The Woodland, Flora & Fauna Group has been busier than ever during the latter half of 2022. In June we visited the woodland pond in Sayers Common and spent many weeks maintaining the valuable wetland location. It was overgrown with ragwort, thistle and spreading brush again.

Volunteers worked hard to restore the area to the condition it was left in last year. The weather was at the latter end of the extremely hot period and the volunteers found the hard work required very taxing in these conditions. They persevered until the work was concluded so that they could quickly move on to other areas that demanded attention.

 

The volunteers found the area very overgrown.

 

It took a very long time to reach the pond with the huge amount of brush growth surrounding it.

 

 The volunteers persevered however…. 

 

.…clearing all debris created…. 

 

….until a conclusion was reached.

 

In September our group once again had a stall at the annual Hurst Festival Super Sunday Event to advertise our work and recruit additional volunteers to help us. The day was fortunately fine, and the event was well attended. Group volunteers worked in shifts to man the stall and explain our work to interested bystanders. It included a second table selling bric-a-brac provided run by a valued member from Sayers Common. Money made from this, and generous contributions received to help us in our work made the exercise a worthwhile one to support our nature conservation effort.

 

Group volunteers manned the stall for the Super Sunday Event.

 

Wildlife conservation boxes and activity photographs attracted attention from passers-by. 

 

Contributions received aided our ongoing nature conservation effort.

 

We then quickly moved on to the next site that was requiring our attention. This took us back again to Pond Lye Site of Nature Conservation Importance where due to a presence of breeding wildlife requiring nurturing until grown, we had delayed the annual meadow cut. The first task was to cut the meadow and again our volunteer helper with a tractor attacked the excessively tall growth that had resulted from the long, hot summer weather. When this was done, we quickly attended to rake up the cuttings while they were still fresh and easy to remove. We were fortunate enough to have help from a Sussex College who joined us for a day with over 50 students. This help was massively useful, and we are grateful to them for it.

 

Our tractor volunteer initially attended site to cut the meadow.

 

Many students visited for a day to assist us with raking up the hay.

 

Lines of helpers were formed to enable teamwork to assist in task achievement.

 

The hay was raked into progressive lines as volunteers advanced across the meadow.

 

The lines of raked hay were transported to form stacks.

 

The haystacks quickly became very large.

 

With many helpers we made rapid progress.

 

All participants readily embraced the multitude of required tasks….

 

….and the meadow was eventually cleared of the majority of the cut hay.

 

The students enjoyed helping us and we were grateful for their valuable effort, which achieved significant progress in what was normally a very protracted annual task. 

 

There was a section of meadow which the tractor was unable to cut due to the height of the flora making it impossible due to the uneven terrain that lurked beneath. This was therefore left to be cut by hand later, when the majority of the rest of the meadow had been cleared of cut hay. For this reason and the extensive and prolonged wet weather that immediately followed, this final section is still being worked on. Weather improvement permitting, we hope to finish in the near future.

 

The remainder of the area which is uncut is being tackled with brush cutters.

 

The cut hay continues to be raked and stacked for later disposal.

 

Barrows are filled and wheeled to selected sites for burning.

 

Progress from now on is being dictated by sufficient dry interludes occurring in a very wet autumnal season….

 

….but with luck should be completed shortly.

 

During this period a mature tree was unfortunately detected to be unsound at Talbot Field pocket nature site. Due to it being close to an adjoining roadway, it was felled by tree surgeons. We spoke to Hassocks Parish Council, the owners of the site, and they kindly agreed to purchase a replacement tree for us to plant in place of the felled one as we were anxious that the current equilibrium of the woodland for bat occupation, would be compromised. When the tree arrived some of our volunteers attended and immediately planted it together with a second tree donated to the parish council by a local group. Both are currently flourishing.

 

 

A hole was quickly dug to house the replacement tree.

 

 It was carefully planted and watered-in well.

 

It was well-supported and will hopefully grow to fill the space taken by the felled tree.

 

A second tree which was donated to Hassocks Parish Council by the local U3A Group in memory of one of their recently deceased members, was planted in the adjoining meadow as an addition to those already growing there.

 

Hopefully both trees will eventually mature to add to the unique nature value of the location. The site will be attended again in the near future to deal with some of the tree damage caused by recent severe winds and to collect up fallen branches to form wildlife habitat stacks.