a Sussex Wildlife Trust nature reserve
Not wanting to haul my poor little car up the steep hill to the Bo Peep Bostal any more than strictly necessary, I looked for somewhere with a lower profile to walk the dogs. Near me is a small nature reserve run by Sussex Wildlife Trust that I’ve never been to, despite it only being a few miles from where I live. I wanted to take the pup to a new terrain, so a mixed woodland in bluebell season was perfect.
There is parking for a handful of cars at the site, and late morning on a Monday during term time was bound to be quiet. We headed off down alongside a deep stream channel which had beaver-style leaky dams along its length, although there was hardly any water; it has dried out surprisingly quickly. It was so pretty in the way that only an English woodland in April can be with the dappled spring sunshine filtering through the lime-green leaves.
Bran enjoyed sniffing the bracken and ferns, and we made our way up a short slope to a lovely heathy area with heather, broom, and gorse. I noticed lots of ants – wood ants -which I haven’t seen for years. I grew up in Dorset, and we used to go for walks in the woodland and see the huge ant nests but I understand they are not so common now. There were lots of them scurrying around on the hard sandy earth as the sun shone down, but I couldn’t see their nest. I didn’t feel it was fair to make the dogs sit amongst the ants so I headed off back into the shade of the trees but next time I’ll find a place to park the hounds for a few minutes while I try and find their nest…they can be huge so I ought to be able to see it.
I drank my coffee sitting on a well-placed, handcrafted bench dedicated to a recently-passed volunteer. The weather was glorious, and it was lovely to hear the birdsong:
Chiffchaff
Coal Tit
Blackcap
And I also saw a few butterflies as we headed back towards the car:
Orange tip
Speckled Wood
Brimstone
I really enjoyed our walk, and I’m looking forward to going back at different times through the year. There are dragonflies and day-flying moths to see as the season warms up, and that little patch of heathland is really special, and I look forward to exploring that more. I often go to Ashdown Forest but the habitat there has a lot of traffic and is very open, so we rarely see anything much by way of wildlife when we walk there.
Here is a picture of a wood ant which I painted in my sketchbook:
