SURREY LIFE LISTS

If you have seen more than 200 species in Surrey then you are doing well. Of the top ten Surrey lists, number ten stands on 224. However, the top man is Garry “the Monk” Messenbird who is on 250. Dave “the Walton Ninja” Harris is second on 249. . All of the top ten listers are avid, even fanatical, patch watchers so get to see a lot of species which are not easy to see in Surrey. Some of them are excellent rarity finders. Between them, they have seen 267 species in Surrey.

The area covered for Surrey listing is as recorded by the Surrey Bird Club (the old vice county, south of the Thames), “Political” Surrey, north of the Thames (it’s still Middlesex on your address if you live there), is not included.

All birds on the list follow the BOU British list so you can’t count, for example, Yellow Legged Gull or Pale Bellied Brent Goose etc until they are officially “split”. Recently, some of the top ten added Green Winged Teal and Common “Mealy” Redpoll to their lists (and more recently Hooded Crow), when the BOU officially split them.

All county and national rarities on the list must have been accepted by the official records committees so you can’t count that Black Kite that flew over your head if you don’t submit it or if it’s not accepted. The committees are the British Birds Rariities Committee for national rarities and the Surrey Bird Club Rarities Panel and the London Natural History Society Rarities Committee (if they occur in the part of Surrey that now is in Greater London), for county rarities.

If you have a high list and are interested in Surrey listing, please let me know.

Move on to view the following:

PAGE ONE = WHO ARE THE TOP TEN SURREY LISTERS AND WHAT ARE THEIR LISTS

PAGE TWO = WHICH BIRDS HAVE THE TOP TEN LISTERS YET TO SEE IN SURREY

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