At our April meeting we welcomed Tim McPherson, a Director of the Angling Trust, publisher, angler, naturalist, ornithologist and conservationist. Tim came to talk to us about the work of the Angling Trust, and explained that the biggest threat to sea-angling is the lack of fish brought about by decades of over-fishing and failed management by the UK government and the EU, through the Common Fisheries Policy. The Angling Trust’s ultimate goal is to allow recreational sea fishing to have a greater say in how fish stocks are managed through lobbying and campaigning, and to allow the promotion and development of this sport for future generations.

The Angling Trust members support the campaigns they carry out to protect fish stocks and together with Fish Legal, the legal arm of the Angling Trust, they use the law to fight pollution and other damage to the water environment – both freshwater and marine – and protect the rights of anglers and angling. The Angling Trust are continually campaigning against poaching, the quality of waters, inshore netting, reform of rod licences and other important issues.

Tim also told us about a popular recreational fishing area called the Kingmere Marine Conservation Zone, this lies between 5 to 10 km offshore of the West Sussex coast between Littlehampton and Worthing and has the ideal topography to attract marine life. This area is one of the largest breeding sites of black bream in the country and is popular with chartered fishing boats. These fish build their nests on hard bedrock overlain with thin sand and gravel. The male fish will make a nest in the substrate and when the female has laid her eggs he will guard the nest until the eggs hatch. Black bream are ‘protogynous’ which means the females turn into males when they reach about 35 cms. Further Marine Conservation Zones will be considered in future.

A short AGM followed a break for refreshments where Ed Miller was appointed as Secretary to replace Debbie Dilks, and Graham Tuppen voted onto the Committee. Other existing committee members were re-elected unopposed.

David Bettiss delivered April’s Nature Notes with news that many migrant birds had been seen around the area including wheatears, male redstart, black cap, chiff chaff, whitethroats, swallows, and great crested grebe. Butterflies seemed more plentiful than last year with peacock, small tortoiseshell, brimstone, speckle wood and an orange tip being spotted in gardens.

Ed Miller concluded the meeting and although there were no new planning applications, there is great concern that the proposed new housing estates in Angmering will cause an additional burden on the already congested local highways.

Penny Green, an Ecologist from the Knepp Estate near Horsham, opened our March meeting with a talk entitled ‘Knepp Wildland – A Naturalistic Grazing System’. Penny explained that the Knepp Castle Estate has been privately owned by the Burrell family for over 200 years. The current owner, Sir Charles Burrell, was devoted to traditional arable and dairy farming but with heavy clay soil and small fields the land was not ideally suited for intensive agriculture. In 2001 Sir Charles shifted his focus to regeneration and restoration projects aimed at nature conservation. Sir Charles introduced various herbivores, cows, deer, horses and pigs on to the 3,500 acres of land. Over time this affected the vegetation to create mosaics of habitats including open grassland, regenerating scrub, bare ground and forested groves. Longhorn cattle create paths through scrub, spread seeds and create a distinct browse line, while the Tamworth Pigs rootle up the ground looking for food. Exmoor ponies and deer browse the sallow and other tree species also stripping bark especially when food is scarce in winter. The animals live outside all year without supplementary feeding and are allowed to roam freely with little intervention. The aim is to improve the biodiversity of the land by encouraging the return of wild flowers and grasses, trees and shrubs, insects and butterflies, birds and small mammals. It is hoped that eventually the ecosystem that once prevailed in the area will return and although grazing animals are used elsewhere in the UK as a conservation management tool it is unusual for a mixture of animals to be used in this way. This project may well encourage other areas of marginal land in the UK to become ‘rewilded’ linking up diversity hotspots to create a ‘Living Landscape’.

Following a break for refreshments Julie Toben from Wadars provided an update on the future of this respected animal charity. Julie explained that although their initial plans for a ‘state of the art’ rehoming centre were still in the running, realistically this would take the charity much longer to achieve than first thought. Therefore after much consideration, and to utilize the existing facilities as soon as possible, a more practical plan had been agreed. Some of the existing stable blocks are to be renovated and converted to kennels while a prefabricated UPVC cattery would be constructed with sympathetic planting and fencing to help the buildings blend into the landscape. The charity hopes to be fully operational by March 2018.

Ed Miller followed with an update on planning news. Ed told us that the second planning application for 23 Yurts on the land north of the A259 had been refused. Globe Estates (Southern) Ltd have submitted plans, at detailed design stage, for 8 apartments on the site of the former Beehive Cottage. A new planning application for 8 apartments at the corner of Sea Lane and Sea Close is soon to be advertised, this time to include an underground car park. There is also an application for the former Village Interiors showroom in South Ferring to be converted to flats.

