Sussex may only be an hour from London, but it’s a place of bountiful wildlife. If you know where to look you can spot deer, cattle, badgers, foxes, wallabies, bats, beavers, hedgehogs, seals, dolphins and even the occasional whale. On top of which, for bird watchers, there is a vast array of species from the large white tailed eagle to nightjars and tits. So, if you’d like to take a walk on the wild side, here is our list of the best places to see Sussex wildlife.
Do bear in mind, that whilst in some Sussex wildlife locations, you are guaranteed to spot birds and animals, in other areas, you’ll have to wait, watch and hope. Wildlife can be shy, but if you do catch some of the rarer species of Sussex, it is well worth the wait.
Bird life
Huxley’s Bird of Prey Centre, Horsham
Although the birds here are in captivity, it’s a great place to get up close and see some of the birds you may see in the wild. With over 80 birds, you can see owls, hawks, eagles and falcons.
RSPB locations
The RSPB manage the following six sites across Sussex:
- Adur Estuary
- Medmerry
- Pagham Harbour
- Pulborough Brooks
- Fore Wood
- Broadwater Warren
The RSPB also manage Amberley Brooks. These are all excellent places if you’re looking for interesting birdlife. At Pulborough and Amberley you can also expect to see deer.
Other bird life hot spots
Chichester Harbour: Covering nearly 7,500 hectares and with inlets, beaches, mudflats and saltmarshes, spits, islands and wet grassland. There are lots of footpaths in and around the harbour and there are also bird watching tours available.
Rye Harbour: Rye Harbour Nature Reserve is one of the largest and most important wildlife sites in England and home to more than 4,355 species of plants and animals including 300 that are rare or endangered. It’s a primarily good for bird spotting but at night look out for badgers, foxes and bats.
Deer, cattle and other mammals
For larger wildlife, try:
- Warnham Deer Park. Home to red deer, you’ll be unlucky if you don’t see deer here as well as wild birds such as Canadian geese.
- Parham Park. With 300 acres of ancient parkland, look out for dark fallow deer – the descendants of a herd that was first recorded in 1628.
- Knepp Estate. You can walk at this important Sussex Rewilding Project. There is plenty of wildlife to see including deer, Longhorn cattle, Tamworth Pigs, Exmoor ponies and storks.
- Petworth Park. This Capability Brown landscape is home to 700 or 800 fallow deer.
- Ashdown Forest. Head over to Ashdown Forest and you should spot deer. There are also certain grazing rights on the forest so you may see Riggit Galloway cattle, Hebridean sheep and Exmoor ponies (depending on the time of year).
- Blackdown. Blackdown is the place to go for Belted Galloway cattle which roam and graze freely here.
Sealife and serpents
- Seals: Thorney Island, Chichester Harbour, Selsey, Eastbourne Harbour and Rye Harbour are good places to try a bit of seal spotting. You may also see them in the rivers Cuckmere, Rother, Ouse, Adur, and Arun.
- Dolphins and whales. Dolphins are quite often seen off the coast of Sussex, and are even spotted from Brighton. If you want to see dolphins, the best thing to do is take a boat trip along the coast although sightings cannot be guaranteed. Sightings of Humpback Whales have increased recently and they have been spotted off the coast at Hastings, Pevensey, Eastbourne, Birling Gap and Seaford.
- Snakes. Snakes are very shy but can be found across Sussex. Sussex is home to adders, grass snakes, smooth snakes (very rare) and slow worms. Perhaps the best place to start is the Serpent Trail.
If you’ve enjoyed this post about the best places to see Sussex wildlife, you may also like:
