Knepp wanderings!

 We headed to Knepp today, been a little while since our last visit, the new car park looks good and will be interesting to see what the new café is like when it's up and running, hopefully there will be some sort of Gluten Free options!! The car park is open from 7am  til 7pm which is ok for this time of year, hope they consider opening a bit earlier in the spring when the the Nightingales arrive! We headed out of the car park, Margie putting  £5 in the honesty box😏 yes she's the one!! First birds were two Mistle Thrushes that flew across the open field and landed in a tree and the first Buzzards of the day circled up above us. We saw many Buzzards today!

Mistle Thrush

Buzzards in the gloom

Should point out at this juncture that for most of our walk around the light was terrible and the birds pretty uncooperative, with one notable exception !!More of that later and it's not a Stork!! 

We had decided to follow the Red Route, no not all of it,😱 that would be mental with my condition!! Laziness!!😂 But the loop that goes around by the castle, first time we've been this way,  this was decided by Margie when she found out about the castle, as regular readers will know she's obsessed with em!!! We spend more time in castles than we do Birding!!! Well in the Car Parks anyway, they are usually far to expensive to actually  go in!!😂 Little did I know how dangerous this decision would prove to be!! (Do a sort of dramatic drum roll in your head at this point!!!) So we set of through the first gate, yep you've guessed  it, Cows and plenty of em, kin grut things with kin grut horns!!!!!😱😱 Now as regular readers will know I have more or less conquered my totally rational fear of large Bovines but the next couple of hours would put that to the test and beyond !!! (more drums at this point please!!) 

Distant White Stork

The first of the beasts, giving me evils!!

This one's such a nutter they've put a bell on it to give advance warning of attacks!😲 

Redwing part of a small flock, were quite a few birds flying around this area but pictures were at a premium 

Green Woodpecker, we heard plenty and saw a few of these today but always difficult to get pics!

Place is littered with em, how many cows does one estate need!!

Don't let that relaxed look fool ya!

Not exactly sure what this is supposed to be, but was on top of the castle!

Buzzard

Jackdaws exploring nest holes

Size of that one!!!

The pictures below are Margie's take on this part of the walk!

Typical Knepp habitat, won't belong before there will be birds singing off every bush wonderful stuff!

The little ones are the worst, may look all cute and cuddly but don't be fooled!

Laughing in the face of of almost certain death!

Some magnificent old trees at Knepp

The Castle

Striding purposefully on, so brave! No I am not running!!

They're everywhere!

Dragging Margie away from the castle, we finally left the fields of doom behind and found ourselves on a tarmac drive lined with some large trees, one of which had the most confiding Treecreeper on it I've ever known, they usually disappear around the other side of the tree, the moment you line up a shot, not this one, think it had found something juicy in the bark and completely ignored me being about 10 feet away!

Treecreeper

Fantastic views!! We took a slight diversion off our route to visit the lake and it's associated Bird Hide, the lake had a lot of Tufted Ducks, a few Pochards, Wigeon, and a couple of Great Crested Grebes on it, a Red Kite flew over and best of all a Kingfisher which flew across the lake and buried itself in some Willows! 

Yes I know it's blurred, but they are very quick and it took me by surprise😢

Great Crested Grebe

The Reedbed was mainly Reedmace, but dreams of finding a Penduline Tits were quickly crushed as were dreams of Goosander, Smew or even a Goldeneye😢

Red Kite

Red Kite

Tufted Duck

Pochard

Coot

Reedmace

Female Pochard

Margie's pics below

Very Picturesque 

Think the hide is designed to look quaint!

Signs of Spring

Lichen

As we came back on the road, we spotted a herd of Fallow Deer stags opposite, I was surprised that most still had their Antlers, presumably they will fall off soon, ready to grow new ones for next years rut?

Fallow Deer

Looks like this one has been in the wars!

Whilst enjoying the Deer a Stock Dove flew over

Margie really enjoyed seeing the deer so close and so filled her boots!

Margie filling her boots!

We headed back and re-joined the Red Path back towards the start. Couple of Herons flew out and about as we crossed the open land a Buzzard gave a close flyby!

Buzzard in horrible light

Looking back we could see the Deer again

So nimble!

So near the end now I was just getting a bit cocky about dealing with the beasts, when we were confronted with a huge herd of cattle and they were moving!!, Towards us!!! Also there were Horses!!! (would suggests the drums reaching a crescendo at this point!!😱😲) Now rumours I suggested we turn tail and run are greatly exaggerated, it was like the Serengeti and the beast were between us and the safety of Swallow Lane, thoughts there might be a Bull in with em were confirmed by lots of mountings and frisky behaviour!! Even Margie decided walking straight through the middle of em might be unwise, so we took a healthy detour around before finally reaching safety phew!!! Though Margie said she was in more danger, from laughing at me so much, she might have a heart attack rather than  any danger from the beasts, which I felt was harsh!!!😁

Don't think Margie's pic captures the scale of the herd!

Eyeing me up, ready to charge!

Meadow Pipit was a small flock in with the cows, this was the only picture I managed in my haste!

We arrived back at the starting point, diverted to visit the shop, which was shut!! Which meant I couldn't take the ultimate revenge on the beasts, denied😢!!!! It did however let us get close to one of the Stork Platforms they are very impressive birds!

That was that, nearly 5 miles walked!! Although I don't really like being in fields with the cows, in reality they didn't  give us a second glance, yes I may have exaggerated the peril in the text above 😲😁!  I must admit I really like Knepp and what they are trying to do, have been visiting pretty much since I arrived in Sussex and seen it develop over the last few years, lots of excellent habitat being created and food being produced as well, it may not be possible for every farm to be like this but definitely think there should be a few more around the country! Would help our hard pressed wildlife no end!!

To find out more about what they do their website can be found here https://knepp.co.uk/  (I have no connection to Knepp and have not been paid in anyway to promote them!!!)

Appropriately the final bird was a Buzzard over the Car Park

Buzzard

Great day out!!