Luke finds new joy in the South Downs
March 11, 2025
As the National Park Authority’s Digital and Social Media Officer you may think I’m terminally online.
And you would be correct.
However, I recognise it’s not healthy to stay plugged in the whole time. Sure, there’s an element of FOMO but, on the whole, it’s just purely down to bad habits.
I’ve decided to do something about it.
Like most dogs, my beautiful boy Riley enjoys nothing more than a saunter on the Downs. A chance to stick his nose in places he shouldn’t and to really stretch his legs on those climbs.
Our favourite walk is a 9km loop that takes us from our home in Broadwater in Worthing up a little track called Charmandean Lane. The name refers to the old manor house that used to dominate the area on the site of one of the few hills in Worthing.
This track is a mix of gravel, chalk and flint, taking users past the adjacent houses of the now Longlands Estate, up past the eastern edge of Hill Barn Golf Club, and to the top of the hill, where users either choose to go right towards the Sompting Estate or go left to meet with the track Hill Barn track to the top of Cissbury Ring, home of the second largest hillfort in England. We normally, neigh always, go left.
With Riley, I used these walks to catch-up on podcasts or shove my Spotify playlist on shuffle, paying very little attention to what was going on around me, other than checking behind me every now and again in case a peloton of mountain bikers would go full pelt up the hill.
Recently, I’ve acquired a new addition to my dog walks. The arrival last December of my first born – a little baby boy – was a pretty sizeable change. Over the past couple of weeks, with the little tyke just that tiny bit bigger, I’ve strapped on the harness, tucked him in on my chest, and ventured out together to take Riley for his morning walk.
Now, when you’ve got a baby strapped to the front of you, you want to take every precaution you can not to put them in danger. Headphones on with music blaring through is a definite ‘no no’ for someone as risk averse as me.
What was incredibly noticeable on that first walk was the cacophony of sound. Sure, I could still hear the roar of traffic on the busy A27 at the bottom of the hill but my ears started to become far more accustomed to twills and shrieks coming from the hedgerows and line of hazel, hawthorn and gorse bushes that line the track.
To my shame, despite working for a National Park, I’ve never been much of a birder. I’m more of a ‘hey look, a pretty sunrise’ or a ‘wow, the frost on that branch is incredible’ kind of person.
But, with my baby boy strapped to my chest I thought ‘wouldn’t it be nice to tell him what we’re hearing exactly.’
Right then I pulled out my phone, went to the Play Store, and typed in ‘bird sound identifier.’ Whilst there are lots of options available, I saw an app called ‘Merlin Bird ID’, produced by Cornell University. ‘Cornell’, I thought, ‘isn’t that the college Andy went to?’ (any fans of the US version of The Office would get this reference immediately).
I downloaded Merlin, gave it access to my location and my phone’s media (always done with a bit of trepidation) and hit the button that said ‘Sound ID.’
Immediately, the app started to detect the bird song, every time it heard a tune it would flash up with the bird ‘Song Thrush’, ‘European Robin’, ‘Eurasian Magpie’, ‘Long-tailed tit’, ‘European Greenfinch.’
Suddenly, just like that, I was able to hear the song, look at my phone and tell my baby boy what we just heard. I was now a birder!
The most amazing thing over the past few days has been hearing the growing chorus of birds, participating, perhaps competing, but adding their song to this symphony of sound that is now part of my early morning mix.
The spring dawn chorus is well and truly rising, and I cannot wait for what we may hear next.