5th-9th October

After a painfully quiet few weeks the patch returned to form in style this weekend, with a long overdue year tick and an excellent, varied autumnal vis-mig session making for a memorable couple of days. The year tick – number 117 for 2017 – came on Saturday when a Hawfinch flew west over the New Barn footpath.

Meadow Pipit, Bonhurst Farm, 5/10/2017. A nice,
easy Pipit.

The individual was calling, and seemed to land somewhere on Juniper Hill, so I guess it wasn’t a total surprise to hear another/the same bird over Nore Hanger the following morning. Nationally there were a few recorded over the weekend, and interestingly Wes has had 2 in 3 days at Capel – maybe there’s a slight Scandinavian influx this winter. Alternatively, the habitat here and indeed in this part of Surrey is good for Hawfinch, so there’s little reason why these wouldn’t be local birds.

Hawfinches are rare visitors here, and on Sunday morning it was clear plenty of birds were moving (largely) south-east. I finally got my first Redwings of the autumn (10 in total), as well the Hawfinch, and an enjoyable mix of other species. My main watch was at New Barn, and the totals in an hour and a half were 5 Lesser Redpolls, 28 Siskins, 3 Grey Wagtails, 3 House Martins, 2 Yellowhammers, 56 Meadow Pipits, 16 Herring Gulls, 44 Woodpigeons, 48 Chaffinches and 2 Pied Wagtails.

Despite all the above, the standout moment of the weekend was something else. In fact, I’ve struggled to get it out of my head since it happened. At 07:53 on the Sunday, whilst walking the New Barn path to my watchpoint, I was stopped dead in my tracks by a very unusual Pipit call. It was clearly not a Mipit, and was a sound that didn’t instantly connect with anything in my mind, causing slight panic mode.

I struggle with separating the less common Pipit calls, but Meadow and Tree I easily pick out. This call simply didn’t come close to matching anything I could think of, including Water/Rock (I find these 2, and Meadow, very similar) and Richard’s, as well as the regular 2 species over here. It was drawn out, clean sounding and, most notably at the time, very unfamiliar.

Allden's Hill at dawn, 08/10/2017

The bird called maybe 3 or 4 times, and was going fairly low over our heads – my girlfriend got on it before I did. For whatever reason (probably because there was lots of action going on), I didn’t even register that it could be something rarer, and began to try and make it a somewhat late Tree Pipit. When I heard it, I didn’t think Tree at all, but as the minutes went by after the event I was calmly telling myself it must have been one. However, surely I would have instantly said Tree if it was one?

I called the boys up the Tower, and had a chat with Wes who, based on my description, suggested Red-throated. However, I still tried to dismiss a rarer option, convincing myself it was Tree. I hadn’t had one over for about a month, maybe I was just out of tune? I played Tree on my phone, and at that point became very uncertain. However, because of the activity in the skies, I put the bird somewhat to the back of my mind.

Back home and over breakfast, I went through a few Pipit calls, and I nearly spluttered my coffee out when I played Red-throated. That, surely was what we heard! My girlfriend remains adamant that Red-throated is the call she heard and, in her words, the sound was “longer, clearer, less buzzy and a little piercing”. As time has gone on, and I’ve recalled the moment and listened to calls countless times, I’m honestly left feeling that it was probably a Red-throated Pipit, and I’ve tried to summarise why below:

- The call was something totally unfamiliar to me - I like to think I'm good with flyover bird calls, and this instantly threw me.

- If it was Tree, which I tried to make it, then there'd have been no confusion and I'd have called it from the off.

- Red-throated don't sound like Tree Pipit's really, certainly to the trained ear, and what I heard didn't really sound like a Tree Pipit.

My only frustration is that I didn’t play Red-throated at the time, or even after Wes suggested it. If I had, with the sound I heard fresher in my mind, I may have been able to make more of a connection. It might seem crazy, but for me that bird was a possible/probable Red-throated.

Topographic map of south-east England

Anyway, one that got away, but a glorious, mystical and totally uplifting one. The fact a Red-throated Pipit even maybe flew over shows not just the reason to keep on patching during the slog spells, but also the immense flyway potential of my patch – I would love for more birders to give it a go here.

I’ll blog in more detail about this soon (though it’s essentially a deeper examination of the Hascombe Gap theory), but look at the picture to above and to the right. The High Weald ridge stretches from south-central Hampshire (near Waterlooville) to the north Kent coast (near Gillingham). There’s one obvious gap, marked by the black mark (the River Mole at Mickleham is also a notable gap, though not as expansive). Prominent avian access/departure points Climping, Beachy Head and Dungeness are marked red.

Topographic map of Surrey

Now examine this closer, clearer topographic map. The prominent gap in the vast High Weald is again (roughly) shown by the black mark. This gap, with the Arun flowing up to just beneath it, and the Wey flowing to just above it, is surely very appealing to migratory birds. That black mark? My patch!