Monthly Archives: April 2020

Local Wildlife Sightings – 20th April

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Butterflies: the early blues are Holly Blue and there are now Comma,
Peacock and Red Admiral, Green-veined Whites as well as Small White, Brimstones and lots of Orange Tips.

Look out for Bee Flies – they have a characteristic long pointed proboscis which is not only used for gathering nectar but also as an ovipositor into a host mining bee which it parasitises. Also keep an eye out for bright red Lilly Beetles.
If you want to help bees, why not make a home-made Bee Hotel (see
photo) and this is the perfect time to leave part of your lawn unmown to
make a mini-meadow.

There is a litter of 6 fox cubs nearby from a den under a shed is a nearby garden. The father helps feed the cubs while the mother keeps mainly in the den.

Clive Hall has reported a few mornings of passage migration over the
sea: Sandwich and Commic Terns, Common Scoter, Med. Gulls, Brent Geese,
Whimbrel, Arctic Skua, Kittiwake, Bar-tailed Godwit.
Common Whitethroat are back on the Rife but only a few Willow Warblers
heard. On Highdown,and especially up McIntyre’s Lane there are pairs of
Linnets, Common Whitethroat. Lesser Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff
and lots of Skylarks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Covid and Lockdown

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We seem to be moving out of lockdown into ‘alertness’, which means more freedom to go out – keeping the 2 metres ‘social distance’, or wearing masks where we cannot do that, and that more shops will be opening soon, beginning with Garden Centres. I know that many Conservation Group members have been helping their friends and neighbours with shopping and other essentials, and it may be necessary to keep this up for a few more weeks at least. As before, if you know of anyone who needs help but not getting it please let me know – EdMiller43@msn.com

Woodland Spring Flowers – 13th April

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If you are lucky enough to be near woodland or can walk along hedgerows, April is the perfect time to identify woodland flowers. Most flower early before they are shaded by the tree canopy above. The following is a list of 20 found in Patching Woods. See how many you can find, some may even be in your garden:-

Wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa) white/pink flowers

Primrose (Primula vulgaris) pale yellow flowers, large crinkly leaves

Bluebell (Endymion non-scriptus) blue, with cream anthers, long thin leaves

Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis) tiny, inconspicuous flowers

Violet (Viola species) blue/purple flowers, heart-shaped leaves

White Dead-nettle (Lamium album) white flowers, nettle-like leaves

Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) white flowers, other name Jack-by-the-Hedge

Ladies Smock (Cardamine pratensis) pale pink flowers, other name Cuckoo Flower

Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea) white flowers, quite tall

Red Campion (Silene dioica) red flowers, tall

Lords-and-Ladies (Arum maculatum) purple or yellow spadix with green spathe (hood)

Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum) white flowers, strong-smelling, edible

Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea) violet/blue flowers, leaves kidney-shaped

Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) pink/purple flowers, square stems

Wood spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides) tall, tiny flowers in yellow/green, cup-like  bracts

Wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) white flowers, trefoil leaves, in ancient woods

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna) glossy yellow flowers, heart-shaped leaves

Goldilocks Buttercup  (Ranunculus auricomus) small yellow variable petals, divided leaves

Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula) purple flowers in spike, black spots on leaves

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) very tall with purple flowers, large soft leaves

To help you identify the flowers, you can take photos on your phone or camera and then use the internet or an identification book to help you.  I can recommend The Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland by Blamey, Fitter and Fitter, second edition, 2013. Please do not pick the flowers. If you make your own list in a note book, record when and where you find the flowers and then you will build up a useful plant list.

A collage of 12 of these woodland flowers may help your identification.

Nature Notes:

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During these unparalleled times it is reassuring to observe that nature continues to thrive all around us.

Please see our Nature Notes page for up to date observations and suggestions from the Group’s wildlife expert, Tricia Hall.

Butterfly Observations – 7th April

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The warm weather is beginning to bring out the butterflies. Look out for the following in your garden or on your daily walk. These are common April butterflies:

Peacock, often a pair doing a dance, spiralling into the air.

Small Tortoiseshell, often sunning itself on the ground.

Orange Tip, small, the female has grey rather than orange tips.

Small White, the first of the ‘cabbage whites’ to emerge.

