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Hants, Berks and Surrey Borders (1 Viewer)

colonelboris

Right way up again
I though I'd start a thread for North-East Hampshire as HOS is mainly for South coast rarities. I tend to see a lot more mundane stuff up here, but it's still nice to hear from other people in the area. A spotted flycatcher might not make it onto HOS sightings, but I'd still like to see one...
 
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Stock dove, nightingale (nice views, too), moorhen and coot chicks, return of the Egyptian geese to the pond and families of young great and blue tits in the birches. A couple of jays having a disagreement with a magpie (and staying for photos) and a nice shot of a young magpie taking off.
Not too shabby.
 
Looks like the jays are coming back again after a while of not showing.
Managed to get a nice shot of a very thoughtful-looking female house sparrow in the garden, too.
We're also getting more goldfinches here than we ever did. They've taken to perching on the TV ariels.
 
Over at Minley Manor -
Sparrowhawk
Buzzard
Mistle thrush
Bullfinches
Swifts
Swallows
Grey wagtails (at least 300 yards from any open water)
Grenn woodpecker
 
colonelboris said:
I though I'd start a thread for North-East Hampshire as HOS is mainly for South coast rarities. I tend to see a lot more mundane stuff up here, but it's still nice to hear from other people in the area. A spotted flycatcher might not make it onto HOS sightings, but I'd still like to see one...

Hey Tony,

Another NE Hants birder here, I'm in Aldershot, my local patch is Tongham GP & the Blackwater Valley area just N of Aldershot. Have turned up a few goodies here on occasion like Waxwings in two successive winters apart from the last. If you'd like to see Spot Flys, I can recommend Frensham Great Pond nr Farnham, I saw three there a couple of weeks ago. They breed there annually along with Redstarts, if you need any more info give me a shout.

Cheers,

John.
 
wow, thanks!

I know there's a few more NE Hants people out there as well...

Just had a female chaffinch in our garden. Sounds a bit 'so what?', but I've never seen a chaffinch in our garden.
However, on announcing it to my lovely lady wife, she replied 'Oh yeah. I saw one of them in the garden yesterday, but I forgot to mention it...'
 
Mistle thrush has turned up again. I've been hearing its call for a few days now, but saw it on next door's ariel.
Which was nice...
 
Got up at 4 am (involuntary...) and went for a five-hour walk over the army ranges and Yateley Common.
saw:
Linnets, Dartford warblers, whitethroats, two grey herons, a family of GS woodpeckers (m, f and a juv), several families of assorted tits, skylarks foraging on the burnt patches of the common, stonechats, a veritable nursery of baby robins and a fair bit of other common things. No woodlarks, though.
 
colonelboris said:
.........and went for a five-hour walk over the army ranges and Yateley Common.........
Glad to see you're still with us, too! Nice selection of birds seen.

Does Fleet Pond come under NE Hants? Twitched there a couple of times some years ago - nice spot. Also have seen GG Shrike at Frensham (?) in the past, I think, so not all mundane stuff. Look forward to hearing what you see ;)
 
Gavin Haig said:
Glad to see you're still with us, too! Nice selection of birds seen.

Does Fleet Pond come under NE Hants? Twitched there a couple of times some years ago - nice spot. Also have seen GG Shrike at Frensham (?) in the past, I think, so not all mundane stuff. Look forward to hearing what you see ;)

Sounds like you've seen some really good stuff about - thanks for dropping in here!

Fleet Pond's certainly in. I'd have a pop at an area for NE Hants, but where to draw the line?
Frensham's in Surrey, but the main Surrey birds site seems to be a specialities only place like the HOS site. Nothing wrong with that at all, but I do like to hear about more common things too. I guess we could add in West Surrey. Berkshire's very well served by www.berksbirds.co.uk, so it's be superfluous to add much from there in to this one, although close to the border would be alright.

Today's garden activity (and not just because I haven't left the house today...): a family of goldfinches including one juvenil that was being studiously ignored by its parents while they were feeding, two mistle thrushes on my ariel at the same time (I haven't seen them together since April) and a greenfinch on the feeder for ~5 min.
It's not that exciting, but not bad for a garden that used to have very little in it.
 
Anyone else from this area notice that there are a lot of very pale coloured tits round here? There's a blue tit that I thought may be partially leucistic, but since then I've seen a few others and pale great tits as well. I know a few miles into Surrey and you start getting melansitic great tits, but wondered if it's just a few strange birds or a local thing.
 
