Readers  might be interested in a recently published book on the birds of Surrey.  It is a big, well illustrated volume of nearly 700 pages and covers the history of all the birds known to have occurred in the county.  The earliest of them lived some 50 million years ago at what is now Croydon.  It was flightless and ferocious, eating mammals up to the size of a small dog.  Lucky it died out, some might say.  Today, Surrey is a gentler place of great variety.  It has nationally important numbers of several scarce and much-prized breeding birds including, the Nightjar, Woodlark and Dartford Warbler on its heathlands. 

The heathland around Elstead features extensively in the book.  Introductory chapters describe these and other features of the Surrey landscape and a history of how they have evolved.  Specially commissioned paintings by John Davis provide a record of what the important places in Surrey (from a bird's point of view), looked  like at the end of the 20^th century, as do a fine set of photographs by David Brassington.  Landscapes change and this should be of abiding interest.  The set of individual accounts for the birds seen in Surrey contains many references to our area, illustrated with  bird drawings and  charts.  Local people, such as David Parker, Ray Fry and Mick Pankhurst have contributed many observations. 

The first full account of the birds of southwest Surrey was published as a magazine article in 1833.  The first book for the whole county, by John Bucknill, was not published until 1900.  There was another in 1972.  Birdwatching is now a huge national pastime.  The Surrey Bird Club is the recognized body for collecting, vetting and archiving bird records of the county and currently has over a million records in its database.  It is therefore in a  good position to provide an authoritative account of Surrey birds.  The new book, Birds of Surrey, by Jeffery Wheatley, has been published by the Surrey Bird Club and costs £35. Like the previous county bird books, it is meant as a landmark publication, of interest to future researchers as well as to current readers.   It can be obtained from the Elstead Post Office or from 9 Copse Edge, Elstead GU8 6DJ (01252 702 450). 

Another book, the fifth edition of  Where to Watch Birds in Kent , Surrey and Sussex, may also be of interest.  It is about to be published by A & C Black at £18.99 and will be available through bookshops.   The Surrey section covers many local areas and the site guides include maps.

In spite of a wild and blustery evening we still had a good turnout for Easy Virtue. 

Our next film will be A Bunch of Amateurs which will be shown on Friday 11^th December.  Burt Reynolds plays the pampered action star desperate to make a comeback.  He is offered the role by a rather dubious agent of playing King Lear at Stratford, but does not realise that it is not Stratford-upon-Avon but a village in Suffolk.  Naturally, the amateur theatre group are in raptures about the arrival of their King Lear from LA. Imelda Staunton plays the owner of the B&B where he is staying.  Derek Jacobi is a Shakespearian purist, whilst Samantha Bond plays Reynolds' girlfriend. It's a light hearted film ideal for a winter evening's entertainment.

Tickets will be on sale from Batchelor's Newsagents from 27^th November.  We look forward to seeing you there.