Fran Southgate, the Living Landscapes Officer from the Sussex Wildlife Trust (SWT), gave an enlightening presentation to Ferring Conservation Group at their recent monthly meeting entitled ‘The Shaping of Landscapes by Water’. Fran conveyed with passion SWT’s quest to greatly improve and protect the county’s wetland areas with a focus on water voles.

Fran explained that although Sussex is the second most wooded county in England it also has wetland areas (where water and land mix and meet) that have some of the richest places for wildlife. These encompass vast areas of low-lying land in places such as the Pevensey Levels and the Arun valley. A combination of good water quality and a network of sensitively managed ditches and the mosaics of wet grassland, reed and scrub mean that large areas of nature friendly wetlands continue to thrive.

This is good news indeed for the water vole that lives along rivers, streams and ditches, around ponds and lakes and in marshes, reedbeds and in areas of wet moorland. These delightful mammals are under threat from habitat loss and predation by the non-native American mink. The water vole is similar-looking to the brown rat, but with a blunt nose, small ears and a furry tail. Water voles are not easy to spot but with a little perseverance their existence can be confirmed at the side of riverbanks, often with a lawn of nibbled grass and stems with a distinctive 45 degree angled-cut at the ends, scattered around the entrance of their burrows. A female will start to breed in spring and can have three to four litters per year of up to five young.

SWT’s vision for the future is to help create living landscapes by enabling wildlife to disperse across areas to find new habitats to increase their distribution, as for many species this is an inherent survival strategy. This can be achieved by encouraging landowners to create green corridors by building grass covered bridges across waterways, planting more hedgerows to make ‘wildlife highways’ and to plant a series of copses or build ponds as stop-off points for wildlife on the move. SWT aims to reverse damage to the landscape by working with natural processes such as re-wilding land, and reverting to natural flood management.

In her regular Nature Notes slot, Tricia Hall reported that many birds and mammals appeared to be struggling locally in the recent hot and dry spell, and were keeping a low profile. However, butterflies seemed to be enjoying things more, with interesting sightings in Ferring gardens of both a Silver-washed Fritillary and a Brown Argus – neither of these are particularly rare as such, but unusual to find them in coastal gardens. The Group will be taking part in the national Big Butterfly Count organised by Butterfly Conservation, as well as organising an evening walk to the Black Rocks, just west of Ferring, on one of the very low tides. Details of all Group events can be found at www.ferringconservationgroup.co.uk

Little Egrets seem to be returning to the village in some numbers from their breeding areas, with up to 12 at a time having been seen in trees on the Ferring Rife as well as at the pond in the south of the village.

Ed Miller gave an update on planning matters, outlining that the Arun Local Plan had been approved, which includes the fact that it obliges Arun District Council to provide 1000 homes per year for the next 15 years across the Arun district. One of the more welcome aspects though is that it provides continuing protection for the local Gaps between settlements, including the Ferring section of Goring Gap. The Group is aware of intentions by Worthing Rugby Club to potentially move their operations to Goring Gap, and the Group has written to the club pointing out that this would conflict with the Local Plan policies and would attract much opposition from residents of Ferring, Goring and the surrounding area.

Ted Green captivated the audience at Ferring Conservation Group’s June meeting by speaking with passion and enthusiasm about his deep knowledge and love of trees. Ted’s professional life began when he was employed as a laboratory technician at Silwood Park, attached to Imperial College, where he had access to the Ancient Woodlands on the nearby Windsor Estate. Here he could pursue his interest in conservation and so accumulating a vast knowledge by observation, experiment and plant trialling. From 1988 to 2003 Ted was the English Nature Conservation Consultant to the Crown Estate at Windsor. He continues as Conservation Consultant there to this day and has been awarded an MBE for his services, and he still works ceaselessly for the protection and greater awareness of our ancient trees.

Ted is credited with bridging any gaps between forestry and conservation and has influenced the debate in forestry and arboriculture for more than 50 years. During his long career, Ted has put forward theories on the importance of managing the whole ecosystem and he has played a major part in encouraging land owners to re-appraise the way they manage their woods and to adopt a more holistic style.

Ted was the founder member of the Ancient Tree Forum in 1993 and has also been involved with the Knepp Rewilding project since its inception in 2001.