Green-veined White, like Small White but underside has grey/green veins.

Brimstone, yellow, distinctive shape, female very pale yellow.

These 6 butterflies are shown on the collage to help you. See if you can tick off all 6 by the end of the month. Have you started your plant list yet? Now you can make a list of butterflies as well! Let me know if you record all six. There are other species as well which you may see. You could try and photograph them if they settle.

Look out for other insects in your garden. Have you seen a Bee Fly? They are very common this year.

A Member’s Observations – 2nd April

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A member writes: It has been glorious the last few days on Highdown, with views from the Isle of Wight to the Windfarm and Brighton. On a very clear day it is possible to see Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower but only at a height from horseback, The Cathedral is easier to pick out. The mass exercising of dogs has ceased and most walkers are behaving. Skylarks are common both high up and when canoodling on the ground. There are several rafts of molehills. On the chalk slopes crows and jackdaws abound with isolated pied wagtails and a redwing in flight. A few goldfinches are around and we are waiting for swallows to return to their old nests in the stables. The badgers’ set along the ridge to Angmering has collapsed and they may have transferred to a second old set near the bottom of Hangleton Lane. Blackthorn for sloe berries and gin later is brilliant. Cow parsley abounds, the first time for years that it has been apparent throughout a winter.

If you walk up the lane, the first field on the right houses two huge hunters, Captain is in retirement and Duke is too difficult to ride. Please don’t feed them, some have tried as shown by carrots thrown into the field.’
So, all nature looks good and as it should be. However, there is something wrong down below; fewer trains, much less traffic on the 259, Honda and Peugeot are sleeping, no jets powering down approaching Gatwick.
……And David Bettiss points us to the web camera on the Peregrine’s nest on the roof of Chichester Cathedral:  chichesterperegrines.co.uk

 

Members’ Observations – 1st April 2020

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A member writes from Hangleton Lane: ‘Wild life revives: we have seen here apart from the resident blue and coal tits doves and pigeons, a fox, a moorhen, three ducks, a heron, a pheasant, and one small rabbit .What a difference it makes when Yeoman’s shuts down!’
Another, writes from off Langbury Lane, ‘We have the usual bird feeders, with anti-squirrel cages, but also a stick-on feeder for the window.  This allows the less dexterous and bigger birds to obtain food just by landing on the open feeding area.  Now they are all busily nesting, all the feeders are getting hammered and will get even more so once the chicks hatch.  Now we all have more time at home, we can spend some of it allowing our feathered friends to entertain us.  Seeing 15 starlings all challenging each other to get to the window feeder, I seriously wonder if any of them get anything.  The savvy blackbirds wait underneath and pick up all the dropped seeds, etc.  We have found the suet pellets with fruit or worm bits are scoffed by nearly all with sunflower hearts being almost universally rejected.  The shallow water bowls nearly are also heavily used for bathing and drinking so it is a regular daily job to keep everything in order.  The window bird feeders can be bought on Amazon as indeed can a huge variety of bird food and could provide an worthwhile diversion for people who are stuck at home, perhaps on their own.

The 10 Wild Flower Challenge – 3rd April

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Being confined to Ferring, this is the perfect opportunity to get to know your local wild flowers. Your challenge is to go and identify the 10 flowers I have listed below. Many are what you may call weeds but some can look lovely in a wild place in your garden. I have suggested where you may find them:

Little Paddocks Ground Ivy, blue flowers, Lungwort, pink/purple flowers, Borage, blue flowers, lots on wild flower bed, Little Twitten White Dead-nettle, white flowers, everywhere

Red Dead-nettle, in your garden?

Violets, blue, Highdown in chalk pit, Little Paddocks

Cowslips, yellow, in meadow below Highdown Gardens

Ivy-leaved Toadflax, purple, on walls

Shepherd’s Purse, tiny white flowers, in your garden?

Groundsel, tiny yellow flowers, in your garden?

My suggestion is that you make a list of these plants in a note book. See if you can find each one, then make columns for the date, where found and notes on identity. You can then build up your own plant list. Let me know if you do this!

The pictures are to help you but I have not named them!

This weekend it will get warmer and the winds are coming round to the south so look out for migrant birds arriving. There may be more butterflies too. Another list?