All posts by charliehellewell

In the footsteps of Ivon Hitchens – Walk around Lavington and Duncton

August 21st, 2019

Image: Ivon Hitchens, House Among Trees, 1943, Oil on Canvas, Pallant House Gallery © Estate of Ivon Hitchens One of Britain’s best loved landscape painters, Ivon Hitchens lived and worked at Lavington Common from 1940 until his death in 1979.  Often painting in the open air around his Sussex home, Hitchens sought to capture the […]

Four barn owl chicks

June 4th, 2019

Although the female adult still looks like she is incubating, all four of our barn owl eggs have now hatched. As yet the newly hatched ‘owlets’ do not have any feathers or down, so they need to be kept warm by the adult. Once they are about 10 days old they start to develop a […]

First barn owl chick hatches

May 21st, 2019

Big news from the barn owl nest box! The first of the four barn owl eggs has hatched (21 May 2019). This is four day earlier than last year.  Broken egg shell lying next to the adult in the box was the first clue. The parents are very diligent at incubating the eggs so we […]

Barn owl nest-cam 2019 – waiting for chicks

May 16th, 2019

The stars of the South Downs National Park Barn Owl nest box are on form again this year with 4 eggs currently being brooded by the diligent parents. Barn Owl eggs take approximately 30 days to hatch after laying. Eggs hatch in the order they were laid with an average of 5-6 eggs in a […]

Rail to Ramble – sustainable access to South Downs National Park

March 22nd, 2019

The first in a new suite of walk leaflets has just been released, allowing walkers to split a self-led walk into manageable chunks and catch a train back to the start. Called Rail to Ramble, this sustainable walking package is part of an initiative by Haslemere Community Rail Partnership and South Downs National Park Authority […]