After a break for refreshments Tricia Hall presented her welcome Nature Notes slot by telling members of the flora and fauna that was discovered during a recent Group visit to Shoreham Beach. They firstly looked at pioneer species such as Sea Kale, Silver Ragwort and Biting Stonecrop. They also found the blue Viper’s Bugloss, Tree Mallow, red Poppies and the pale pink Sea Daisy. The Group also had glimpses of lizards in the vegetation.

To conclude the meeting Ed Miller advised us of a planning application submitted by WADARS for a cat homing unit on their site at Hangleton Lane, which Ferring Conservation Group intend to support.

Jenny Watkins from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) gave a fascinating, illustrated presentation covering 30 years of Marine Mammal Rescue in the UK. BDMLR was founded in 1988 and is the only charity covering England, Wales and Scotland totally dedicated to the rescue of marine life such as whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals. They are funded entirely by donations.

Jenny explained that BDMLR has its own network of trained volunteer marine mammal medics which respond to calls regarding distressed and stranded marine wildlife 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They are also called upon by the other emergency services such as HM Coastguard, Fire Brigade, Police, RSPCA and SSPCA and also train their staff.

The BDMLR use a wide range of equipment in their rescues strategically placed throughout the UK to deal with strandings of marine animals, oil spills and fishing gear entanglement. This equipment includes rescue boats, equipment trailers, whale and dolphin pontoon sets, a whale disentanglement kit and regional medic kits with essential supplies.

The BDMLR are keen to train more Marine Mammal Medics and you don’t have to be a diver as people from all walks of life are covered in their medic base. You do need to have a positive attitude and don’t mind being wet and cold and the rest is taught on their Marine Mammal Medic Course. For more information on courses please contact: www.bdmlr.org.uk

Between 1988 and 2018 BDMLR trained 20,000 volunteers and around 18,000 incidents were attended and around 90% were callouts to seals. One of the biggest problems faced is entanglement of wildlife in discarded fishing tackle.

Jenny requested that if you were to find a stranded live sea mammal then to note the place, the state of the tide, and any injuries you can see without getting close and call 01825 765546 during office hours. After 5pm on working days, or at weekends or Bank Holidays call 07787 433412 (this number does not receive texts or pictures).

Nature Notes followed a break for refreshments and this month David Bettiss enlightened us with news of more hedgehog sightings, also that a pair of Stock Doves had taken up residence in the Tawny Owl box in Little Twitten. Many Starlings had been seen locally also Dragonflies and Damselflies around the Rife, the lagoons and Highdown. Twenty wildflower plants had been planted in the Community Orchard including Primrose, Cowslips and Yellow Rattle etc. New herbs had been added to the existing herb bed on the Village Green plus five new trees were recently planted in Little Twitten and Arun DC will be adding several more later this year.

Concluding this month’s meeting Ed Miller kept us up to speed with planning news by advising us that Arun DC had approved the proposed development for 4 x 4 bedroom detached houses at 32 and 34 Sea Lane and also the proposed office block at Hangleton Lane, but the proposed petrol station at ASDA had been refused.

For our April meeting we welcomed Dan Oakley, Lead Ranger from the South Downs National Park International Dark Sky Reserve (IDSR), known as Moore’s Reserve, who gave a fascinating presentation on this important and valuable asset.

In 2016 the South Downs National Park became the 2nd (IDSR) in England and 12th in the world. There are more than 2 million people living within 5kms of Moore’s Reserve so it is one of the most accessible in the country. To map the night sky quality 25,000 different measurements had to be made and 66 per cent of the South Downs National Park has Bronze Level Skies.

The dark skies over South East England are constantly under threat from light pollution from building development, and as a result of this 2,700 street lights have already been replaced with downward facing LED lights. Dan emphasised that much of the outside lighting used at night was inefficient, overly bright, poorly targeted, improperly shielded and also in many cases completely unnecessary. He encouraged us all to think carefully about where and how we light our properties.

Dark skies are not only good for star gazing but are also beneficial for nocturnal wildlife, helping moths and bats to thrive.

