Sussex Scrapbook
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Nature walks throughout the year
Saturday 5th May
2007
Burwash - Punnets Town
As we left home on the bike this morning Gill spotted our first swift of the
year over the garage. It had just arrived from Africa and it was exactly the same day (may 5th) that we saw the first one last year
(and the year before). How do they do that?
Today's walk was only marred by some very obscure sign posting and also some
signs that were missing altogether. This made navigation very difficult in
places. However we managed to find our way around the circular 12 mile route
from/to Burwash via Punnets Town just in time before the sun went down. This part of
East Sussex is very unspoilt and incredibly beautiful. You get the overwhelming
feeling that all of the houses are owned by very rich and famous people. The
first house we went past was Batemans, the home of the author of Jungle Book,
Rudyard Kipling (1865 - 1936). We didn't have time to go in but the place looked
incredible. The area around the house does not seem to have suffered any changes
since the days he lived there.
We didn't see too many species of bird today, although we did hear cuckoos and a
blackcap. There were lots of deer around though and we saw some house martins as
well.
Batemans. The huge gardens look amazing and at the bottom
of them there is an old mill. What a lucky bloke Kipling was.
We walked through bluebell woods most of the day. Most of
the day we were completely away from the sounds of traffic, aeroplanes and
police sirens. Very relaxing!
Some of the bluebells were white (whitebells?)
An immature, male, Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx
virgo).
The only snake we saw today. Unfortunately this baby grass
snake had been run over.