Shalford patch diary, 20th March: Spring arrives with a bang!

After a couple of days' absence from the patch I headed down at first light this morning in less than inviting conditions: drizzle and a brisk south-westerly wind. 'Surely this should drop some migrants though', I thought as I did my usual pre-work circuit of the Broadford/St Catherine's area. There were clearly more Chiffchaffs around, with at least 7 singing despite the inclement weather. Reed Buntings too were in fine voice, and it was good to see the pair of Stonechats again hopping around on the fence near St Catherine's Lock. A scan of the Horse Field produced two Red-legged Partridges; only my second patch record after the single bird I had on the 12th. Heading on down to St Catherine's the drizzle got rather heavier and I scanned the sky every few seconds, expecting to see a hirundine appear at any moment - no luck.

Last stop on my circuit was the usual scan of St Catherine's Pool which produced at least 7 Teal, 3 Gadwall and a couple of Little Grebes. Just as I was about to head off I noticed something else lurking, huddled up in the vegetation at the back: a small duck, and although the light was poor and the angle odd surely that was a head stripe I could see?

As I crept forward slightly to get a better view, the bird(s) in question swam out into open water where I was left in no doubt: an absolutely stonking pair of Garganey! Suffice to say a patch first for me and the first Wey Valley record for 15 years. Certainly a species I'd dreamt of finding on patch but still a magical find. I fired off a couple of record shots before contacting a few people and putting the news on Twitter. At work during the morning I received various reports from local birders including Steve Chastell, Richard Waters (who got some excellent photos) and fellow Albury SP surveyor John Austin who'd been and connected and, heading back myself this evening, I was pleased to see so many familiar and new faces. Sadly by the time I got back to the pool the birds had gone back into hiding in the vegetation and a few visiting birders left without seeing them. I'll be back to check first thing in the morning but with a clear night ahead I suspect they may move on. Still, a fantastic bird to find locally and what a way to ring up my 80th* patch species of the year!

Photo: Richard Waters

Photo: Richard Waters

* Whoops, actually my 81st - completely forgot to add Redpoll after my skywatch on the 17th!

Shalford patch diary and local round-up, mid-March

7th March

Fairly standard fare from this evening's patch visit, though most notable was the presence of a vocal pair of Stonechats in St Catherine's Meadow, the male even uttering a few phrases of song at dusk; not something I've heard on patch before. My discovery last June of a very young juvenile had led Steve Chastell to suggest they may have bred very locally - perhaps they are looking to do so again.

9th March

Another after work patch visit at the end of one of the first truly warm days of the year so far (top temperature 19c) and arrived to find the meadows still ringing with bird song. A flock of c.200 Common Gulls flew north together in a tight flock; one of my largest counts of this species here. A Carrion Crow was carrying nesting material to one of the 'Little Owl Oaks' in St Catherine's Meadow. On St Catherine's Pool there were the usual pair of Gadwall, 3 Little Grebes and 4 Coots. 50+ Linnets flew into roost in Broom Meadow; a record count for this species here.  

11th March

A late afternoon visit with my girlfriend produced the first singing Chiffchaff of the year in Mill Meadow Meadow, along with a pair of Gadwall in the same area. St Catherine's Pool held a pair of Gadwall, 2 Grey Herons, 4 Teal and 3 Little Grebes.

12th March

WeBS day and first stop was Winkworth Arboretum with Ed Stubbs. Rowe's Flashe Lake held 11 Tufted Ducks (highest count so far here this year), 2 Little Grebes, 3 Mandarin Ducks and a Bar-headed Goose (!) while a Water Rail squealed as we crossed the Phillimore Wetland boardwalk. At least 3 Chiffchaffs were singing while near the boathouse we heard a Firecrest.

Next it was on to Shalford for my most thorough exploration of the patch for a couple of weeks which produced a year tick and a patch lifer for me.