Michael Brown concluded the meeting with the latest news regarding the Rampion Windfarm. Michael advised us that the offshore foundations were now complete and there would be no further piling, and that E.on are now busy installing the turbines to the towers and to date have completed 4. They are on schedule to complete this part of the project by autumn of this year along with 50% of the cabling.

Neil Hulme, a Project Officer from Butterfly Conservation, gave an informative and interesting, illustrated talk regarding a three year conservation project launched in April 2015 by the wildlife charity, to halt the drastic decline in numbers of two of the rarest woodland butterflies in Sussex.

In the 1970’s both the Pearl-bordered and small Pearl-bordered Fritillary were common in woods, along with the Cuckoo and the Nightingale. In fact last year no Small-bordered Fritillaries were seen at the only remaining colony site in the county. Both butterflies are similarly marked on the upper side of their wings, with striking orange-brown colour, overlain with black spots. The underside of the rear wings is intricately patterned resembling a stained glass window. The range of blocks of colour and the arrangement of numerous silvery-white studs – the butterfly’s ‘pearls’, helps to distinguish between the two species.

With funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund the project plans to restore a healthy population by re-introducing captive-bred butterflies to suitable areas, by improving habitats and offering advice to landowners in how to manage areas of woodland for the benefit of these endangered species.

A return to traditional methods and practices will hopefully encourage clearings and glades for flowering plants such as Bluebell, Bugle, Wood Anemone, Lesser Celandine and Wild Garlic to thrive where sunlight can again penetrate through the trees to reach the woodland floor. The caterpillars of both species feed on violets which flourish shortly after an area of woodland has been coppiced or cleared. Community engagement is encouraged by the project and children in particular are able to help by growing and planting out violets for hungry caterpillars to eat.

After a break for refreshments Tricia Hall delivered her popular Nature Notes with news of a three year Nest Box project. Tricia asked if members would be willing to sign up and volunteer to monitor the nest boxes that had been sited throughout the village and record their findings. Tricia also commented that crocuses, daffodils, snowdrops, primroses and catkins were all evident in gardens, verges and the banks of the Rife.

Ed Miller followed with an update on planning issues and gave us news that the planning application for 8 flats on the site of the old Beehive Cottage had been approved and the developer had immediately put up two very large advertising hoardings at the building plot. The planning application for 23 ‘eco’ yurts on land north of Littlehampton Road has still to be decided. Ed commented that as far as the Goring Gap is concerned there is still no sign of a planning application from Persimmon Homes.

David Bettiss concluded the meeting by informing us that a cheque for £570 from the sale of Christmas cards, calendars and painted pebbles, was recently presented to the Chestnut Tree House Children’s Hospice by himself and Tricia Hall. David also reminded members that any contributions for our 2017 magazine would be gratefully received and must be sent to Tricia Hall by Thursday 16th March.

At their first member’s meeting of 2017, Ferring Conservation Group had the pleasure of welcoming horticulturist and apple expert Peter May from the Brighton Permaculture Trust to talk to them on the subject of – The History of Apple Growing in Sussex, and Sussex Apples. This was particularly relevant to the Group as they were just approaching the first anniversary of the planting of their Community Orchard at the Glebelands recreation ground in the village, and all the apple trees in the Orchard had been propagated by the Trust.

Peter firstly ran through details of some of the 30 or so varieties of Sussex Heritage apples, including First and Last, Saltcote Pippin and Golden Pippin which make up part of the Ferring orchard.

He then informed the Group that the Sussex apple story started far away in the remote mountains of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, as all of today’s orchard apples are direct descendants of the apples that still grow in the natural forests there. There were then references to apples in Saxon times with local place names such as Apuldram, Crabtree and Appledore, followed by details of tithe and tax returns from the C14th including from Ferring when cider was mentioned.

The 1950s was the peak time for Sussex apple growing with many thousands of trees being planted after the war across the County. Locally the East Preston area was a hot spot for growing, as well as in North Ferring, but the most important area was the East Sussex border with Kent, and this is still the case today, although the majority of orchards have sadly been lost in Sussex. This is why the initiative of Community Orchards is so important in maintaining our history of apple growing.

Later in the meeting, Tricia Hall in her Nature Notes section reported amongst other things tens of Lapwings being seen in the fields just west of Ferring Rife near Kingston – quite a rare but welcome sight these days. Vice Chairman Ed Miller reported on a planning application just off Sea Lane in Sea Drive to demolish a house and replace it with a block of 8 flats – something to which the Group would be objecting. He also reported that Arun District Council in their emerging Local Plan would now have to find a total of 1000 new properties every year in their area, as well as the likelihood of Persimmon Homes soon submitting plans to build 475 new homes in the Worthing part of the north Goring Gap near to Goring railway station. This disastrous move for the local area especially in relation to the inevitable traffic problems will be fiercely resisted by the Group in partnership with fellow Goring groups and others.

