Wednesday 19th March 2008
Pulborough - Rackham - Amberley - Pulborough
13 miles
A gorgeous sunny days
walking today but with the threat of stormy weather always present. Fortunately
the rain held off and I only got hit by a few drops all day.
First stop was
RSPB Pulborough Brooks where I got my first views of the year of the adders. I
found four of them in total and they all seemed to be small females.
There were nine gliders flying back and forth along the downs between Cootham
and Amberley as I climbed Rackham Hill. Some of them seemed to be seeing how low to the ground they could
get as they flew over the downs. One must have only been 10 feet off the ground
and looked really good against the newly ploughed fields and blue sky.
On reaching the top I set off for the Burgh where I hoped to see some mad
march Hares boxing. I wasn't disappointed as they were at it as soon as I got
there. Unfortunately, despite scanning everywhere for over an hour I was still
unable to find any of the Short-Eared owls. I did see a sparrowhawk fly behind a
small bush and flush out a thrush. It just managed to get away by flying in a
straight line at top speed.
I managed to see 54 species of bird today, which included: 2 Sparrowhawks, lots of
Buzzards and
Kestrels, 2
Grey Partridge and 2 Barn Owls. I made a
small film that shows some of the wildlife seen today.
This female has milky eyes which means that she is
getting ready to shed her skin.
Common newt (Triturus
vulgaris)
.JPG)
Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus)
Grey heron