As a change from my normal routine I headed into Stanmer Park today. It's wooded parkland, more manicured than much of the surrounding downland, and it boasts a wide and wonderful array of trees. In the centre of the park there's a small village and church.
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Stanmer Church
And near the church there's a pond. And where there's a pond, there are ducks.
Along the edge of the park, cattle graze, and the mothers feed their young.
Calf suckling
And of course there were birds, including several mistle thrush which are usually heard before seen. Their call is a distinctive loud rattle, quite unlike the more melodius sounds of the Song Thrush.
Mistle thrush
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 40D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
10 Comments
Absolutely lovely photos! Glad you had such a nice day. :up:
A park with a village inside? That place must be huge :eyes:
I go past Stanmer quite often but have never been in it, so it's interesting to see what it's like! 🙂
Darko, it's fairly extensive, and is surrounded by open downland so you never really find the ends of it. You can just keep walking. 🙂
Cynthia, thanks. It was just a lunchtime walk, but a nice change.
Adele, the variety of trees is stunning and there are some great examples of the cypress of lebanon. Many of them were planted around the time of the Napoleonic wars to answer the increased need for timber. There's about 200 hectares of open access grazing around the park as well. You can walk for miles in there.
Nice photos
Thanks Neil!
Lovelly photos, the Calf is a bit cloppy at suckling 😆
Mark, thanks. The calf was being very greedy but was clearly enjoying the feed. A bib would have been useful though!