Gatwick Airport (1 Viewer)

[florall]

Haven't managed to get here much recently, and I didn't have high hopes when we went at the dead period (about 3pm) yesterday afternoon, especially as we took two fairly small children with us who were exclaiming (loudly) with delight at everything they saw. I shouldn't have been so negative, because I got another patch tick, and it's a summer visitor that everyone would love to have:

no.54 cuckoo. And what was also so good, is that I saw it when it landed on the airport perimeter fence, and then it flew off over towards the runway, cuckooing all the way. This is the first one I've seen for about 15 years.

This is the total list from the 20 minutes I was there:

blackbird 2
magpie 4
woodpigeon 3
reed bunting 4
cuckoo 1
song thrush 1
jay 3
great tit 2
blue tit 4
chiffchaff (at last)
jackdaw 15
carrion crow 1
wren 1
starling 4
reed warbler 1

 

[florall]

Had two more visits last week. Nothing new on Wednesday evening, but we heard the Cuckoo again which was nice. No doubt, those poor Reed Warblers are going to have to contend with an extremely large baby in a few weeks time. We also heard singing from low down in a bush either a Garden Warbler or a Blackcap. Didn't know what it was at the time but listened to our DVD when we got home - I think it was probably Blackcap but couldn't swear to it. Whichever it was, it would have been the first one there this year.

On Saturday morning we were both tired and didn't get out early, so didn't have high hopes of seeing much, but we were wrong. We walked across the fields towards Charlwood, which is the first proper walk we've had this way this year.

The first surprise was four lapwing in a field of sheep. What were they doing there at this time of year? I can't believe breeding - I know it would have been possible in the past, but nowadays? In Surrey?

We then had a whitethroat singing from a patch of brambles, which is great. I saw a parent and two youngsters in about the same place last summer, so it's good to see that they're probably breeding here this year. While we were watching this, a long tailed tit flew out of the hedge, just inches from my face and proceeded to catch insects, so presumably there are babies somewhere around. Then in the oak tree above our heads were two linnets, which is a new species for the patch, species no. 55. While we were watching all this activity a skylark flew up from the field behind us and started to sing. All in all, it was a fantastic hours birdwatching, one of the best.

This is the complete list:

magpie 1
woodpigeon 4
starling 2
robin 2
goldfinch 4
chaffinch 4
blue tit 5
carrion crow 4
lapwing 4
whitethroat 1 (with another possible a bit later on, though not entirely sure)
linnet 2
long tailed tit 3
skylark 1
g.s. woodpecker 1
blackbird 3
pheasant 1
great tit 3

 

[Rathloriel]

I live in Crawley too and will definately have to check out the area you describe. It sounds like a gold mine!
I usually head to Tilgate park, walk straight through Tilgate park, over the motorway bridge, through Tilgate forest and into the old forest that's out the other end of it (I don't know what it's called). It's a good hour's walk from the Tilgate Park car park but I know there is a lane that takes you to the old forest that is accessible by cars (the off road motorbike riders access Tilgate Forest from that route!). You then have to cross the railway bridge and it is very uneaven underfoot.
I believe there is another point of access though from the Balcombe Road as we've met some lost dog walkers in the forest before who came in that way!

It's a lovely patch of countryside with a babbling brook and bluebell views broken only by the deer and fox tracks, stunning. I never have much luck with birds there though as I don't drive either and have to rely on my other half taking me there - which means we miss the morning fun and have to leave before it all hots up in the late afternoon!
We have still seen lots of interesting birds and animals there though, including my first treecreeper. We can usually rely on seeing foxes, deer (some very close encounters) and rabbits (including an albino).
Birds I have seen there include green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, nuthatch, jay, redwing, grey wagtail, grey heron, mandarin, song thrush, mistle thrush, as well as the standard water birds and woodland lot and the aforementioned treecreeper.
Unfortunately the last time we went there (weekend before last) there was a burnt out car at the end of the lane by the railway bridge. I found this really upsetting as I see this patch as my little piece of untouched country and it was a hard bump coming back down to earth! I wish everyone could see the countryside the same way I do!!
Good luck with your future bird outings - you're obviously much better than I am!

