Moving

After five years of living in Farncombe, my girlfriend and I have moved. Not far, but far enough for my immediate birding area to shift – something notable when you bird locally as much as I do. We've moved to Eashing – a small hamlet east of Godalming, situated at the base of a valley on the banks of the River Wey.

Eashing Bridge (via Wikimedia).

So, future 'from home' observations will now refer to here, with a goodbye to Farncombe and my flat window list (ending on a solid 88!). For the first time in years we now have a garden, which presents previously absent birding scope. I've long been envious of friends who can feed and provide nests for birds on their little patch of land, so it'll be great to finally be able to do this myself. And, of course, a garden list goes without saying. I'm looking forward to getting back into noc-mig too, which was never properly feasible at Farncombe.

Perhaps most exciting is the immediate area, which I have started exploring this past week. The Wey can be seen from our bedroom window and from here it flows up to Godalming. This steep valley runs through a broad floodplain and much of it is wooded, with extensive (and impressive) alder carr. There are also areas of tall fen, grassland and standing water. Promising indeed. I've only walked this area a handful of times in my life, so I'm looking forward to giving it greater attention. The other week I was most surprised to learn it's a SSSI – I had no idea previously. 

There are some areas of open countryside in the immediate area too, including a new site right on my doorstep called Eashing Fields – a SANGS site created in 2020 and managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust. This and a large stretch of the river are all within a few hundred metres of my front door and I'm excited at the prospect of having such easy access to the countryside from home – it's an added bonus that it's all unexplored for me. A 1 km radius year list has already commenced!

Further afield, I'm within walking distance of some of my favourite sites and heaps of countryside I've never birded before – hopefully there will be some avian surprises to come.