After finding little on the outflow stream from Broadford Marsh I headed past Horse Field along the Railway Line Walk. There were the usual scattering of Pheasants in the field but one instantly jumped out as being different -  a Red-legged Partridge! My first ever on the patch and only the third documented record here (previous records in 2004 and 2007). Hardly a surprise given the amount of shooting estates around here but a nice addition to the year list nonetheless. Typically for this species it sprinted off and disappeared into the bushes before I could even reach for my camera.

Moving down the river to the St Catherine's area I found my second year tick of the morning: a drake Tufted Duck (79) on St Catherine's Pool. Not a particularly regular sight here given the rather unsuitable habitat. Just the previous day the Leith Hill guys and I had been chatting about this species' migratory habits and, as I mentioned earlier, Ed and I had noted a clear increase in numbers at Winkworth earlier in the day. Clearly some movement of this species had occurred overnight.

Away from the water birds the highlights of this morning's visit were two singing Chiffchaffs and at least six singing Reed Buntings.

Tufted Duck

Gadwall

14th March

The first pre-work sky watch of the year from St Catherine's Hill and the first one I've done in co-ordination with Ed who was positioned  a few miles south on his Allden's Hill watchpoint.

As we exchanged texts throughout the session it initially seemed like there was little correlation between what we were both seeing - '22 Black-headed Gulls south'.... '0 BHGs!' - but gradually things started to fall into place as I picked up the trickle of Meadow Pipits Ed had reported heading my way, followed by a heard-only Redpoll (Ed had five north a little while earlier) and most notably a full adult monster of a Great Black-backed Gull which cruised over my watchpoint around 14 minutes after Ed saw it flying north over Thorncombe Park.

Full totals as follows (in order of appearance):

Little Egret - 1 north but likely only local movement
Chiffchaff - 2 singing by watch point
Canada Goose - 9 east
Herring Gull - c60 north/2 south
Pied Wagtail - 1 south
Black-headed Gull - 88 south/4 north
Starling - 20 high north-east/6 east
Grey Heron - 1 north
Cormorant - 1 south
Greylag Goose - 1 south/2 west
Common Gull - 4 south
Egyptian Goose - 1 south-west
Meadow Pipit - 1 south/6 north
Redwing - 3 north-west
Lesser Black-backed Gull - 2 north
Gadwall - 1 drake flew past low with Mallards
Great Black-backed Gull - 1 north
Redpoll - heard going north
Mute Swan - 1 immature north

Greylag Goose

Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Herring Gulls

Grey Heron

16th March

Ed and I had planned another co-ordinated sky watch this morning but, after waking up to pretty thick fog, I decided instead to just do a little pre-work circuit of the mid-patch (Broadford-St Catherine's). There were now at least half a dozen Chiffchaffs singing and a similar number of Reed Buntings. The winter species are still hanging on though with at least a dozen each of Teal and Redwing still around this morning. A pair of Cormorants on the navigation at St Catherine's Lock was quite an unusual sight, this species usually seen either perched in trees or flying over in this area, while the regular pair of Gadwall were still on St Catherine's Pool.

In other local birding news, I saw my first Sand Martins of the year today, with four flying west along the Tillingbourne seen from the hill behind my house in Chilworth. The fields in this area were still holding a scattering of Redwings as of this morning also. I'm seeing Red Kites all over the place at the moment, with at least three over the Clandon Downs this afternoon then four together low over the rooftops of Chilworth. Marsh Tits and Skylarks were singing on the Downs despite the brisk westerly wind.

Fingers crossed migrants will really start arriving in numbers in the next couple of weeks, although looking at the forecast for this coming week doesn't exactly fill me with optimism!

Leith Hill, 11th March

After finding Surrey's first Wheatear of 2017 at my work in West Clandon yesterday and with a dry day with a light south-easterly forecast I was optimistic for my second tower watch of the season this morning.

Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and I and the assembled team of David Campbell, Stuart Cossey, Paul Stevenson, David Stubbs, Robin Stride and Phil Wallace were enshrouded in the familiar Leith Hill blanket of fog for much of the morning after our dawn start. Still, the conversation was flowing well and spirits remained high - occasional Redpoll, Meadow Pipit and Crossbill calls in the murk reassuring us that there were at least some birds out there somewhere!

