Shalford patch diary and local round-up, late November

Just the three patch visits since my previous blog post, these likely to be my last of this month as the shorter daylight hours and other commitments impinge on birding time.

 13th November

A mid-morning visit with my girlfriend, primarily to carry out this month's WeBS count. I have now taken over the WeBS counting at Shalford and Broadford from Charlotte Gray in addition to the count I've been doing at Winkworth Arboretum for a couple of years.

Winkworth was exceptionally quiet this morning with just three Mandarin Ducks and a calling Water Rail of note. After a failed attempt to twitch Ed Stubbs' Red-crested Pochard at nearby Bramley Park Lake we headed for the patch. The continued lack of water meant wildfowl numbers were still disappointing with fifteen Teal at Broadford Pond the best I could muster, in addition to two at St Catherine's Pool. Away from the water birds, the highlights were a single male Stonechat. two Meadow Pipits, two Kestrels, two Grey Wagtails and one each of Kestrel and Chiffchaff.

Treecreeper

18th November

A rare week day off saw me spend a very enjoyable five hours on patch notching up a respectable 49 species in the late autumn sunshine. I started the day with a couple of hours sky watching from St Catherine's Hill which produced a scattering of Redwings, 41 Common Gulls south, 110 Herring Gulls (mostly south) and 860 Black-headed Gulls south. Small parties of Siskins passed by but most impressive was the roost flock of at least 70 which exploded from the Alders beneath the hill early morning. Another smaller flock near St Catherine's Lock contained at least two Redpoll but these were unfortunately flushed by a jogger before I could get a proper look at them.

Nuthatch

 Other highlights from the morning included at least four Chiffchaffs, a pair of Stonechats at St Catherine's Lock and two Snipe which flew up from Broadford Marsh. 

Raptors were represented by three Kestrels, at least one Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk which chased a Song Thrush very close past me near Ferry Lane.

25th November

Another Friday off and I was able to squeeze in a couple of hours on the patch before heading to Gloucestershire for the weekend. Again the sun shone and produced some wonderful viewing conditions for certain birds, but in other instances the strong light proved a hindrance. At around 9:30 I looked up to see an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull drifting north over Broom Meadow - my only one of the day. As I watched it another bird caught my eye much higher up, flying south. Getting bins on it I could see it was an Egret but it was still very distant and fast disappearing into the glare of the sun. The general impression was of a compact bird with short legs and rather short rounded wings. When it did re-emerge from the sun's glare it was much more distant and flying directly away from me on flicky, rather fast wingbeats. Little Egrets are of course a common sight locally in winter but I couldn't honestly say I got enough on this particular individual to entirely rule out Cattle Egret. That said, there were two Little Egrets at the Lammas Lands in Godalming later in the morning. One that got away.

One noticeable change since my previous visit was the big increase in standing water thanks to some fairly substantial rainfall in the past week. It's good to see some of the long dried-up pools rise from the ashes, as it were. Unfortunately there hasn't as yet been the hoped for increase in water birds, with just six Teal and single drakes of Shoveler and Mandarin of note. The marshy area near Dagley Lane Allotments harboured at least three Grey Wagtails. While I was checking this area a female Ring-necked Parakeet screeched north overhead - such a common sound at my workplace in West Clandon that it took me a moment to realise this was only my second record of this species at Shalford in 2016. 

St Catherine's Pool - topped up but bird-less!

Other highlights from the morning included three Stonechats in St Catherine's Meadow, a Red Kite which drifted west, six Egyptian Geese north, 120 Starling west, 45+ Fieldfares north/north-east and at least 30 Redwings around. 

Away from the patch I notched up my 87th garden tick in the form of a heard-only Brambling over my Chilworth garden in the fog early on the 23rd, following on shortly from a flyover Little Egret and seven Mandarins. 

On the 19th I paid another visit to Albury Sandpit with fellow surveyor Dave, where we had a reasonably productive morning in beautiful crisp sunshine. Five Skylarks and at least eighteen Meadow Pipits were feeding on the ridge, favouring the sunny south side, along with a Yellowhammer and at least two Bullfinches. Plenty of gulls passed overhead including an adult Lesser Black-backed which flew north and a 3rd year Great Black-backed which flew south-east.

Albury Sandpit

St Catherine's Hill, 10th November

Another of my now regular pre-work watches from St Catherine's this morning (0645-0745) proved very productive with loads of birds moving. The cloud cover perhaps slowed down the gulls a bit which didn't get going until well after 7, with Herrings and Commons leading the charge followed by Black-headeds later. Most notable were the Bramblings and Crossbills, all moving west at some altitude, the former often mixed in with flocks of Redpoll and Chaffinch.