As November can often prove to be a gloomy month, what better tonic for our Group than to welcome Michael Blencowe into our midst. Michael, in his usual jovial and entertaining manner, introduced us to the world of the nocturnal wildlife of Sussex and beyond. Michael explained that we need to use our ears as much as our eyes to understand what is happening around us during the night. Many birds migrate under cover of darkness and navigate by the stars, they feed by day and fly by night. As it is difficult to spot birds in flight in dark skies we can gain much information by listening. We may hear owls and sedge warblers among others, these birds sing extensively during the night. Michael showed us some fascinating video footage of fox cubs playing, badgers, deer, and hedgehogs that had been taken from a camera placed in local woodland. Even when we are tucked up in our beds, other creatures in our houses are wide awake; spiders and silverfish are crawling and scurrying around going about their business during the night hours. Many domestic cats are also on the prowl at night, hunting and defending their territory, and as there are 7 to 8 million now in the UK our gardens could well be a hive of activity. Michael also delighted us with photographs of his holiday to the Somiedo National Park where, in this forgotten corner of Spain, he was fortunate enough see Cantabrian bears in the wild. These animals are crepuscular and feed on grasses during twilight and dawn.

After a break for tea and mince pies Tricia Hall began her Nature Notes by advising us that the Marine Conservation Society has announced that the number of plastic bags found on beaches has almost halved in a year. Unfortunately there is still a vast amount of other rubbish found, including a significant rise in balloon litter! Tricia said that Storm Angus had dislodged red seaweed that was now laying in a 2ft layer along the beach, also green sea lettuce, sea slugs and crab shells had also been found. Stonechats were seen sitting, two by two, on the trees that were planted by the group along the Rife. Kingfishers, wagtails, egrets, teals, snipe and a water vole had been spotted in this area.

Ed Miller followed with planning news and advised us that indications are that Globe Estates (Southern) Limited are likely to submit a new planning application for a large block of 8 apartments on the site of Beehive Cottage on the corner of Beehive Lane. David Bettiss concluded the meeting with a reminder of events on Saturday 10th December. The day starts with the Tree Dressing on the village green in the morning, the Christmas Market in the village hall at 4.30pm and the official switching on of the lights at 5.30pm.

Just a couple of weeks after the momentous occasion of the presentation of the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service by the Lord Lieutenant of West Sussex to Ferring Conservation Group, things returned to relative normality for them with the latest in their series of monthly meetings.

This time around, they welcomed Ivan Lang as their guest speaker, and as one of the two wardens at the RSPB Medmerry and Pagham reserves, his presentation mainly featured the development of the new Medmerry reserve over recent years.

He outlined that the reserve came about in conjunction with the Environment Agency, where a more long term sustainable option was required to protect the area from sea flooding, and the coastline was to be realigned to allow the sea to naturally flood some of the land under the control of new sea defences further inland. A 3 to 4 year major building programme followed to the point when in 2013, the old coastline was breached in a controlled way, and it is hoped that with sea level rises expected, the new defences will maintain their integrity for about 100 years.

The Group heard that since 2013, the reserve has developed positively much faster than expected, with important bird species numbers such as Dunlin, Grey Plover and Avocets increasing, and also reptiles such as Slow Worms, Lizards, Grass Snakes and Adders, plus fish such as Mullet, Bass and Pipe Fish being seen on a regular basis within its confines. There have in addition been visits over the last 3 years by rarer species – a successful fledgling by a pair of Black Winged Stilts, Spoonbills, Ospreys, and even a mass sighting of Smoothhound sharks.

The reserve is now reaching the point when it could be considered for a much higher level of designation as a Special Protection Area under EU law, and the Group hope to organise a visit there in the not too distant future to experience it for themselves.

For our September meeting we welcomed Clare Blencowe, who came to talk to us regarding the work of the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre (SxBRC). Clare has recently taken up the post of Record Centre Manager and gave us an enthusiastic insight into the importance of the data collected and its diverse uses. One of many local record centres around the UK they collect, manage and disseminate wildlife data, providing an information service for the whole of Sussex. The SxBRC is also part of the Association of Local Environment Record Centres and the National Biodiversity Network.

