A nature site

Blog

  • July 2026

    July 2026

    I spent most of this month shooting music festivals and did not get out into nature that much.. But did get to play with video in the garden. This first one is the addition of a new bird feeder and the squirrel working out how to get at the lovely fat balls. Works even better with the sound on.

    This one caught all the activity around the bird bath in the heat of the summer. I’m in the early stages of reworking the little garden to make it bird and bee friendly and maybe see if I can keep the squirrel out of some of it…

    Finally I have got round to dinging out the camera panner and captured one of the nicest vistas around. Though all very dry and brown around here at the moment. Must get out and do more of these around town.

    More videos over here: https://www.youtube.com/@anaturesite

    Hopefully I’ll get time to add more to the guide soon too!

  • June 2026

    June 2026

    June was a hot month, record breaking hot month. So I mainly headed out on the cooler days or for evening walks. Pics are mostly around Southwick Hill to Mill Hill areas.

  • May 2026

    May 2026

    May is always quite a busy month for me and I rarely get to go out into the countryside much. So when I was invited to the classic car festival event in Steyning I decided to walk there from the top of Southwick hill.

    It’s a lovely walk and the weather was just right, not too hot and not too cold. I have done the round trip walk from Southwick Hill up this route and then back via Shoreham both ways and have to say, there is a lot to be said for starting at the top of the hill. There is a little dip on this route between Thundersbarrow Hill and Beeding Hill which is easier at the start of the journey.

    When you come over the hill before crossing Mill Hill road there is the most spectacular views. Then a very steep hill down to the river, again much easier coming down than going up. Once at the river it is mostly flat until you get to Bramber Castle where you can walk around the hull rather than going over the top.

    On another day I stopped as Southwick Square Rest Gardens where I too the photos of the squirrels

    The sheep were by Mount Zion on another walk I did from Mile Oak to Benfield Hill

  • Explosion of colours

    Explosion of colours

    Well, with the fair weather the great outdoors has had it’s annual explosion of colours. I was lucky enough to get out and about quit a bit while it was fare.

    One of the first things I did, has been on my to do list all year, was to get my local bus to the end of it’s route and walk from there. It’s the 46 which goes from near the docks in the south west of town to Hollingbury neat the northern edge of town. The plan was to walk from there to Stanmer Park further east then get the train back. It was a lovely walk and I will write it up fully… One day.

    I have also discover two more ways of heading west from Southwick hill to the river. One quick and dirty along the side of the 4 lane road that is slightly nicer than walking along the ring road, but not much. The other is quite a trek up almost to Truleigh Hill but take the last footpath on the left before you get there. Coming out just above the cement works, where you can get to either side of the river. I did these as a loop both ways and clockwise seemed much harder. Something nice about the almost constant gradient of the walk up Southwick Hill.

    Southwick Hill to Shoreham
    Hollingbury to Stanmer Park

  • Spring 2026

    Spring 2026

    After what felt like a long winter, spring got off to a fairly good start. I managed to get in quite a few long walks, though mostly on the west side of town. Which included my first few visits down to the river.

    On the video side I have been playing with a few cameras and starting to get an idea about how I am going to film my bird table. I got some great shots from inside the cover on top of the bird table and might expand on that sometime this year. As well as getting back to filming more out in the wild.

  • Long cold winter of 26

    Long cold winter of 26

    Well it has been quite an eventful winter so far. We have had a dusting of snow on the south downs, some very cold weather and quite a bit of rain too.

    Down on the coast we had some more shipping containers fall off a ship littering the beaches with an assortment of vegetables, mostly onions.

    When the weather has been good enough I have headed out with the camera and have been testing out quite a few different lens’ and cameras. Some of that in my back garden where I have been filming the bird table and all who visit.

    Which is mostly the robin, blue tit, magpie, pigeons and some collared doves for the birds. Until the squirrels come along and polish off most of the food. It’s been a bit too cold for the local cats to bother the birds most of the time but have caught on on camera occasionally along with a brief glims of a fox.

    You can see them all here on this playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuK1idMjuDA&list=PLK77Sh0mHYlEB_zBChMpFtbhjojOZpfk_&pp=sAgC

    I have also been exploring which local paths around here stay usable when the hills are waterlogged and which flood often. As well as chasing rabbits, who always seem to be around when I don’t have my camera with me. But have caught a few on camera and I love this shot of a rabbit just realising a dog is coming it’s way. Don’t worry the rabbit was way faster than the dog.

  • New year 2026

    Well I did not get round to posting as much as I wanted to last year but hoping to get out and about a bit more this year…. And make time to pop them up here too. I did do a lot of practising with the camera doing things like photo panoramas and some video pans too. Hopefully get more of this sort of thing up here too.

  • It’s been a while…

    It’s been a while…

    It’s been quite a while since I last posted here. Mostly because I’ve moved location from Hove to near the top of Southwick Hill. One of the areas I had not fully explored and indeed, since moving here it has much more than I realised. More on that when I update the Southwick Hill area guide.

    Although I have not posted them here, I have been getting out with the camera whenever I can. Taken lots of photos and video. Including starting to properly play with my panoramic panning tripod for my camera. Still a bit to learn on that front but I’ve found quite a few locations that will be perfect for it.

    For now here are a few pics from the spring and I’ll try and catch up with the rest soon.

  • Snow days

    Snow days

    Been out taking photos so much barley had time to do anything with them. So here are a few I have taken over the last month up to the snow pictures today.

  • Hove Lagoon slow pan at sunset

    Hove Lagoon slow pan at sunset

    I recently got a device for slow panning my camera. In no way sponsored or an endorsement but I ended up getting the Star Adventure Mini (SAM) from Sky Watchers for just over £250. One of the sites I was looking at said it was a good entry level device and it should be ok with the weight of my heaviest camera and lens.

    For these shots I used the app to manually rotate the camera and it seems to do about 180 degrees in about 12minutes or so. It’s fairly easy to set up if you have a modular tripod. Unscrew the head and pop the motor between the head and tripod and you are good to go.

    The plan ultimately is to try and get some nice very slow pans from the top of the hills around town.