My 'local patch' is an ill-defined area around our home in Hurst Green, immediately south of Oxted. Within a mile there is a good variety of habitats. Our house (since March 1993) overlooks Coltsford Mill Pond (grid ref. TQ 398507), which contains a small island. (The pond is on private land but can be viewed from a public footpath which passes to the south of it, accessible from Mill Lane.)

To the west of the pond, running south along the zero meridian is the alder-lined 'River' Eden, here a stream. Much of the area around the village is mixed farmland, some of which, particularly to the south-west, has been allowed to 'go native'. There are dense, mature hedgerows and fields which are cut annually allowing attractive wild-flower meadows to develop. (I am no botanist but I have noticed orchids, for example.) One field (at TQ395511) alongside the Eden, which was formerly a flood meadow, is designated as a Site of Nature Conservation Value. There is a sewage works at TQ 399502.

The area also has mature woodland, notably Foyle Riding and Staffhurst Wood (an SSSI), both of which are outstanding for bluebells in spring. The former has mature oaks as well as extensive areas of coppiced willow, chestnut and other species. (In 1927 it was the setting for a famous cello recital by Beatrice Harrison with nightingales singing in the background. Extracts can be heard on the BTO CD released earlier last year.) Staffhurst Wood consists mainly of oak and beech with many immature hornbeams. One area is being planted with cherry and hazel in an attempt to attract dormice, nightingales and hawfinches.

Bluebells in Staffhurst Wood, near Hurst Green

To date, I've seen 90 species of birds from the house or garden, with five more heard. I suspect that the Eden might act as something of a 'flyway' (migration route) for migrants, as birds seen from our house include ring ouzel, black redstart (two years running in our garden), whinchat, stonechat, wheatear, spotted flycatcher, common sandpiper and a couple of Sterna terns. Two hundred and twenty swallows were perched on overhead wires in the early morning of 8th September, 1997. They may have roosted overnight among the rushes and sedges on the mill pond island. Migrants never seem to linger, possibly because the pond is used by anglers and there are many dog walkers about.

The island on the mill pond is used as a roost by pied wagtails, my best count to date being 425 in November 1995. Numbers build up each autumn, drop considerably in winter and then peak again, at lower levels, in spring. The island also provides a refuge for snipe and the occasional water rail. Snipe are hard to count but 20 plus may be seen after heavy rain when they move onto an adjacent field, called Pond Tail Meadow.

The pond holds small numbers of tufted ducks in winter (maximum to date 24). Other species have included Egyptian geese, pochard, pintail, gadwall, shoveller and, in January 1998, a smew. A whooper swan that arrived during a blizzard in February 1996 blotted its copybook by reappearing on subsequent dates. In summer, house and a few sand martins often feed over the pond and this may account for occasional hobby sightings. Kingfishers are seen from time to time.

The sewage works holds few birds of interest but it is surrounded by trees and bushes. These provide perches for corvids (up to 200 jackdaws and 125 crows) and harbour the occasional wintering chiffchaff. A few willow warblers (passage migrants only in my area), blackcaps or lesser whitethroats appear and in March last year a firecrest arrived with a small influx of goldcrests. The nearby Tandridge District commercial services yard held a black redstart in mid-October, 1996, making it the third in the village in successive years.

As you walk past the sewage works westwards and cross the Eden, you enter good habitat for some declining farm-land species. Bullfinches, yellowhammers and linnets seem to have healthy populations, and skylarks and lapwings maintain a presence. I have seen grey partridges only once. Normally turtle doves are rare, but in 1997 about six singing males were present. Nightingales have twice summered. Garden warblers, chiffchaffs, whitethroats, and lesser whitethroats are usually the commonest warblers. It was while looking for the last species in 1997 that I heard a bird giving what sounded like the typical song with a slight change of tempo in the middle. When I finally got a brief view of it, it looked like a common whitethroat though, to my eyes, slightly 'washed out'. It stayed for three or four days and later it was alternating the 'lesser' song with that of the common whitethroat. Another observer was convinced it was indeed a whitethroat but I have never felt sure. It was unusually skulking for a whitethroat and, the habitat seemed more typical of lesser's. Could it have been a hybrid?

In 1996 a male Cetti's warbler summered along the banks of the Eden. Night after night, I could hear it clearly in the small hours from our bathroom window - possibly the only perk of being woken regularly by a toddler! I was interested to observe that the song gradually became shorter as the year progressed until, by mid-June, it often gave just one penetrating note. The fact that it kept singing so persistently may mean that it failed to attract a mate. (For more on insomniac Cetti's warblers, see British Birds Vol 72, p 184.)

The woodland holds the expected species including lesser spotted woodpecker. But either I'm bad at finding them or the LSW is scarce. Marsh tits, on the other hand, can often be found without difficulty, especially in winter and spring.

Nightingales occur along the the railway embankment near Merle Common, another site that attracted turtle doves during the 1997 influx.
 

UPDATE — 2001

Extending my regular beat along Pope's Lane has led to the discovery of some little owls. Two pairs bred in 1999 and they seem to be expanding towards the village as a pair bred near my home in 2000.

Also along Pope's Lane I have seen Red-legged Partridge several times, and up to 200 lapwings occur in the autumn months. There are often rooks, presumably from the Southlands rookery, in this area, too.

I haven't seen much 'different' on Coltsford Mill Pond, which is immediately behind my house. But a feral barnacle goose was present on 24th April, 1999. On the evening of 26th July that year I saw a hobby take a hirundine in flight with a dramatic change of direction above the pond. And two water rails were present in February 2000.

After several years of declining numbers of house martins nesting on our house, 1999 and 2000 saw a slight improvement with two successful pairs. But numbers in the area continued to decline. Some compensation was provided with 1999 being a good year for sand martins with about 75 present for much of May.

1999 turned out to be another 'turtle dove' year, with four males singing to the south and west of the village. Whitethroats were present in good numbers but only one lesser whitethroat of the five heard stayed more than a day or two.

I made some 'antisocial hours' forays to take part in the BTO nightingale survey. I thought I had found several but when I traced the directions of the songs on a map they reduced to three. One of these was at Crowhurst about two miles further south. Interestingly, all three were alongside the East Grinstead railway line.

For an aerial view of the area click here