A fine Boxing Day walk around Stallance Farm, with Sutton Valence still gripped by ice.

Along the footpath below the Castle, I disturbed a Little Owl from what was the usual spot some twenty years ago – a mature tree at the bottom of a line of hazels. The owl skimmed the pasture in the direction of South Lane and alighted on a fencepost, where it eyed me beadily for several minutes.

In the orchard there were dozens of Fieldfare and Redwing, and in the hedgerow a fine male Bullfinch among the haws. I tried to conjure up a Tree Sparrow or Brambling, but there were very few small birds around.

The stream that cuts through to the Harbour was only partly frozen, allowing a Common Snipe to feed there. It was perhaps telling that when flushed it refused to tower away as you’d expect, but dropped back down quickly to the mud.

What I had in my mind as an untidy, swampy pond just the other side of Heniker Lane is now quite manicured – and nothing birdlike there but a plastic heron. Large farm buildings have appeared nearby, and the fields around seem rather more hemmed in, less mysterious, than before.

The track back up through the Stallance orchards to Nutbrow produced more thrushes, plus a fine male Yellowhammer and a Green Woodpecker. I was slightly surprised to find not one but two reservoirs on the East Sutton side of the track – the newer one is larger, with as yet no vegetation around it, while the original is more enclosed by trees than I remember. Both were frozen and birdless, bar the odd Moorhen fleeing the perimeter and scrambling into the trees.

The climb up the hill through the ex-farm buildings (now expensive-looking converted family homes) was unremarkable, and I wandered back along to Cherry Hill, up the sledging track to Bowhalls and back along the school playing fields without seeing much more than a Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Twenty years ago, the allotments were particularly good for Linnets, as well as Bullfinches, Tree Sparrows and various warblers, with the orchards nearby good for Fieldfares and the occasional Lesser spotted Woodpecker. A new generation of fruit trees and thicker hedges could tempt at least some of these species back to the area – quite literally, watch this space…

I took lots of pictures on my mobile during a visit to SV on Sunday, but despite looking promising when viewed on a minute screen, they mainly looked rubbish when viewed on computer. Hence the limited uploads.

Bird-wise, it was pretty quiet too – not a single martin seen over the village all afternoon. However, the BM playing fields were little busier, with a loose pack of around 20 Pied Wagtails around the new athletics track, and a flock of perhaps 60 – 80 Starlings, with a few Mistle Thrushes on the periphery.

Good to see lots of the new birdboxes in the maturing woodland around Bowhalls too.

In mum and dad’s garden, it seems that absence of any cats – after several decades of between one and four stalking around – has been welcomed by the local bird population.

Two of the tamest Dunnocks I have ever seen hopped around for much of the afteroon, along with the sparrows, while Long-tailed Tits, Greenfinches and Goldfinches hung close by waiting for their chance to get on the nyjer seed feeder.

House Martins were tucked up under the eves of the school buildings opposite Lamb’s Garden, and in between gusts of wind, a Chiffchaff sang weakly near the Swan, as did a Goldcrest.

Fired up by these accounts, I started visiting in the late 80s through to the mid-90s, as the site lies not far NW of Sutton Valence, and lay conveniently close to my bus route to school. By then, it bore little resemblance to the legendary patch of Birdwatching in Kent - Don Taylor and patch-watching partner Bob Bland had moved on to Boughton Monchelsea, with Taylor dubbing the Langley site as having begun to look like a prairie farm, stripped of many of its orchards and hop gardens. But still, the lake remained, and it had some good birds; Tree Sparrows, Long-eared Owls, migrant passerines, the occasional unusual wader, raptor or duck. I saw my first Willow Tit there, and (if memory serves) my first Water Rail too.

So returning on a misty morning in early April this year, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The walk down from the main road at Birchalls certainly didn’t bode well – a few Skylarks yes, but also a new industrial-strength metal barn or two, with attendant static caravans, some overflowing sewage and, sadly, the same wooded hollow still being used for fly-tipping.

But then: a Willow Warbler singing, and a Cuckoo – both my first of the year. And dropping down beside the stream, the easternmost of the ponds looked better than I had remembered, with the alders bordering it looking much more mature and the surrounding blackthorn scrub in flower and appearing thicker than ever. With Chiffchaff and Blackcap singing, I started to get my hopes up that the management of the whole valley area had changed for the better.

Unfortunately, what followed was pretty depressing. There was a group of teenage hikers camped down by the next pond, and several tents housing anglers too – so much for a morning’s solitary exploration. But more importantly, the main lake looked in a sorry state. Many of the trees on the footpath side had been grubbed, and new lagoons scraped out – perhaps providing future hunting for the Little Egrets that probably visit regularly now, but perhaps more squarely aimed at the human fishing fraternity. There was litter all over the place. And the once-extensive reed beds, already depleted in the late 80s, seemed to have been further reduced to a few small fringes (one of which at least hosted a chuntering Reed Warbler).

