Nature Journal Entry 5: Feeding Squirrels, Hastings, Sussex, UK

Last week my family and I headed down to Hastings for a few days. We were all in need of a serious little staycation and more importantly a change of scenery. With lots of little things to do we soon filled our week with plans.

One of those plans was to head to a local park which had everything you could want. A play area, a cafe and a pleasant walk surrounded by nature.

The park was much bigger than we had imagined and extremely idyllic. After speaking to one of the locals about where everything was (we entered in the middle of 3 parts) we first headed towards the promised play area.

However, we were delighted to find out that the park had three areas. First was the really wild section that was pretty much left to do it’s thing. An absolute wildlife haven. The second which was where we had started was slightly less wild and was tended to very little. Finally, the third area was like a landscaped garden, complete with cafe, pond, flowers and a great wooden play area.

It was in this third area that had been completely urbanised that we discovered a lady with a bag of monkey nuts in hand feeding the squirrels. They were actually coming right up and taking them out of her hand. In that moment I realised that this place would always have a place in my heart.

When we first entered the park we were greeted by a squirrel. It came right up to us and at the time I was ecstatic that not only had I seen one of these beautiful creatures but that it had come straight up to us like I was a friend. It was a great start to the morning which got better when we realised the reason why mr squirrel had come so close. He was expecting food that he thought we might have.

I was obviously slightly disappointed that we had nothing to give. But, a little while later on our return from the play park we were lucky enough to forage a few missed monkey nuts and managed to find some friendly squirrels en route back to the car.

Having only been lucky enough to spot these gorgeous creatures from a distance before now I was so incredibly happy to be able to feed them and get up close to them.

Hands down the best park visit ever. In fact, I doubt any will match it in the near future. After arriving back home in Kent I brought a bag of monkey nuts and I fully intend on taming some of the local squirrels. I just need to find them first.

Thanks for reading,

Love,

Charlotte x

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