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.