Sussex
Scrapbook ~ Wildlife walks throughout the year
Saturday 1st October 2011
Amberley - Wepham Down - Arundel -South Stoke - North Stoke
12 miles
Been very busy for the
past few weeks helping the
1st
Crawley Scouts, so apologies for the lack of action on our website.
Sussex has been blessed by a visitation from a juvenile
Pallid Harrier, which is on holiday in the Wepham / Burpham area. They
usually live in Eastern Europe and India, so it's a little bit off course. We
hadn't managed to get a moment free to try and see it so far, so we jumped at
the opportunity this morning. Only trouble was, I had a terrible cold and the
walk became a bit of a slog at times as my temperature rose and fell. Worse than
that though, we didn't get to see the Harrier - we didn't see much at all in
fact, perhaps because the day broke the all-time record for the
highest
temperature in October (29.9oC). We even had to get our water bottle refilled at
Arundel
Youth Hostel as we'd nearly done the lot by the time we got there. We still
had plenty of tea about our person (of course!) but we needed a cold drink
really badly.
Despite the sneezing, shivering, sweating and sniffing, the walk was as good as
ever, with one particularly magical moment - a
Water Vole going about it's business
under the bridge at South Stoke, ignoring us and a few other visitors gawping
from above.
Next week we're taking the scouts walking in this area too, so hopefully
we'll get another bash at the Harrier and with any luck we will see the vole
too!
This Robin is wearing some bling! He's got a
ring.
Amberley Village as the mist rises and the solar heating starts up.
Brimstone Butterfly.
We also saw a
Clouded Yellow and many
Red Admirals.
Some very hot sheep take shelter behind some kindly-placed bales of hay..
Beside Wepham Wood, but no sign of the
Harrier.
Huge Quinces.
Down to the beautiful
River Arun.
The campsite at
Arundel YHA.
Back along the river for
sunset.
Take the time to read
the
countryside code for yourself and please stick to it at all times.