 

[florall]

I think the area seems like a gold mine simply because it is a local patch and therefore I'm able to get there frequently, therefore I see many birds. But of course, I don't see all those birds on every visit. Some of them I've only ever seen once and I would probably be hard pushed to see again. However, it is a very pleasant area and enjoyable to come for a walk. And it is also get-at-able from Crawley on Bus Routes 20 and 100 - after they've gone through the airport they both go along Povey Cross Road on their way to Horley.

I think I know the bit of forest you mention. We used to walk there fairly frequently, though I haven't been there for years. We used to park in the little car park that is on the road from the Balcombe Road-Handcross. And you've had two birds on your patch that I've never had on mine - mandarin and grey wagtail - so it just shows that local patch watching does produce the birds.

(Where did you see the mandarin? Was it on the lakes on Tilgate park? I haven't seen one for my year list yet, so might just come over to get it. I must admit I don't like Tilgate Park much, it all seems so manicured etc., but I think you'll know what I mean. I get the impression you enjoy your bit of forest much more.)

 

[Rathloriel]

Yes, the mandarin was at the Tilgate Park lakes (I've seen them there a couple of times as I walk through). I don't rate Tilgate Park itself much either - I'm sure it's lovely for the kids etc but as you say, it is too manicured (and contains too many kids!). It's a nice walk through Tilgate Forest to get to our little patch though and can throw up some surprising encounters. Some parts of it are left to get quite wild and can be quite productive on a small scale!
I've only seen a grey wagtail once - as you say, that's the magic of having a regular patch.
Thanks for the bus route info - I may hop on one one day and see you there! I'm sure I have a good idea of where your patch is, with any luck some of your birds may find their way over to my patch in the mean time!!

 

[florall]

Across the fields towards Charlwood

I've been neglecting my local patch recently (mainly because of a wonderful holiday up north, where I did some fantastic birdwatching). In fact, I've not been on the patch since May, and yesterday I only managed to get over there for a quick half hour in the evening, which is never the most productive time of day for the area.

It was interesting to see how everything had changed. In May, it was all lush green springtime, with birds singing all over the place, and now it is golden high summer. The only birds singing were two wrens, otherwise it was the calls of young birds that seemed to be the most prominant feature.

The most interesting birds were three separate mistle thrushes, one a rather wobbly young trying to hold on at the top of an oak tree in the stiffish, but warm, breeze. This is only the third time I've seen mistle thrush on this patch.

From a nature conservation point of view, it was good to see that the farmer who has planted all the new hedgerows and little copses, also has allowed a two metre "weed" margin round the crops in the fields. This was absolutely full of blue and great tits, feeding on the weeds. A great success story.

10 species seen in the half hour here.

 

[florall]

River Mole, near the plantation

It's very dry, the soil is cracked but the river level is still high, it always seems to be. The river rises less than a mile away to the west, I imagine as a spring, and it must be a fairly powerful one, judging by the amount of water it manages to throw out.

I was able to nip over again this morning. There were lots of lovely flowers along the river, and on one patch I had in my binocular sight a blue tit, two whitethroat (close to where I saw a male singing in May, so this is obviously a favoured area) and a garden warbler.

There were two reed bunting and two reed warblers singing, also a wren.

I've never been much into butterflies and moths, though I'm sure that will come, once I've been birding long enough, but we did notice a load of yellow and black striped caterpillars feeding on ragwort - I've just looked this up and they are cinnabar moth caterpillars.

12 bird species seen in the half hour here.

 

[JohnZ]

Looking good

At the risk of repeating everything I went to the site yesterday and it is looking good. I found Reed Warblers, and Buntings, almost immediately and have posted a couple of piccies, hopefully. The shots I would really have liked, the Warblers, were not very good as you can see in the Bird ID forum under "Another little brown bird".
Had it not been for the dismal weather yesterday morning I would have stayed, and walked, a bit further. As usual by the time I got home the sun was beating down and it was a very pleasant afternoon.
Will try again this weekend, weather permitting, and hopefully will manage to walk a bit farther down towards where you have recommended.
Thank you again.

 

[JohnZ]

Fool that I am I have posted the same image twice. Should have been this one.

 

[florall]

Nice piccies John. I've also been to Streetmap, and where the arrow is on this page is a good spot for reed warblers. There are two singing in the reeds there at the moment. If you just stop by the bank, they should eventually become visible, and you might get a picture.

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.s...=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf

 

[JohnZ]

Thank you for your help. I can see I have a bit of walking to do ! I may even venture down the Sussex Border Path.
I have been going to Sevenoaks every weekend lately and though I have not covered all of it I fancy a change. Hopefully it will be a change for the better.

