Rosamund Birds: Alan's Twitching News
- guildfordcommunity
- Jan 29
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 25
Newsletter
01 December 2025
12:58
Hello!
Helen, having seen me walking around with binoculars hanging off my neck, figured that I might be the right person to jot down a few words about the birds that are seen in the area of Rosamund Gardens and on to Pewley Down itself. Whether I am the right person remains to be seen. But I, and several others - Martin, Peter, Jonathan of course - do spend a lot of time looking for birds in the area so I guess it should be one of us.
Below is a brief overview of what we did see in 2025 - which should give us an idea of what we'll see in 2026. Pewley/Rosamund are continually changing and developing as they are actively managed. As the scrub and meadows and trees become older and more diverse, different species will be more attracted to the area. Couple that with climate change and our warming environment means that our summer visitors (Swallows, Swifts, warblers, etc) are arriving earlier, and staying longer (?); our winter visitors (Redwings, Geese, Ducks, etc) are arriving later, and staying for shorter periods. Some winter visitors are not arriving at all. I did not see a Fieldfare this year until a few weeks ago. There were very few between January and April this year. Species that used to be rare from Southern Europe are becoming commoner. No-one 30 years ago would have thought we'd see Egrets over Pewley and yet we do see Little Egrets every now and then flying in from the SW over Guildford and heading towards Riverside NR. Red Kites used to be super-rare in Britain. Nowadays, it's rare not to see at least one of these fantastic birds floating over the down since their reintroduction 30 years ago.
Anyway, "nostalgia ain't what it used to be" as they say so let's focus on what we can see around Rosamund. The Pewley "list" - and you must know that every birder keeps at least one LIST! - you're not a birder if you don’t keep a LIST - but the Pewley list is well over 100 species which is quite a lot considering its size and location. We have very little standing water, there are an awful lot of dogs and it's basically a few fields, meadows and scrubby areas. However it IS a high point and that DOES attract birds as they migrate North, in spring, or South in autumn.
The beginning of the year was marked by the presence of a Barn Owl which to my knowledge hung around until around mid-March after which I don’t think it was seen again. You already may know that it spent at least part of the time roosting in the Rosamund loo! I've been keeping an eye out to see if it returns this year but no sign so far. At the same time a Mediterranean Gull appeared within the Common Gull flock that hangs out between the polo fields to the east of Rosamund and the horse fields by the Chantries. And yes, they used to live around the Mediterranean but now lots of them breed around the South coast and they're seen all over Britain.
Also during this winter period, we had at least 2 Firecrest knocking about between Rosamund and the gardens opposite. Firecrest look like Goldcrest but with "GO FASTER" stripes on their heads. They are tiny and along with Goldcrest are the smallest birds we see in Britain. Firecrest used to be rare but they are becoming commoner and these days Surrey is a stronghold for them in the UK. They're tough to see because they zip about ALL the time but if you do manage to see one properly, they're pretty cool!
Into spring and our first summer birds started to arrive at the end of March and into April. Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and the first Swallow at Rosamund was on the 3rd April. Whitethroats, House Martins, Willow Warblers arrived a week or so later and the only Wheatear of the spring was on the 13th April. Next up was a very good bird - a Ring Ouzel - on the 18th April on the path down to Warren Farm. A Ring Ouzel looks like a Blackbird but has a white crescent on its chest. Some of these guys breed in Scotland and Scandinavia but spend the winter in the Atlas mountains of Morocco. Pewley Down is just a stop along the way for this one.
The first Swift was on the 4th May and the first Hobby on the 5th. Peregrine Falcons were seen reasonably frequently overhead as they breed not too far away and often Sparrowhawks too. Red Kites, the resident Kestrels and Buzzards are also seen frequently. But we registered 2 rare birds of prey overhead - a Honey Buzzard on the 31st May and an Osprey on the 14th August. Neither of them stopped of course, but goes to show that if you look up you never know. Birds fly over places all the time on their way from one coast to another - and Pewley is sometimes on that trajectory. An even rarer record was of a Whimbrel on the 27th August. A Whimbrel is a wading bird that looks like a Curlew and prefers estuaries and coastlines so this was a long way from home. And then a week later Martin saw another 3 of them flying over. So for a few days we seemed to be on the Whimbrel flight path. Remember to always look up You never know what is flying over.
And then we come to autumn. This is probably the best time for birds around Pewley as birds have finished their breeding season, there are lots of younger birds around and they are all moving South. And so it proved this year. From the end of August we had several Redstarts, Whinchats, Tree Pipits, Lesser Whitethroats, a Wheatear and a Spotted Flycatcher. In total we had 25 days where a Redstart (or 2)were present in either the meadows or fields along from Rosamund. Considering we are normally lucky to see 1 or 2 a year - 25 is a huge number and probably can be nominated as Pewley Bird of the Year 2025!
Winter is now here - and Redwings and other thrushes have increased in number. Redpolls, which are small stripey finches, are often feeding in the alders at the back of Rosamund. They have a distinctive, wheezy call as they fly over. A Grey Wagtail is consistently found around the Rosamund pond and there are still some Chiffchaffs in the hedges around the garden. It remains to be seen whether we will get to see a Waxwing. The last record was a few days before Christmas 2023 in the trees and orchard next to Rosamund. Some years there is an "irruption" of these birds from Northern Scandinavia if their food is scarce, or they have had a very good breeding season. Sadly, for us at least, it seems this is not on "irruption year" - but we keep looking.
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