As mentioned last time, I've considered the area west of Stevenage as an area to visit. While I do go to Norton Green now and again for the migrants, and make occasional excursions to Watery Grove, it has been a long time, over 30 years since I last went over to the Langley area.
The first visit on the 21st basically followed the directions I had been given, which was to leave the Meadway car park, go under the motorway and then turn left and follow the track west and then north to Almshoe Farm. There is a nice dung heap being constructed near Potters Spring copse which looks potentially good for wheatears and wagtails. The copse held a lot of Fieldfare and Redwing plus a few nice clumps of snowdrops. Heading north, and despite the fresh cool breeze the constant song of the skylarks was really pleasant-over 40 birds which is far better than the Beane valley. There were also a lot of Linnets and Yellowhammers around and while the numbers were a lot lower than over the new year, the cover crops around the farm held 54 and 22 seen respectively though with many small flocks scattered in the hedges and cover I suspect my counts were a severe underestimate. There were a few Chaffinches, Goldfinches and a Brambling among them but I never found the Stonechat that has been wintering.
The following weekend I went on the 28th, and decided to head south along Kitching and Dyes Lane. I was hoping that the Langley brook would be worth checking out, and maybe I could get into parts of the Knebworth Wood complex, though as it turned out I ran out of time. The big problem was that while it was fairly warm the valley was full of mist and visibility was down to a few hundred yards. No soaring raptors this day unfortunately. There is a nice sedgy pool near Letchmore Farm that looks promising for snipe or maybe a Green Sandpiper but I couldn't see anything on it. However the damp wooded lane was very productive with a lot of thushes, tits and rather nice views of both Nuthatch and Treecreeper. Heading down Dyes Lane I encountered more thrushes, tried and failed to kick up a Woodcock in the damp ditches and having reached the junction I then walked up Kitching Lane and found at least one Marsh Tit-always a reliable spot for them.
I had Friday 5th off so decided on a rerun along the Langley brook and allowed more time which enabled me to reach Watery Grove via Pigeonswick Cottage. At least it was sunny this time, albeit cooler. The 'snipe' pool had a nice male Grey Wagtail, but there were fewer birds in the woods along the brook. There is a large pond a bit down stream surrounded by damp wooded hollows which I was hoping would be worth checking. I was so intent on the water, which only had two Mallards, that I failed to notice the 15 or so Fallow deer on the waters edge. They seemed ok with my presence for a bit but eventually ran off.
The rest of the walk was rather uneventful. Thrush numbers seemed about the same, there were a lot more tits around, and I managed to find a couple of Red Legged and Grey Partridge in a couple of fields. Watery Grove was rather quiet as was the wood around Pigeonswick. I returned via Kitching Lane again, and with a bit of spare time headed up to Potters Spring and then headed northeast towards the motorway. I had met a local earlier who had mentioned a flooded field that had pulled in a couple of Dunlin earlier. I guess that with the drier weather the flood had subsided and while there were a few wet spots I didn't see a great deal. There were still decent numbers of Linnet and Yellowhammer in the area though.