 

[florall]

Wakehurst Place

We don't always go birding at the River Mole. There are plenty of other places that are fairly local that we go to frequently.

This morning we went to Wakehurst Place, which is about 10 miles to the south east. The land is owned by the National Trust, but it has been run by Kew Gardens since the 1960s - they were then running out of space in London, and also wanted somewhere where they could grow different sorts of plants from those in their London garden.

I've been visiting probably right from the time it first opened as a garden - I can remember going there with my parents. However, it wasn't until about seven months ago that we first took our binoculars along and began to realise its birding potential. We visited frequently during the winter, using it as a good place to learn more common bird calls - and we succeeded because in all sort of birding situations and places I now have much more success in identifying birds by their call.

Although it is a garden, it is really a Wealden wooded garden, with steep sided valleys, ravines, fast flowing streams, natural sandstone rock features, many ponds and meadows. In all, the bit that is open to the public is about 250 acres. At the very bottom of the site is a nature reserve (I've never been there because it's too far for me and very steeply downhill so a long haul back up to the car). To the west is another 250 acres of woodland which is not open to the public. During the storms of 1987 and 1990 15,000 trees were lost on the estate and I believe that in this woodland, trees were just left to rot where they fell.

Today, we went to the Pinetum. Obviously at this time of year it's a fairly quiet time for birds, but we did hear and see many goldcrests amongst the trees, saw a nuthatch, also barn swallows hawking for insects inches above the grass, and a kestrel flying just above the trees making an absolute racket. Don't know what about.

We were there for an hour, and saw 17 species.

 

[florall]

Holmethorpe Sand Pits

This is a large area of worked out sand pits seven miles to the north east of our home, to the east of Redhill, south east of Merstham. The site starts immediately to the south west of the M25/M23 junction (traffic noise is unbelievable) with a pit called Spynes Mere, which is now run by the Surrey Wildlife Trust. There's another large pit immediately to the west of this which is still being worked - I don't know what this is called.

There's a bridleway that runs between these two pits, and if you follow this south through a large arable field and some pony paddocks you come to Mercers Country Park, with the oldest established worked out pit. This area used to be very good for birds, but unfortunately, there is now such a wide area of tree and scrub cover round the lake that it's not at all good for birdwatchers. The only people who have access to the lake shore are fishermen, and people using the watersports centre. It is possible to set up a telescope at the sports centre at the eastern end, but you can't really see very much.

Carrying on in a westerly direction past Mercers Lake and across Cormongers Lane, there's another Surrey Wildlife reserve based on more worked out sandpits called The Moors. And south of that is an enormous landfill site, that apparently attracts gulls in winter, but we've never been able to work out where you can actually see on to it.

Anyway, yesterday evening we managed to get up to Spynes Mere for an hour. Last year, this was quite a good place for waders, but this year they're pumping water out of the sandpit to the west into Spynes Mere, making the water levels so high that there's virtually no edging here to attract waders. So apart from a few of the more normal ducks and geese there wasn't much else.

We went down into the arable field where there are some beautiful old oak trees. We saw a pair of little owls here in May, but the leaf cover is much denser now, and, although I'm sure they were there, there was no sign of them.

Going back north again, on an island in the pit to the west of Spynes Mere, we could see two unknown birds - they were at the extreme edge of our telescope's range, so we whizzed round there and were delighted to find they were juvenile common terns, with one of their parents. This to us was really exciting news. I know they nest inland, but we've never seen them anywhere but on the coast at migration times before, so to find them on a local patch is lovely.

Close to them were five Egyptian Geese (we saw 11 in the same place last year), and a single lapwing - there was a large flock here last winter, so maybe this is the first returning one.

The complete list of what we saw/heard in one hour:

Collared dove 4
little grebe 9
swift 36
woodpigeon 18
magpie 3
greenfinch
mallard 8
green woodpecker 3
tufted duck 4
grey heron 3
coot c.80
mute swan 13
greylag 37
moorhen 5
carrion crow 5
barn swallow 3
house martin 6
great tit
blackbird 2
sand martin 5
common tern 4
jay
wren
canada goose 2
black headed gull
Egyptian goose 5
feral pigeon 3
lapwing.

28 species in one hour.