There were a few other birds – a couple of pairs of Tufted Ducks, some Mallard (including one female with about a dozen ducklings in tow) and three Great Spotted Woodpeckers chasing each other around. But no swans, just two geese (one Canada and one big Greylag-type, feeding together in the pasture) and nothing out of the ordinary.

Further down, along the stream, things looked up a little. The lower reaches of the stream itslef, approaching the road that runs from Chart Sutton into the back of Park Wood, were harder toget close to than they used to be, due to scrub having grown up.  But to the north, running up the slope,  a fairly extensive stretch of rough grassland has become established, one that looks wilder than I remember – and around the general area, a Yellowhammer singing and a couple of Linnets. Alas, no Willow Tits along the stream (I wonder when they were last recorded here?), just Great Tits and more Chiffchaffs. But at least this is somewhere you can imagine see hunting owls, raptors and the migrant Whinchats that used to vertiably pour through the farm in Don Taylor’s time.

Having seen enough, I didn’t linger long when retracing my steps. A few Stock Doves feeding on the big field behind Langley Church was the last notable sighting, before I headed off to Kingswood.

Kingswood

Wood anemone

But the coppice in much of the western section has been maturing for many years now, and the birds requiring the more open areas seem to have moved on. A swift walk through the trees between Pitt Road and Gravelly Bottom Road (brilliant name, that), and the area to the north, towards Leeds and Broomfield, revealed plenty of birds, but little of great note – a Lesser Redpoll buzzing away overhead was the best, with two Willow Warblers, a few Chiffchaffs, plenty of Coal Tits, Goldcrests, Jays, Nuthatches and both common woodpeckers in support. On the open farmland on the northern edge, I saw my first Swallow of the spring, plus moreLinnets.

And, as was often the case walking one of the footpaths years ago, I was roundly terrorised by a large territorial dog, which took no heed of its owner. Thankfully it was on the other side of a fence, but  I’ve had more relaxing walks – and I wonder how many local people (and visiting birders) are put off walking here by this kind of experience, in an area that might otherwise be worth a little repeat interest.

Waxwings are awesome. They’re unusual, certainly in these parts. They look great. And they’re often rather obligingly confiding, meaning you get to have a really good look at them.

This lot (around nine at the last count) can be found in a Braeburn apple orchard at Wierton Hill Farm. They were found on 29 December by Don Taylor and have been seen in varying bumber on most days since then – more details in the Wierton Hill bird diary, on the Kent Ornithological Society website.

Picture of Waxwing by Flickr user hegtor

In Lamb’s Garden, a Great Spotted Woodpecker called, and just down into South Lane, a Nuthatch nipped between the hedgerows.

Further down the lane, the first of several Goldcrests could be heard, and walking along to the fields south of castle, two or more Yellowhammers flew over ticking (but difficult to pick out in the grey sky).

In the orchards, plenty of Fieldfares chuckling, probably several dozen birds and maybe more – this area is always good for them. No obvious sign of Redwings (they often get overshadowed by their brasher cousins), but several had been heard the previous evening passing over the village.

Back up the crunchy leaf-strewn path leading to the castle, and plenty more Fieldfares in the orchard on the left, with Starlings and Chaffinches too. But the thickness of the hedge and the age of the orchard means it’s not easy to see everything that’s (probably) in there.

Not many winters ago, whem the orchard was very new, I saw a small mixed flock containing Tree Sparrows and Bramblings here – the latter are certainly still regular in the area, but I wonder about the sparrows.

The change of status in these gulls is amazing. 20 years ago, inland records in Kent were notable. Now, it’s worth taking a second look at any gull you see, pretty much anywhere.

Just west of Sutton Valence at Boughton Monchelsea, Don Taylor notes them frequently, as does Simon at Mote Park.

And last summer in Sutton Valence, a fairly lazy scan of the gulls passing over the village revealed a Med Gull, the first I’d ever seen in the village.

Photo: Martin Olsson

The latter is perhaps part of the wider movement of geese that has seen flocks turning up across the South East.

And while the other two species are generally commoner, I never recorded either of them in Sutton Valence/East Sutton when I was living in the area.

Incidentally, the area around the reservoir (which lies at the bottom on Friday Street hill, near East Sutton prison) used to be good for all sorts of (now rare) stuff – including Lesser-spotted Woodpecker and Tree Sparrow. Little Owls too.

Are these birds still around? Do you know, Tom?

I had a blackboard, a la Cley Marshes or Dungeness RSPB reserve, and would chalk up the species I’d seen from the window, for the convenience of visiting birders.

There weren’t many visitors.

Scroll on, ooh, 20 years, and the technology for a virtual blackboard has arrived. So here’s Sutton Valence Birds, a fledgling (sorry) project to collect occasional local sightings and talk about the good old days.

Probably still for a niche audience, but all-comers welcome.