A good number of my posts on this blog will come from my home range – like a local patch but with very fuzzy edges. It’s the place where I grew up during the 1960s and 70s and the place I have been returning ever since.
It’s broadly described by the twin parishes of Godmersham and Crundale which straddle the river Great Stour as it passes through the North Downs on its way to Canterbury and onward to Sandwich Bay.
The gap created by the river marks the line of the A28 and the railway – otherwise the roads are small and deep-set lanes that often lead only to a farm and a scattering of houses. Two major footpaths cross the parishes, the North Downs Way and the Stour Valley Walk. And recently, cycle route 18 has arrived providing a much safer option than the A28.
To the west, King’s Wood forms a fuzzy edge to the area (mainly as I like to the local nightjars are on my patch). To the east, another block of Forestry Commission woodland, Eggringe Wood and the larger Denge Wood provide another fuzzy boundary.
The river is where I saw my first kingfisher, the woods now host buzzards and the farmland still holds a small number of turtle doves.
I’ve added historic bird records back to 1971 to BirdTrack – which provides me with an accessible personal account of the changes over four decades, and will provide me with lots of material for this blog.
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