SxBRC works closely with many partners, including local planning authorities, government agencies, conservation bodies, water companies and other organisations. Through these relationships high quality environmental information can be made available to decision-makers in planning, land management and conservation across Sussex. To provide this valuable information the SxBRC is reliant on the local recording community in Sussex. Driven mostly by volunteers and enthusiasts who have taken the time to observe and identify the variety of species and habitat around us and then to enter this information into the SxBRC database via their on-line recording system. Some individuals find the time to record thousands of sightings and it is this tide of recorders that the SxBRC relies heavily on and is always keen to attract additional volunteers.

After a break for refreshments Tricia Hall delivered her Nature Notes and opened by informing us that the new boat in Sea Lane had been planted up with a variety of plants suited to coastal conditions. Swallows, House Martins, Brent Geese, Wagtails, Teals and Herons had all been sighted in and around Ferring. A Kingfisher and a Water Vole had been seen on the Rife near the Country Centre. Tricia concluded her talk by showing us some interesting photographs from her recent holiday on the Isles of Scilly.

Planning news followed with Ed Miller advising us that the planning application for a 4-bedroom detached house in Hangleton Lane had been refused by Arun DC although permission had been given for the caravan, gazebo etc. to remain. There has been no further news regarding the Goring Gap and Worthing BC are still opposed to any building on this site.

Michael Brown concluded the meeting with news of the Rampion Windfarm. The laying of cables in the East Worthing area should be complete by spring 2017. To minimise any damage to the chalk grassland Eon are to use a re-turfing machine. All 116 turbines should be installed by spring 2017 and the blades should all be attached by spring 2018.

For our July Group meeting Dr Geoffrey Mead from the University of Sussex talked to us about the ‘Quiet Corners of the Sussex Coast’. Dr Mead explained that Sussex has a varied coastline and in West Sussex the coast is low lying but in East Sussex there are bold cliffs of chalk and sandstone separated by sedimentary lowlands. The present coastline is very recent in origin and continues to evolve. In the past, coastal geomorphology linked to weather, seasons, coastal processes and tides, and the hand of man, have all contributed to dramatic changes in the position and configuration of the coast.

A few undisturbed sand dune and shingle habitats remain. Most of the surviving examples are designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) such as West Wittering beach, Climping and Shoreham beach in West Sussex. East Sussex also has SSSI areas including Rye Bay, Rye Harbour, Camber Sands and Pett Level.

Many holiday homes were established along the Sussex coastline during the first half of the 20th century and although many were demolished during World War Two some have still survived. Many of the homes have been constructed from decommissioned railway carriages.

Dr Mead showed us photographs, taken in July and August, of some deserted beaches in East and West Sussex, proving that if you know where to look there are many ‘Quiet Corners of the Sussex Coast’.

In the second half of our meeting Tricia Hall delivered her Nature Notes and told us that the Rife is looking particularly attractive at the moment with Hog Weed, Great Willow Herb and Fleabane all in bloom. Tricia was pleased to say that Little Egrets, Herons, White Throat, Willow Warblers and a Kingfisher had been sighted. Also there have been 3 separate sightings of Water Voles.

News of planning issues followed with Ed Miller advising us that Peugeot had submitted a further planning application for an additional facility at their premises along the A259. A fresh planning application has been submitted for the Newview building in Ferring Street, similar in content to the original application but this time taking advantage of new Government guidelines.

Our Chairman, David Bettiss, opened the meeting with details of our Group winning ‘The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service’, the MBE for volunteer groups. David then went on to welcome Dr Dawn Scott, Assistant Head at Brighton University, and on her second visit to us, this time to talk, in her usual enthusiastic and informative way, about her work on The Urban Fox Project. Dr Scott began by informing us that by the year 2020 over 80% of people will live in an urban area and with population growth dictating greater land use change, wildlife faced new risks but also new opportunities. Few species can adapt but foxes, badgers and hedgehogs can compete and share habitat. In recent years press reports regarding attacks on humans in towns and cities by foxes have suggested that urban foxes have increased in number. It is possible that we are seeing more of them as urban foxes are becoming more accustomed to humans and getting braver, but there is no data to suggest an increase in population. The only major change that has occurred in urban fox populations over the past 30 years has been down to an outbreak of sarcoptic mange, a common disease of mammals, which severely reduced fox numbers in some areas. In 2012 Channel 4 launched ‘Foxes Live: Wild in the City’, an interactive natural history event which encouraged viewers to submit photographs via their smartphones and to contribute to natural history research by taking part in the largest ever urban fox survey.

