Sussex Scrapbook -
Nature walks throughout the year
Saturday November 3rd 2007
Amberley - Glatting beacon - Barlavington - Bignor - Amberley
This was a mildly strenuous 12 miler in unnaturally warm weather for the beginning of November.
We didn't even put our coats on all day, including the 2 hours walking we did
after the sun went down!
This area of Sussex is gobsmackingly beautiful, with many of the houses 400 years
old and more with thatched roofs. The walk, which we have done several times before, is undulating,
changeable, and incredibly scenic. It travels through mixed woodland, farmland
and riverside habitat with many yews on the Downs and fruit trees in the
villages. Photographs of the views
(especially mine) do not do it justice, so you will have to go yourself to see
what we are talking about. A real sense of old-world rural peace can be
experienced here giving welcome release from the stress of modern-day living.
Lots of buzzards today, we saw five of them together all soaring in a warm
thermal just North of Glatting beacon. They were screaming at each other and
were taking it in turns to do breathtaking, plummeting dives, presumably just
for the fun of it.
Animal highlight of the day came at dusk just near the Roman Villa at Bignor, where a
Barn Owl
(video) was
hunting over fields at the base of the Downs. It came round on the same route several times, getting
closer to us each time and giving us great views. This area along the Downs
seems to have a large population of
Tawny Owls
too. We could hear them hooting
everywhere, even from Amberley train station.
.JPG)
The footbridge at Amberley across the Arun.
.JPG)
A very tatty Red Admiral. He seemed very tired too!
.JPG)
The iconic bird of Sussex.
The Stonechat. Listen out for its call, which
sounds like two stones being banged together.
.JPG)
Yew berries. The flesh of the berries is actually edible (tasty too) although
the seeds inside are poisonous.
.JPG)
I still need to identify these.
Barlavington Church. We heard
Little Owls
calling to each other here.
The sun set behind Glatting Beacon while we were walking through Bignor's
vineyard.