Wildlife at Hawksfold

Hawksfold sits on one of the richest wildlife seams in the south: the greensand country of the western Weald, just before it rises to the chalk of the Downs. Within a short walk or drive you move through oak and hazel woodland, old pasture and tall hedgerows, ponds and wet ditches, and open heather heath — four habitats, each with its own cast.

On the estate itself, the regulars include barn owls quartering the rough field margins at dusk, kestrels hanging over the pasture, kingfishers working the ponds, and both great spotted and green woodpeckers in the old timber. Buzzards and red kites are daily overhead; roe deer pick along the wood edges most mornings; and on warm nights the pipistrelle and serotine bats take over the airspace above the yard.

Our five bird hides are sited to bring you close to this without disturbing it — read more and book a session on the hides page.

A few minutes west of Midhurst lie Iping and Stedham Commons — a Site of Special Scientific Interest and one of the finest fragments of lowland heath left in Sussex. On June and July evenings the heath hums with nightjars, that strange mechanical churring starting as the light goes; by day there are Dartford warblers in the gorse, woodlarks spiralling overhead, and in high summer the rare silver-studded blue butterfly. The Serpent Trail guide has the details.

South, on the chalk, it's a different show again: skylarks and corn buntings along the South Downs Way, yew woodland full of winter thrushes at Kingley Vale, and in late summer clouds of chalkhill blues on the downland flowers.

Spring is the dawn chorus at full volume — blackcaps and garden warblers in the scrub, cuckoo some years, and the woodpeckers drumming. Summer brings the owls out early on long evenings, dragonflies over the ponds, swallows and house martins around the barns, and nightjar trips to the heath. Autumn is redwings and fieldfares stripping the hedges, jays burying acorns, and deer in the mist. Winter is raw and good: barn owls hunting in daylight after wet nights, huge mixed tit flocks working the wood, woodcock flighting at dusk, and the clearest skies of the year.