing well at Knepp, as it is also famously home to the largest population of Purple Emperor butterflies in the UK, thanks to huge swathes of sallow which have colonised the Oak-lined damp fields which once harboured only monocrops.
Exmoor ponies
Barn Swallow
The obligatory friendly Robin in the camp kitchen
Toad near our tent on the first night, presumably well-fed on the
proliferation of slugs
I had heard so much about Knepp and wanted to visit for some time so was delighted when my girlfriend Kate booked the trip as a birthday present. We'd originally been scheduled to go on a Purple Emperor safari on the Sunday when we arrived, but were informed last week that due to the rubbish weather they had not emerged yet. No matter, as they offered us a place on a general safari tour on Monday instead, plus a reschedued Purple Emperor safari on 2nd July. The site tour was great and really helped us get some idea of the scale of the project here. Penny drove us around much of the southern block in an old six-wheel drive Austrian army vehicle and explained the aims of the project - basically what does happen if a large area of land is left largely unmanaged, aside from the actions of grazing animals? She explained how certain plants dominated but are now being replaced by other species; it must be fascinating to see a landscape evolve year on year like this. Although less than an hour from home, I can only equate some of the landscape at Knepp to the plains of Africa; this was especially the case when we stumbled across occasional herds of cattle, or piglets sleeping in the middle of the muddy tracks.
Longhorn cattle
Tamworth piglets
Hammer Pond - a haven for bats, wildfowl and invertebrates
Under reptile tins we found Grass Snakes and Slow-worms, as Garden Warblers sang in the swollen hedges. Penny also told us how thirteen of the eighteen native bat species are found here, and campsite manager Ryan Greaves kindly loaned us a bat detector which enabled us to have some close encounters with a few. We unfortunately didn't manage to track down a Turtle Dove but it's just great to know they're here and doing okay, for now at least. Perhaps we'll find one when we revisit at the weekend. I was lucky enough to chat to esteemed butterfly expert Matthew Oates a few times during our stay who did manage to find some Purple Emperors in the past couple of days, despite the changeable weather. In fact, the three he saw on Monday were the first recorded anywhere in the country this year. Despite exploring yesterday we unfortunately didn't find any Emperors but we did see good numbers of Marbled Whites, plus my first Purple Hairstreak and Small Skipper of the year.
Cinnabar moth - thriving at Knepp thanks to unchecked spread of
ragwort, their larval foodplant
Purple Hairstreak
I really cannot enthuse enough about how brilliant Knepp is, and how exciting it is to see such a massive swathe of countryside ' going back to nature'. I eagerly await our return visit on Saturday and the many more visits we will, I'm sure, be making after that to see how the place develops over time.
As every patch birder knows, we have a pastime that is at times very rewarding and at other times very frustrating, and sometimes it feels like there's an awful lot more of the latter - especially in my relatively bird-less neck of the woods! Still, after a little mid-month lull, Shalford Water Meadows has delivered a few goodies for me in the past couple of weeks and, despite the unseasonably chilly weather, I have been taking advantage of the longer days by making increasingly frequent early morning visits which have proved fruitful, and also meant I've been treated to some incredible scenes like this.
Warbler numbers seem to be growing every day, with a noticeable fall of Blackcaps on the 28th (at least eighteen noted during a 90 minute visit) and Whitethroats increasing to at least nineteen today. Chiffchaff numbers seem to have levelled off a bit although there were still at least ten singing males in the area between Broadford and St Catherine's this morning. As of 28th there was still a lone Willow Warbler singing in the Broadford area.
Chiffchaff - Richard Waters
Hirundines continue to move through in dribs and drabs, their efforts presumably hampered by the recent spate of northerlies. On the 19th it was nice to see three Sand Martins hawking low over St Catherine's Lock.
The first Swift (92) was seen on the 21st, followed by odd ones and twos this past week, but today saw the first more substantial arrivals, for me anyway, with at least a dozen through during my three hour morning visit - a group of nine were screaming over Dagley Lane as I left.
Whitethroat
Although we are now well into spring there have been some lingering reminders of winter with a few Redpolls and Siskins still kicking about, and a Little Egret which flew north on the 29th. Still, the summer migrants are arriving thick and fast now and, in addition to the aforementioned Swifts, I've added three new birds to the patch year list since my last blog post. The first came on the 21st as I approached the Horse Field along the Railway Line Walk to be greeted by a familiar call and one which I'd anticipated hearing in this exact location at some point - Yellow Wagtail (93)! Clearly I had flushed it as I approached the field and it flew off north-east over Broadford Marsh. This was followed by a stonking male on the 23rd which dropped into the field right in front of me as I was scanning the muddy ground for anything of note. Two flyover Yellow Wags were also recorded on the 24th and 1st May. One of my favourite birds (surely few other British birds can so embody summer in the sheer gaudiness of their plumage?); it's great to have caught up with so many so close to home.
Yellow Wagtail
Patch year ticks 94 and 95 arrived on the 26th in the form of Common Sandpiper and Sedge Warbler. I had perhaps expected the former to turn up at some point on Broadford Marsh but I definitely wasn't expecting to find one trotting along the towpath just north of Broadford Bridge. I kept my distance but after a while it flew to the other side of the Navigation where I was able to get a couple of photos before a passing cyclist flushed it and it flew off south.
The Sedge Warbler, meanwhile, was singing away by St Catherine's Pool, where it was joined by a second bird on the 29th, and there were at least three around this morning.
Early morning on the 28th it was nice to see a female Redstart hopping back and forth from the fence to the ground in the north-west corner of Horse Field. My second patch record of this species this year but far more obliging than the one the other week.
Wildfowl numbers have dropped right down now with just a handful of late Teal lingering until the 19th, and a few resident Mallards and Mandarins still around. Early on the 29th a pair of Gadwall flew off south-west over St Catherine's Lock.
Looking east across Broadford Meadow
There has been much evidence of various species breeding in the area recently. I have noted a Grey Wagtail carrying food in the Broadford Bridge area on several occasions, while I've also seen a Sparrowhawk carrying prey across the river here a couple of times this past week. On the 24th, meanwhile, there was a newly-fledged Moorhen following one of its parents through one of the puddles along the Railway Line Walk, on the west side of Horse Field. I've also been monitoring a Buzzard nest in this area; it's remarkable to think not that long ago this species was still a rarity in this part of the world.
The local Little Owls still appear to be around, although I have only seen one on occasion recently - hopefully this means they're now breeding and haven't been scared off by recent tree works along the railway line.
Another new addition to the patch recently have been the cows which appeared in St Catherine's Meadow and up in the Old Watermeadows near Guildford on the 24th. Cattle Egret anyone?
Cows!
Lapwings were recorded flying north-east twice last weekend - two on the 23rd and one on the 24th - only my second and third patch records of this species this year, surprisingly.
Skylarks have been rather more evident recently, with one heard singing well west of Horse Field early on the 26th, 28th and 29th, and two which flew up from St Catherine's Meadow on 1st May. I know they breed up on the hills to the north-east and would imagine they're present at Loseley Park to the west, but suspect there is insufficient breeding habitat for them around the water meadows here.
On 1st May I was surprised to stumble across a Firecrest along the Railway Line Walk - my first record of the species here for a number of weeks and seemingly an odd time for one to turn up, although Martin Kettell had one at Stoke Water Meadows just yesterday. A nice end to a good couple of weeks which has taken my Patchwork Challenge total to 95 species/101 points. I'm looking forward to seeing what May has in store!