Dan had insisted that the meeting room should be made as dark as possible at the start of his presentation and cleverly demonstrated the effect of light pollution. He firstly displayed on the screen a stunning photograph of the centre of the Milky Way, he then, without warning, shone a bright torch into the room. The result being that the Milky Way disappeared from the photograph, emulating the effect of light pollution in the real world.

In future the South Downs National Park will use its role as a planning authority to protect the dark skies above the National Park as well as the landscape on the ground. Specific lighting requirements for developers to meet will be included in the Draft Policies of the Local Plan.

A short AGM took place after refreshments where a new committee member, Chris Dilks, was elected and all existing committee members were re-elected unopposed.

Tricia Hall followed with Nature Notes and reported that many butterflies had been seen such as the Brimstone, Peacock, Red Admiral, Commas and Orange Tip. Cowslips, Primroses and Celandines are in bloom in Clover Lane and on the Rife White Blackthorn blossom is evident. Around ten Wheatear had been spotted in the vicinity and a Cuckoo has been heard around the East Preston/Ferring Gap. Whitethroat and Blackcap are about and a Chiffchaff has been seen at Warren Pond along with a nesting pair of Moorhens.

To conclude the meeting Ed Miller advised us that six planning applications for Ferring were due for discussion at the next Development Control Committee meeting in May. There are two new applications; one in McIntyre’s Lane for the conversion of an old silo into offices and at 78, Langbury Lane for conversion to a home for Adults with Special Needs. Ed commented that the Arun Draft Local Plan is due for consideration in early July.

We welcomed back Neil Hulme from Butterfly Conservation for a second visit, this time to take us on a seasonal journey through Sussex with a talk entitled ‘Sublime Sussex Wildlife’, highlighting the wonderful and diverse range of wildlife that we are blessed with in our county. Since his last visit to us Neil has deservedly been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his outstanding services to wildlife conservation. He has been credited with saving the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly from extinction in Sussex and has made a major contribution to saving other rare species.

In his usual informative and relaxed manner Neil illustrated his talk with many beautiful photographs. Some of these were taken by a leading wildlife photographer but many were taken by Neil himself, although he admits his camera has many limitations he was fortunate enough to be able to get very close to his subjects.

Neil explained that because of phenology i.e.; climate change and weather patterns, much wildlife could be seen a little earlier in the year than is usual. For instance the Small Tortoiseshell butterfly can be spotted around 3 weeks before its original emergence date due to its reliance on young nettles which are abundant as early as mid-February.

As we journeyed through the seasons Neil suggested ideal locations for us to visit to view wildlife, including the Norfolk Estate, Mill Hill, Cissbury Ring, Knepp Castle Estate, West Dean Woods and Harting Down, not forgetting the Rife and Beach at Ferring. It is without doubt that several landowners have played an important role in increasing numbers of threatened species; for example in 2002 the Grey Partridge faced extinction throughout Sussex and the ‘Norfolk Estate Recovery Project’ turned the situation around and increased numbers considerably and they have found a haven on the Estate. Likewise the owner of the Knepp Castle Estate developed a radically different approach by turning away from intensive farming, by using grazing animals to help establish a functioning ecosystem, where nature is given the freedom to thrive with little interference by man.

In the second half of our meeting Tricia Hall presented her Nature Notes and had brought in an abandoned nest that had been found on the ground under a conifer along the banks of the Rife. Tricia asked the audience for suggestions as to which bird had meticulously constructed it. She then made us aware of forms that were available at the back of the hall for members with ponds to take and record sightings of frogs, toads and their spawn. Tricia also advised us that a Lapwing and a Shoveler Duck had been spotted along the Rife and a flock of Golden Plover were seen in a field near the Country Centre.

Ed Miller updated us with news that the proposed ninth apartment at the former Beehive Cottage site had been refused. The four proposed houses at 44, Ferringham Lane had been approved subject to conditions. The Peugeot car dealership along the A 259 have applied to have the existing bungalow demolished, a new building for their head office and an additional showroom for a Honda car dealership. ASDA have submitted plans for a petrol station on the north east of their site and Arun DC are awaiting more details. A planning application has been submitted for 43 large storage containers to be sited at the former McIntyre’s nursery land. Ed concluded by advising us that the Arun Local Plan should be approved shortly.