Sutton, Greater London – 13 August 2008

We have returned to Sutton after visiting my father in Durham. While in Durham we took an early morning drive into the Durham moors between Stanhope and Middleton-in-Teesdale to look for game birds – well, I was looking for game birds, the others were more interested in the scenery with the heather in full bloom. I wasn’t disappointed, adding all three of the targeted birds – Grey Partridge, Common Pheasant and Red Grouse.

Also while in Durham I went off for a pre-arranged morning’s birding to the Tees Marshes with a local birder from the Teesmouth Bird Club. Again, I was not disappointed, with some 57 species ticked for the morning, many of them lifers, including a Water Rail that nearly took our heads off as it shot across the path along which we were walking between ponds. It was a particularly grey, overcast day with intermittent showers (a good north of England summer’s day!) not too conducive to photography. I did manage a few shots between showers of Common Linnet, Mute Swan, Sanderling, Common Ringed Plover, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Lesser Black-backed Gull, European Herring Gull and Black-headed Gull. Other birds seen included Northern Lapwing, Common Reed Bunting, Common Pochard, Northern Shoveler, Common Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Dunlin, Ruddy Turnstone and Black-tailed Godwit.

My two previous posts neglected to mention the 2 lifers I picked up just before heading off to Scotland, in Nonsuch Park, Ewell, a little over a mile from my daughter’s flat yet over the county boundary in Surrey. Nonsuch Park is the last surviving part of a deer hunting park established by Henry VIII around 1538. The birds in question are Stock Dove and Mistle Thrush.