After a break for refreshments Tricia Hall advised us that Salsify had appeared in her garden, probably from seeds spread by the wind. The boat of flowers situated at the end of Sea Lane had been demolished by a road traffic accident but there is a possible replacement offered by Lancing Parish Council. Tricia showed us photographs of a Painted Lady Butterfly sitting on the Thrift and Birds’-foot-trefoil and a bumble bee with full pollen sacs on a Sea Daisy along the Patterson’s Walk shingle beds. Also there is good shingle flora there including Mallow and Yellow Horn Poppies, which have the largest seed pods in Britain. Deadly Nightshade is growing along the west side of the Rife as well as the Common Spotted Orchid, Early Marsh Orchids but no Bee Orchids this year, also absent were dragon flies in the area.

To conclude the meeting Ed Miller advised us that the public toilets on Ferring Village Green and in the Bluebird Café car park may well be closed by Arun District Council. David Bettiss has written a letter of objection to Councillor Roger Elkins regarding this situation.

Our Member’s Meeting commenced this year with a talk from Clive Hope on ‘Birds at Goring Gap’. Clive began by telling us that already this year skylarks had been seen hovering overhead and were hopefully nesting among the crops. The numbers of these birds are in decline due to modern farming practices so it is reassuring to have them in the vicinity. Last October a short eared owl flew over the beach and was eventually chased off by a crow. Little Egrets, many types of gull and sandwich terns fishing for sand eels, were regular visitors. Brent Geese were sighted from October to March as well as many wading birds such as dunlin, grey plovers and oyster catchers, also Redshank had been seen in pools on the greensward. In August and September large numbers of Ring Plovers were spotted on the beach, well camouflaged against the shingle. Also sanderlings, small plump wading birds, have been seen rushing along the shoreline. Clive told us that according to a ‘Wetlands Bird Survey’ the Goring Gap area is of national significance for the many different bird species it attracts.

Sue Palmer followed with news that 30 members attended the last beach clean on 7th May. This time the weather was kind to the volunteers and altogether 15 bags of rubbish were collected. The beach clean scheduled for Saturday, 17th September will contribute to the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) Nationwide Beach Clean and a comprehensive list of litter found will be submitted to their national survey statistics. The results from the 2015 survey showed that litter had increased and that wet wipes litter was up by 31% and balloons by 11%. The MCS are pushing for deposit return bottles and wet wipes to be flushable. Sue, together with Paula Curran, inspect the local footpaths in Ferring at 15 month intervals. They report any footpaths that have become overgrown to West Sussex County Council who then arrange to carry out the clearance of overhanging branches and brambles etc. Also broken stiles and steps are reported as well as very muddy areas. If some footpaths are impassable, fast track funding can be found for speedy repairs and for hard-core to be laid to improve the path surface.

Gregg Plenty gave a talk entitled ‘Every Cloud has a Silver Lining’ and attempted to cheer us by saying that although conservationists were always ready to depress us with news of everything being in crisis, there were many areas where climate change was beneficial to humans and the animal world. Greg highlighted a newspaper report in March of this year where the RSPB had stated that Climate Change had assisted more UK bird species than it had harmed. The dartford warbler, wren, robin and long tailed tit had all increased in number and most immigrant birds were staying longer. The growing season is now 29 days longer and bee orchids were more abundant. Greg pointed out that as a result of warmer air our energy usage goes down and although the hottest day of the year is getting hotter, the annual minimum temperature has become colder at night by 2% over the last 50 years. Greg left us with the thought that since the early 1980’s little egrets from Southern Europe have been enjoying the varied habitats in Ferring so at least these birds must think it is warmer.

Tricia Hall gave us an informative and interesting talk on Fish. Tricia explained that there are 2 types of fish; bony fish and cartilaginous fish. The bony fish has bones, a swim bladder, gill covers and scales and examples are sea bass, cod and haddock. The sea bass goes a long way out to sea and is covered in scales and a thin layer of skin. Its fins are the main propulsion; the dorsal fin has little bony structures and a pair of pectoral fins and all other fins help propel the fish forward. Behind the head are 4 pairs of gills these are where oxygen is extracted from the water. It has a large mouth with no teeth and a lateral line along its body for detecting other animals in dark water. The cartilaginous fish do not have bones but they do have skeletons and a back bone. An example of this type of fish is a lesser-spotted dogfish which has the usual fins but 5 gills and its mouth is underneath its body. Tricia ended her talk with news that a 20 foot long conger eel had been caught off the coast of Plymouth in Devon.

After tea Mike Hall’s beautiful film ‘Wildlife in Ferring Gardens’ was given a very welcome second showing and Ed Miller concluded the meeting with the news that the campsite proposal for part of the Goring Gap was likely to be refused as there were over 300 objections. The TRO to stop the overnight parking of unoccupied caravans and motorhomes along Marine Drive is likely to come into force soon.