 

[deborah4]

Hi Florall

Just down the road from you - well 30 minutes or so. Good thread and Gatwick a good patch by the sounds of it.

 

[Stevie babe]

Hi Florall,

I've been looking at my Surrey street atlas and thinking that I used to go to the homlethorpe birdspotting (and trains) when a kid. I thought to myself "I've gotta get back there" (not for the trains). Your report has swung it for me.

Steve

 

[florall]

I've been looking at my Surrey street atlas and thinking that I used to go to the homlethorpe birdspotting (and trains) when a kid. I thought to myself "I've gotta get back there" (not for the trains). Your report has swung it for me.

If going by car Steve, your best place to park is at Mercers Country Park.

I would be interested to know how you get on if you do go. It's such a vast area and we've done hardly any of it. I'm sure there are lots of great birds out there still to be found.

Incidentally, there's been some discussion about this on the Surrey Yahoo birdwatching list, and someone else saw the terns last weekend. He was talking to a birdwatcher who has been watching the area since 1985, and this is the first time he's seen any terns nesting there.

 

[florall]

Wakehurst Place - Pinetum

I was able to get here for a quick walk this morning, finishing just before the rain began. All the usual suspects were about - two very vocal green woodpeckers, masses of goldcrests calling to each other from the pine trees, lots of coal tits ditto, but the nicest birds, and a complete surprise, were a trio of spotted flycatchers on the edge of the woods. It's always nice to come across a new bird for an area.

50 minutes, 15 species of bird.

 

[florall]

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Saturday 26th August
Gatwick - across fields to Charlwood, then plantation by River Mole

Last weekend we had a wonderful time birding in East Kent. If we got ourselves in the right place at the right time, we could easily see 15 species of bird in 10 minutes, and interesting species at that.

Today we came back to earth with a bump. Local patch watching at its most tedious. We walked across the fields hoping to see migrants but all we saw was masses of crows, woodpigeons, starlings and flocks of tits.

So we went back to the River Mole and sat on the bench in the plantation hoping to see more and there wasn’t much there either. A couple of reed warblers, a kestrel and two grey heron. The only odd thing was low down in some bushes near the bench a bird was singing away, a really varied beautiful routine. If it had been earlier in the year, I would have said blackcap or garden warbler, but this late in August? Surely not.

One hour, 14 species

 

[florall]

Holmethorpe Sand Pits, Monday 28th August

We arrived soon after seven this morning, just as the overnight rain stopped. We walked north from Mercers Country Park car park up to Spynes Mere and back again.

There were just the usual water birds on Mercers Lake. Just north of the large field, the bridleway turns east and is bordered by hedges. By now, the sun had come out - we could see masses of small birds flitting about but they were against the light. We followed a dog walker through but the birds had disappeared. We’re going to call this area Warbler Alley, because on the way back we just stopped and watched and we saw so many - willow warblers, chiffchaffs, whitethroat and lesser whitethroat - it was great to be able to see these two species more or less side by side and compare them, plus many residents, robin (including two juveniles), dunnock, blue and great tits.

At Spynes Mere itself, the light was against us and there didn’t seem to be much about, little and great crested grebe, coots, tufted duck and mallard.

The best activity seemed to be on the sand pit to the east of Spynes Mere. Here we saw a flock of over 50 lapwing, often taking to the air, two Egyptian geese, masses of greylag, a couple of grey heron.

While we were watching this, something that I’ve been waiting to see here for a long time happened. About a mile away is Redhill town centre, and I’ve known that there’s a ring necked parakeet roost there, so I was sure we would eventually see some on this patch and today we were rewarded when a flock of five noisily flew over. (At first, I thought they must be birds of prey with their long tails, but realised it would be extremely unlikely to see five flying together.) This is only the second time I’ve ever seen them, the first time was about 15 years ago on Headley Heath, so I was very pleased.

On the way back to the car, we paused to scan the oak trees in the field for little owl and eventually found one in a large hollow in the trunk of the fourth tree. We had tremendous views with the telescope - for the first time ever I wished I had a digiscoping set up because it was framed beautifully by the hollow in the trunk.

90 minutes, 30 species seen

 

[florall]

Horley

We get swifts over our house, but these have been gone for about a month. However, I've noticed in previous years, that we can occasionally get house martins in September - never notice them earlier in the summer. Yesterday, there were 14 of them buzzing round at house height over the garden. A lovely sight and sound. Gone today though.