Our Nature Walk on 28th August was led by David Horne and took us west along the clifftop from Hordle Cliff car park.
It was bank holiday week so we were few in number, but as always, David’s breadth of knowledge of our local area was fantastic!
40 million years ago, when the climate was warmer, the area was home to turtles, crocodiles, mammals and swamp-cyprus trees. Hordle Cliff consists of soft sand and clay fossiliferous Upper Eocene strata which contains lots of remains of these creatures! With the ongoing erosion, who knows what might appear within the collapsed cliff face!
In terms of birdlife, it was also a quiet morning, maybe they were on holiday too! But we did get sightings of some:
Wheatear
Stonechat
Goldfinches
Linnets
Herring gulls
Great black backed gulls
Sand Martins
Rooks
Swallows
Whitethroats
We were also on the lookout for butterflies, but again, few appeared – gatekeepers, common blue and some whites!
Watch the website for details of our nature walks during the autumn period
Thanks
Gill