"Guys, I think I can see a bird!" - David Stubbs scans the foggy scene

By the time the fog did eventually begin to clear late morning the occasional Mipit calls had increased to a rather more steady trickle, with a total of at least 30 birds over (some heard only so may have been more than singles) - mostly heading north - the first pronounced movement of this species here this spring. As the sun warmed both the birders and birds the local Buzzards took to the air, with at least 20 thermalling within our field of view at their peak, joined at one point by a Sparrowhawk. A Kestrel gave a fly-by, as did an eleventh hour Red Kite as we began our descent of the hill. Gulls were on the move, with a high altitude V-formation flock of 26 Black-headed Gulls going north the most notable - not a terribly common sight from the tower. A Woodlark was seen distantly over Duke's Warren while some of the guys got on a probable Hawfinch flying over this area before promptly vanishing into the trees.

The scores on the doors

A little influx of Sand Martins and Garganey inspired me to check out my Shalford patch late afternoon which unfortunately produced neither of the aforementioned, although it was good to hear the first singing Chiffchaff in Mill Mead Meadow and to see the pair of Gadwall still present on St Catherine's Pool along with three Little Grebe and four Teal.

Shalford patch diary and local round-up, early March

2nd and 3rd March

A couple of reasonably productive after work visits, making use of the lengthening daylight hours. St Catherine's Pool was notably busy on the 2nd with an unusually high count of four very vocal Little Grebes, the now regular pair of Egyptian Geese, three each of Coot and Moorhen plus a drake Gadwall with at least twenty Mallards - this only my second patch Gadwall record of this year.
The evening of the 3rd, meanwhile, at last delivered my first patch Tawny Owl (76) of the year with both male and female calls coming from the 'Pine Island' area east of Broom Meadow (see map). Also of note were a Little Egret north and a record count of at least thirty-six Magpies into roost.

4th March

A dawn start for a ninety minute skywatch from St Catherine's Hill produced a proliferation of gulls: 225 Black-headed, 32 Common and a new patch high count of 271 Herring Gulls, all south, plus a single adult Lesser Black-backed north. This isn't the first time I've noticed LBBGs following a different track to the main flow of gulls. Also of note were 27 Pied Wagtails south, two Kestrels (one high east and another local bird displaying), three Greylags south - one very high - and two Peregrines. There was the usual loud chatter from the Siskin flock in the Alders below the hill but it was very difficult to get a good estimate of numbers.

Herring Gulls over St Catherine's Hill

From St Catherine's I headed straight to Albury Sandpit where I met up with John A and Dave G for our regular fortnightly survey of this site. The highlights here were at least four Skylarks (two singing), four Kestrels getting territorial, two Red-legged Partridges, a flyover Redpoll and circa thirty Meadow Pipits.

Skylark

Back home I had a Red Kite and nine Redpoll over my Chilworth garden - one of the highest numbers of the latter species I've seen in what seems to have been a pretty poor winter for them, in this part of the world at least.

5th March

The planned Leith Hill tower watch was sadly postponed due to the inclement weather (although Wes A put in a Spartan hour up there on his own in the pouring rain!) so I headed to the patch late morning and was pleased to see more standing water around after the rain. In Mill Mead Meadow I was watching a few Teal when a familiar 'huweet' drew my attention to a very fresh-looking Chiffchaff working its way through the riverside Alders. Hard to say if this is a rather early arrival or a wintering individual moving through but it was a very welcome taste of spring all the same and takes my Shalford year list to 77, so I'm now level pegging with my total for the same time last year.

There was still one Little Grebe pair on St Catherine's Pool but otherwise not much in this area so I headed down towards Broadford Marsh which was also very quiet apart from a singing Reed Bunting. After sheltering from a heavy downpour in this area I twice could've sworn I heard a Sand Martin call but unfortunately didn't see any to confirm it wasn't just wishful thinking - won't be long now anyway!

Also of note from today's visit were two Red Kites east together, four Buzzards (making use of the sunshine between the showers), at least fifteen Redwing, a similar number of Teal and a single drake Shoveler.