Anyone know any other good sites in the area that aren't so well known? I can occasionally bag lifts off of Dad on his breaks, so may get round to them.
 
colonelboris said:
Anyone know any other good sites in the area that aren't so well known? I can occasionally bag lifts off of Dad on his breaks, so may get round to them.

Colonel Boris

Nice to see another NE Hants birder - I'm over in Farnborough so not far. Moor Green Lakes is cycling distance for you and very good - you should give it a go. PM me if yu want any info.

Allen
 
Walking distance for me as I haven't dug out the bone shaker in a while... ;)
I like that place a lot - some very nice stuff there. The membership is also really very cheap for the year (£5 pp).
I'm waiting until I've sorted membership or repaired my old tripod as the hides are members only and the gaps in the sight screens are taller than my current tripod.
Good site for semi-feral groups of snow, barnacle and Egyptian geese.

A site you might like is Yateley Common South on the A30. Knee deep in a certain type of warbler as well as linnets and stonechats aplenty. If you want the details of the best bit to go to, drop me a pm...

Good to see another of us!
 
colonelboris said:
Anyone know any other good sites in the area that aren't so well known? I can occasionally bag lifts off of Dad on his breaks, so may get round to them.

Thursley Common nr Elstead, Surrey is excellent at this time of year, supports breeding birds such as Hobby, Dartford Warbler, Woodlark, Redstart, Tree Pipit,Curlew,Nightjar & Cuckoo. Good site for Great Grey Shrike & Raptors during the Winter too. One of my local sites - Tices Meadow on the Hants / Surrey border can attract some interesting stuff too, recent sightings have included Dunlin, Green Sandpiper, Curlew, Little Egret, Little Ringed & Ringed Plovers. Earlier in the spring we also had several Wheatears, a Whinchat, & Yellow Wagtail. Being that you live in Frogmore, I presume that you already know Moor Green Lakes at Finchampstead which is also pretty good, Bramshill Forest is worth a look too.

Cheers,

John.
 
well, todays offerings from Shepherd's Meadows on the River Blackwater were...

* 3 x reed bunting (2 seen, 1 heard) on the river
* 15-20 house martins over the river and Balancing Pond, several juveniles, too
* 5/6 coot chicks still alive (local lady said she saw the parents drown the other one) on the Balancing Pond
* at 3/4 moorhen chicks still alive on the Balancing Pond
* 6 new ducklings on the BP
* 5 cygnets, a couple of months old on the river
* 2 grey wagtails, 1 on the river, 1 over the BP

The reed buntings and house martins are firsts for me on that stretch of the river.
 
"Fleet Pond's certainly in. I'd have a pop at an area for NE Hants, but where to draw the line?"

The local area used to be well served by the HSBBR Hants Surrey Border Bird Report. Well worth getting hold of a copy of the old avifauna of the area. Included sites outside Hants such as Moor Green, Frensham etc.

Nice to get a reminder of the old stomping ground, used to cover Rowhill and Badshot Lea in Aldershot, plus the Bricksbury Hill Ranges. Tice's Meadow didn't exist when I lived there but gets some good local birds.

Keep up the thread and good luck with the birds.
 
Thanks for the tip, Kev - I'll have a look.

Today's offerings:

River Blackwater, Shepherd's Meadows and Sandhurst Balancing Pond.
4 Juveniles moorhens coming into their adult plumage and looking very smart in dark brown and cream.
Still five coot juveniles, no further sign of coots nesting.
Very new mallard ducklings, only two. Not many mallards remaining.
Egyptian geese have gone again.
Grey wagtails walking on the lilly pads on the river.

'A local pond'
A large black and white domestic mallard with the most wonderful assorted ducklings (two butter yellow, one pale grey, two grey and white blotches and one dark with a white front like its mother). I think she's a Swedish blue.
A very striking pale female mallard.
And, best of all, a possible female/juvenile red crested pochard.
(I'll disclose the location a bit later on when I've got a positive ID)

Not too shabby for the day.
 
For 'a local pond' read 'duck pond on Frogmore Park Drive'.
Had it confirmed by a few people earlier that it is a red-crested pochard.
Nice!
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Well, concencus points towards a female. It's still there today and quite tame. Came up to a few feet for bread. It also has a bit of a limp.
Also saw the 'dad' of the mallard ducklings. I've never seen such a monster mallard before. It could have eaten several other ducks and it wouldn't have shown.
 
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