Yesterday I went for a walk on the wild side in preparation for a special Healthwalk I will be leading on Friday 21st June. The Downs have a different character in the evening. The day-shift is going to bed and the night shift is waking up.
My destination for this year’s wildlife walk is Bird Brow, a site that I knew was a significant badger set in the past. My parents and I regularly went badger watching on the hillside opposite Bird Brow back in the mid-late 1970s and were never disappointed. However, yesterday evening at least 3 of the set’s holes were occupied by several rabbits and a pair of foxes. It was wonderful to watch the foxes ignoring their rabbit neighbours. Nevertheless, the rabbits never left the close vicinity of their burrows whilst I was watching.
A close examination of the former complex of holes that made up the badger set failed to find the tell-tale signs of recent badger specific activity. Many of the holes were obviously actively being used by burrowing animals but there was an absence of discarded bedding or of well worn paths leading away from the set, both of which are typical of badger activity.
This part of the downland valley between the Balsdean and Kingston Farms is part of the huge Swanborough Farm. They regularly keep cattle in this valley. It is possible that Swanborough Farm successfully applied for a licence to cull badgers in the hopes that this would prevent future outbreaks of bovine tuberculosis. The evidence is mixed and highly emotive as to whether culling badgers is effective or necessary.
Later in the summer the nights are much warmer. I much prefer August for watching night-time wildlife. With the descent of the sun, the singing of daytime grasshoppers, rubbing their legs together, are replaced by crickets (with their longer legs and antennae) rubbing their wings together. The extra warmth also seems to bring out more night-time scents. In the dark our senses of smell and hearing work overtime – senses which are normally overwhelmed by that of sight.
However an evening walk on the longest day, is far less likely to end in tragedy. Walking in the dark – though I enjoy doing so at my own risk – is not something to be encouraged with others. The hard, sharp flints which line our downland trackways, are always ready to receive an unwary walker should they trip and fall. I have chosen a more distant spot this year because it is rarely visited by late evening dog walkers – an issue with badger sets nearer to Woodingdean. Health and safety is a very real consideration.
A mid-summer walk to Bird Brow should provide the best of both worlds; late evening quiet – an absence of daytime hustle and bustle – combined with plenty of daylight to see our way. On my return yesterday, the sun was going down whilst black ground-beetles scuttled across my path and bats swooped and dived around my head, silhouetted against a beautiful sunset tinged sky, with a moon close to full riding high in the sky.
Our walk starts 6pm at the usual Castle Hill car park meeting place just north of the junction of Bexhill Road and Falmer Road, immediately beyond Woodingdean, on the edge of the South Downs. Because of the early start I recommend bringing food and drink, something to sit on, and very warm clothing. The set is an hour or more’s walk away and we will be sitting watching in a windy valley on a shaded hillside with no shelter for an hour or so, before returning with the setting of the sun, arriving back about 9.30pm. The temperature drops very quickly as it dips towards the horizon. Assuming a cloudless sky, on Friday we should see the moon, just one day before it is full.
Newmarket Hill 