Pied/alba Wagtail - 15 south

Mallard - 15 north

Redwing - 6 north/21 south/15 west-northwest 

Chaffinch - 5 south/2 east/9+ west

Common Gull - 30+ south

Black-headed Gull - 520 south

Fieldfare - 44 north/11 west/6 south

Siskin - 5 east only ones seen but heard almost constantly throughout 

Brambling- 12+ west

Redpoll - 2+ west

Rook - 11 west

Egyptian Goose - 4 north

Herring Gull - 23 south

Meadow Pipit - 1 west

Bullfinch - 1 northwest/1 east/2 north

Crossbill - 3 west 

Goldfinch - 4 south

Cormorant - 1 north

Canada Goose - 6 south with 1 Canada x Greylag

Shalford patch diary and local round-up, October & early November

What with the dwindling daylight hours and a week away chasing rarities on Shetland the patch has been somewhat neglected recently although I've still managed a dozen or so visits since the last one of these diary/round-up posts, including several migration watches from St Catherine's Hill, but more on that later. 

The most notable thing about Shalford Water Meadows at the moment is the distinct lack of water. It's hard to believe we're over a week into November when this muddy puddle represents one of the largest areas of standing water on the patch.

St Catherine's Pool, in need of a top-up!

Still, there's enough water left for a few wildfowl, with Teal numbers peaking so far at 16 on the 18th. I've seen the odd Snipe recently but clearly the habitat is not nearly wet enough at present for good numbers. Lapwing have proved to be just a flyover species for me so far at Shalford, usually in small numbers, so I was glad when Sean Foote picked up 26 flying over distantly on 8th October during a little pre-Shetland walk; by far my highest count of this species locally. On 6th November a Green Sandpiper flew high over Broadford Marsh mid-morning heading south-west and seemingly dropped down somewhere on the patch, although I lost the bird in the glare of the sun and couldn't relocate it. It was also good to see the first returning Little Egret of this winter on the same morning, when one flew up from the marsh and disappeared over the trees to the north.  

The first patch year tick since August came on 29th October when I heard the unmistakable call of Crossbill from/over Shalford Park, but the combination of wind and road noise from the A281 made it impossible to locate the bird(s). Stonechats are again a regular feature with three present on 30th October and 5th November, while Siskin numbers are building, with at least 50 around on the 29th.

Stonechat (male)

Stonechat (male)

Stonechat (female)

Redpoll numbers still seem low, with just single figures seen so far this autumn, the first being one west over St Catherine's Hill on 5th October.  The same migration watch session also produced the first Redwings of the season with at least 8 over while bigger numbers arrived a few days later, with at least 60 over on the 8th. The first Fieldfares, meanwhile, were two flying north on 29th October, again with larger numbers arriving a week or so later when at least 35 flew over on 8th November. Decent numbers of Chaffinches have been moving recently too, with a couple of dozen over on the 8th bringing with them at least one Brambling which was heard only so I couldn't confirm numbers.

Despite a bumper autumn for Yellow-browed Warblers in Surrey and the UK as a whole, many a hopeful trawl through the tit flocks on the patch has yet to deliver the goods, but there have been plenty of Chiffchaffs, with at least 5 present on 5th November, seemingly all just regular collybitas although presumably of more northern origin this late in the year. 

Chiffchaff

Going back to the St Catherine's Hill migration watches, and I'd hoped that my newly-found patch vantage point would provide some Woodpigeon magic in the past week or so. 690 south-west in an hour on the 2nd was a decent count but it seems like maybe they just haven't got going in massive numbers yet this autumn, at least not in Surrey anyway. Black-headed Gulls on the other hand have been streaming over in recent days, with 1035 south (and 1 north!) in 50 minutes early on the 8th interspersed with smaller numbers of Herrings, Commons and Lesser Black-backeds. These are presumably birds coming out of roost from the reservoirs nearer London and following the Wey down to feeding grounds on the fields around here. Still, quite a spectacle and I'm hoping there may be a rarer gull in tow with them at some point.

St Catherine's Hill, early morning

Away from the patch and there's been a few local bits of note recently. My Chilworth garden list got an unexpected addition on the 30th when a Great White Egret flew east at dusk, followed closely by a Little Egret for comparison. I had just earlier the same day been pondering the lack of local Little Egrets so far this winter! Unfortunately a last light scan of the ponds in Albury - a favourite roosting spot for Little Egrets - produced nothing although I did note Mandarin Duck numbers are again increasing on Postford Pond with 45 present. I also heard a Firecrest calling by Waterloo Pond on the 29th. The garden excitement didn't stop with the GWE as the following morning there was a Ring Ouzel in with the Redwings in the big holly and hawthorn hedge behind our house. My garden list now stands on 86 after 26 months. 

Popular beauty spot Newlands Corner is on my route to work so I've been popping in occasionally of late, particularly towards the end of October when I was hoping to find a Ring Ouzel or two lurking in the Whitebeams and Rowans. Sadly no joy but I did have a decent morning on the 20th with 2 Redpoll, 2 Brambling and a Crossbill over and at least 70 Redwings around.

On 5th November I visited the old sandpit and now filled-in landfill site in Albury to carry out the first of many bird surveys at the request of the management company Suez. Fellow surveyors John, Dave and I had a decent couple of hours on site, with two Ravens the most notable species, although it was also good to see at least 4 Skylarks, 20 Meadow Pipits and a modest flock of Linnets using the site, currently best described as a scrubby, grassy hill. Over time we hope to build up a better picture of what birds are using the site and offer advice as to how best proceed with the habitat restoration. 

Looking west along the hill in Albury Sandpit

The view north from the sandpit towards the North Downs