Birding close to home. Whitehawk Hill to Rottingdean, via Sheepcote Valley and Ovingdean. 23.03.22

Sim Elliott
Mar 24, 2022
3 min read

I decided to do a walk that I did many times from January to April 20211, when the covid-19 lockdown regulations prohibited leaving your local area. My journey started with the footpath opposite my front door that leads to Craven Woods on Whitehawk Hill. From the top of the hill I crossed Manor Hill Road and walked past Whitehawk Hill Fort and Brighton Racecourse, then I crossed the top of Wilson Avenue, and walked though the top Sheepcote Valley to the beginning of the race course. From there I walked down the valley path, to the east of East Brighton Golf Club, down to the village of Ovingdean ('dean' is Old English for valley). I joined the road (Greenways) at Ovingdean, and walked a little way south to Beacon Hill Road (the only road walking of this walk), where I walked over Beacon Hill into Rottingdean (where I had lunch at my mother's house. Later in the afternoon I walked through Rottingdean, along the undercliff to Ovingdean beach, where I caught the bus back to Brighton.

These are the birds I saw:

Whitehawk to Beacon Hill: Blackbirds, House Sparrows, Dunnocks, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Robbins, Greenfinches, Starlings, a Kestrel, Carrion Crows, Magpies, Skylarks

Rottingdean Pond: Mallards, Tufted Ducks, Pintails, Wigeon, Red-Crested Pochards

Undercliff: Herring Gulls, Black-Headed Gulls, Jackdaws, Feral Pigeons, Starlings, a Fulmar, Rock Pipits

The path opposite my house, leading to Craven Wood (Whitehawk Hill)

The Jacobs Ladder steps through Craven Woods

Carrion Crows on the top of Whitehawk close to the Whitehawk Hill TV transmitter. There are always many crows in the trees here.

Brighton from the top of Whitehawk Hill

A Greenfinch; there are frequently many Greenfinches in the trees on Whitehawk Hill; the Craven Vale allotments on the hill have many seed bird feeders, which may explain the abundance of Greenfinches

The i£^) tower and Sussex Heights flats from Whitehawk Hill

Wild Celery

A Dunnock

A Greenfinch

A Magpie near the end of the Race Course

Looking toward Sheepcote Valley from Whitehawk Hill

Herdwicks grazing the scarp slope of Whitehawk Hill, with Whitehawk estate in the background.

The path southeast of the racecourse, on the left introduced pine tress

A Brimstone butterfly on the bramble hedge below the pine trees.

Another Greenfinch

More finches

A Kestrel in a tree, in front of the Swanborough Flats Whitehawk, one of which is called Kestrel Court. I often see Kestrels on this walk.

Close-ups of the Kestrel

A Greenfich with the Kestrel

The Kestrel in flight

A Blackbird

A Carrion Crow

A Hawthorne Trees, characteristic of the South Downs, and the first tree to flower in the spring. See Look again... at the legendary hawthorn tree - Sussex Bylines for Hawthorne folklore