Claygate (1 Viewer)

Anyone live in or around there? I've been there a couple of years and I've got a (fairly informal) list which hit 51 recently.

Just curious as whether anyone else has ever regularly birded in or around the forests and fields of Claygate and turned up anything interesting.

I'm quite near to you, and you might know my local patch, Stoke's Field. I used to go there for birds quite often, but my list never came to much- the best being a fly over Buzzard a few years back and Bullfinch. I mainly go there now just to look for butterflies (a great site in Surrey for Essex Skipper and Brown Argus).

I've seen a few Red Kites in the 6 years I've lived here, one being just over the bypass on the way into Claygate, gliding over Telegraph Hill. The best birds I've found in the area has to be a small flock of 14 Waxwings that briefly landed in trees along Angel Road on the 14th April this year, during the larger influx of the species into Surrey.

The only other highlights have come from the garden, with a fly over Tawny Owl one night earlier this summer, and the odd pass through of a Whitethroat.

Just counted up my list for the area (Hinchley Wood/Thames Ditton/Long Ditton/Claygate) and it comes to a meager 64 (counting Great-crested Grebe, Kingfisher and Common Tern along the River Thames by the Ye Olde Swann Inn.

Cheers Bill!

One thing I'm blessed with each summer in Claygate is Hobbys. All summer we get them hawking about over head and it's not hard to see them catching dragonflies and whatever else in flight. Saw a pair last Saturday, along with some swallows, no doubt my last ones of the year.

I somehow managed not to see any Waxwings last winter. I'm probably the only person that didn't, but the area was alive with Redwings and Fieldfares

The fields and forest between Claygate and Esher Common are good for warblers (though my ID skills - apart from Whitethroats in the hedgrows- here are pretty poor!), finches, tits and stuff. The fields get gulls too.