Every year in spring we are lucky enough to play host to a growing group of nightingales in and around the campsite. Sam Lees Singing with Nightingales is an amazing chance to hear one of our rarest birds.
Sussex is a great county for these secretive birds as they like to stay hidden ideally in some scrub or a prickly bush where they are hard to find for any prying eyes keen to turn them into a mid morning snack.
Nightingales are drab and not much to look at. Robins, which are quite similar in appearance, at least have a bright orange red chest, but not the dowdy nightingale. Mid brown is the order of the day for this lacklustre member of the bird kingdom. However, where they do excel, is in the beautiful song that the males of the species, fill the air with during the evenings in spring, with the sole aim of attractingt a suitable mate.
To aficionados, it is a melodious recital, but for some people, including one of my friends Kevin, it is a nuisance, as it keeps on all through the night, right outside his bedroom window. His only salvation is when the suitor finds a mate and shuts up, a little like another one of our favourites at the campsite, the female glow worm who stops glowing only once she has found a suitable male glow worm.
Other people think of the nightingales beautiful rising and cascading song as a great accompaniment to the fantastic voice of Sam Lee. Sam holds Singing with Nightingales walks throughout the South East connecting enthusiasts of the birds song with a wonderful singing and feasting experience.
Every year Sam holds a series of singing with Nightingales walks in the vicinity of the campsite and they sell out faster than you can type Jack Robinson
You can go to the Singing with Nightingales facebook page and see what Sam and the team have been up to recently.
Lots of people joining the evenings stay with us here at the secret campsite either in tents, The Gridshell or up in the Tree tent if they are feeling posh.
Either way it is a great way of introducing people to our native wildlife and the pleasures of a delicious meal around the campfire, so go and have a look and book yourself in to one of his evenings, you’ll regret it if you don’t and he sells out.
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