Surreybirder
Ken Noble
The Surrey pages don't seem to be used much, so I thought I'd put in a general intro. Perhaps over the coming months members living in Surrey can add info about their own best birding patches.
Surrey is a land-locked county, about 722 sq miles (167,000 hectares) in area and had a population of 1,000,900 at the time of the 1991 census. Thus the population density is about 6.5 people per hectare. However the population is by no means uniformly distributed. The area of NE Surrey within the M25 (the circular motorway around London) is densely populated, whereas the rest consists of a few pockets of high population, such as the city of Guildford, and largely rural areas.
Much of Surrey outside the M25 is agricultural land. Livestock and arable farming are both important. But there are also areas of heath and woodland—none very extensive. There are a few lakes in the rural areas and some large reservoirs around the R Thames which forms the northern boundary for much of Surrey. Writing in "Surrey Nature Line" (No 117 2000/2001) Roger Suckling wrote: "'Although Surrey has no coastline or mountains, it encompasses a variety of geological features and habitats. Within the county are chalk downland, agricultural land, extensive woodland, heaths, small areas of marshland, quarries, standing and riverine fresh-waters and managed and unmanaged open spaces."
Perhaps the heath land is the most important habitat in Surrey as it is home to some rare creatures and has been drastically reduced nationally during the present century. Heath forms on sandy soil and is characterized by gorse, heather and low-growing grasses. It has to be managed though or it becomes invaded by silver birch and Scotch pine and eventually becomes woodland. It is the preferred habitat of such birds as nightjar, Dartford warbler, woodlark and tree pipit—though only the warbler is completely dependent on heath. It is also the best place to look for great grey (=northern) shrikes, though these have been rare in recent winters, and can be good for hobby in summer.
There are some good spots for birds within Surrey-in-London such as Barn Elms wetland reserve, recently set up by the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, and Richmond Park, a royal deer park. Also Beddington Sewage farm, although it may not sound very attractive, seems to bring a good variety of waders and raptors into the London area.
One cause of confusion is that the national government redrew the boundary of Surrey in 1974 (and at other times), so that it now includes Spelthorne, an area to the North of the Thames which has some large, man-made reservoirs important for birds. The annually published Surrey Bird Report (SBR) does not cover Spelthorne but it will be included in a new book on the county's birds which is due to be published in the near future.
It's hard to say how many active bird-watchers there are in Surrey but over 360 contributed some 22,000 records for the 1998 SBR.
Altogether 319 species of birds have been reliably identified in Surrey since 1900. This includes a few from North America as pied-billed grebe and Common Nighthawk but national rarities tend to occur more commonly on coastal counties and off-shore islands.
The Surrey Bird Club website is worth a look:
http://www.sbclub.ukonline.co.uk/
There is also a Yahoogroup called Surreybirders with about 150 members, not all of whom live in Surrey. This year, 2004, we are organising a 'local patch challenge' where members see who can observe the most species within a 5 x 5 km square.
Surrey is a land-locked county, about 722 sq miles (167,000 hectares) in area and had a population of 1,000,900 at the time of the 1991 census. Thus the population density is about 6.5 people per hectare. However the population is by no means uniformly distributed. The area of NE Surrey within the M25 (the circular motorway around London) is densely populated, whereas the rest consists of a few pockets of high population, such as the city of Guildford, and largely rural areas.
Much of Surrey outside the M25 is agricultural land. Livestock and arable farming are both important. But there are also areas of heath and woodland—none very extensive. There are a few lakes in the rural areas and some large reservoirs around the R Thames which forms the northern boundary for much of Surrey. Writing in "Surrey Nature Line" (No 117 2000/2001) Roger Suckling wrote: "'Although Surrey has no coastline or mountains, it encompasses a variety of geological features and habitats. Within the county are chalk downland, agricultural land, extensive woodland, heaths, small areas of marshland, quarries, standing and riverine fresh-waters and managed and unmanaged open spaces."
Perhaps the heath land is the most important habitat in Surrey as it is home to some rare creatures and has been drastically reduced nationally during the present century. Heath forms on sandy soil and is characterized by gorse, heather and low-growing grasses. It has to be managed though or it becomes invaded by silver birch and Scotch pine and eventually becomes woodland. It is the preferred habitat of such birds as nightjar, Dartford warbler, woodlark and tree pipit—though only the warbler is completely dependent on heath. It is also the best place to look for great grey (=northern) shrikes, though these have been rare in recent winters, and can be good for hobby in summer.
There are some good spots for birds within Surrey-in-London such as Barn Elms wetland reserve, recently set up by the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust, and Richmond Park, a royal deer park. Also Beddington Sewage farm, although it may not sound very attractive, seems to bring a good variety of waders and raptors into the London area.
One cause of confusion is that the national government redrew the boundary of Surrey in 1974 (and at other times), so that it now includes Spelthorne, an area to the North of the Thames which has some large, man-made reservoirs important for birds. The annually published Surrey Bird Report (SBR) does not cover Spelthorne but it will be included in a new book on the county's birds which is due to be published in the near future.
It's hard to say how many active bird-watchers there are in Surrey but over 360 contributed some 22,000 records for the 1998 SBR.
Altogether 319 species of birds have been reliably identified in Surrey since 1900. This includes a few from North America as pied-billed grebe and Common Nighthawk but national rarities tend to occur more commonly on coastal counties and off-shore islands.
The Surrey Bird Club website is worth a look:
http://www.sbclub.ukonline.co.uk/
There is also a Yahoogroup called Surreybirders with about 150 members, not all of whom live in Surrey. This year, 2004, we are organising a 'local patch challenge' where members see who can observe the most species within a 5 x 5 km square.
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