The Woodland, Flora & Fauna Group is a volunteer organisation dedicated to protecting local countryside and wildlife, and we would like invite you to a Special Talk to be given by the renowned author and woodland ecologist, Keith Kirby. It is entitled ‘Woodland Flowers’.

 

It will take place on Wednesday, 20th August at 7.30 pm in the Main Hall at Hurstpierpoint Village Centre, Trinity Road, Hurstpierpoint, BN6 9UY.

 

Keith Kirby is a visiting researcher at the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, who previously worked as a woodland ecologist with the government conservation agencies, Nature Conservancy Council, English Nature and Natural England. He was awarded the Royal Forestry Society Gold Medal for Distinguished Services to Forestry in 2011 and the CIEEM Medal for his outstanding lifelong contribution to the advancement of ecology, forestry and woodland management in 2014. He has written widely for journals, the press, and is author of many books.

 

Come and hear this inspiring talk about his exploration of how the woodland plants of Great Britain have come to be where they are, have coped with living in the shade of their bigger relatives, and responded to the continuous threats posed by storms, fires, floods, grazing herbivores and changing seasons. This talk is highly informative to all who value nature and is of special interest to those who appreciate and wish to learn more about British woodland and its flora.

 

This presentation has been arranged as one of our series of special nature talks held each year, which provide public learning opportunities that do not come very often, so please join us to hear from a leading authority in this field. It will immediately follow a brief introduction by The Woodland, Flora & Fauna Group, the organisers of the evening, who use these events with distinguished speakers, to generate any voluntary donations people can spare to support their nature conservation work around Mid Sussex. The natural world is struggling to survive and needs all the help it can get, so any help received is invaluable.

 

Entry is free and all are welcome. There is a car park opposite the building.

 

Michael Nailard.

 

Our year began as normal, with our attention focussed on maintaining our huge installation of barn owl and tawny owl boxes which are installed throughout Southern Mid Sussex. This year the weather was unusually wet for the first few months of 2025 and finding dry intervals in which we could carry out this work were few and far between. Often we had to resort to snatching at any moving dry interval that appeared, and try to recruit available volunteers to capitalise on it.

 

This made the exercise a prolonged one, and one which was subjected to increasing pressure to get it completed before the breeding season in late spring. When the owls begin breeding, we have to cease any maintenance work so that they are not disturbed.

 

The maintenance task is a hard one, and one that involves transporting considerable equipment and ladders on a hand-cart across wet and soggy fields for great distances. For this terrain just walking is not easy, and pulling this heavy weight requires a team of volunteers to achieve.

 

 Each site is visited…..

 

….and every box is cleaned out and maintained.

 

The amount of cleaning out required…..

 

….depends on who has occupied it. This one had been utilised by visiting hornets. If squirrels or jackdaws have nested in them, a major effort is required to clear the resulting debris which can completely fill the whole box.

 

Usually, any occupying barn owl flies out as we erect the ladder.

 The winter weather can be very cold with biting winds. It therefore relies on dedicated volunteers to undertake it.  

 

Each person fulfils an interlocking role to ensure the work is completed as quickly as possible.

 

The team visiting this site were not prepared for their findings in this box.

 

The whole farm had been subjected to flailing to remove lower branches on every tree to give clearance to large farm machinery. Note the ripped branches remaining around the box.

 

Although this clearance had missed the box, the regular pair of owls that had been roosting inside…..

 

….had been so traumatised that they had both died. The bodies were sent for analysis and confirmed this cause of death. This was such a tragic waste of a healthy, breeding pair of barn owls, but one that typifies the many hazards facing these beautiful creatures in their fight for survival, despite all our efforts.

 

As only one person can be working up the ladder at any time at each location….

 

….all other members of the team anticipate their next requirement and are ready to hand this up to them.  

 

This allows the task to be completed more quickly, and reduces the amount of time anybody has to stand around waiting for their next role to be performed. In the bleak mid-winter this is obviously of benefit to all.

 

Every box is sited in different terrain, and all team members have to be aware of the requirements for safe working, and ensure all items of equipment to facilitate this are transported to every location.

 

Much work is required to ensure the boxes are maintained in the best condition. We are therefore regularly disheartened when squirrels occupy the boxes, and reduce them to the condition of this tawny owl box pictured above, with their constant gnawing. It also cost us a lot of money for replacements.

 

When the maintenance was finally finished we then had to install all boxes requiring renewal through deterioration or damage, and those requested by many landowners following our Special Public Talk given by David Ramsden of the Barn Owl Trust last year. Surveys were undertaken by our group for the requested new boxes, but only sites that were compatible with the requirements of owls in terms of surrounding terrain, their ongoing welfare and roosting preferences were selected. No boxes were erected where these parameters were not met, as maximising the survival prospects for these species are paramount in our consideration. All were thanked for their kind gestures of offers of support for owls regardless of the outcome.

The installation work started at a location in Mid Sussex where barn owl eggs had been found last year in a box location which was to be unknowingly compromised by unanticipated activity in the area. This activity had unfortunately resulted in the mother abandoning the nest, causing the eggs to perish. With the activity proving increasingly likely to be repeated, agreement was reached with the landowner for the affected two boxes to be re-located in a more suitable location nearby. This was undertaken by a team of group volunteers before this year’s breeding season, with a lot of valued support from the landowner. We are hopeful that the new location will be perfect for any future breeding to take place without any disturbance.

 

These were the four barn owl eggs that had been abandoned by the mother last year in one of the boxes we subsequently moved before this year’s breeding season.

 

The next site was a new location requested for us to survey for installation of one of our boxes by another nature conservation group in Mid Sussex.

 

Having selected the most suitable site in advance, a volunteer working party began clearance work around the tree to begin installation.

 

The box was then quickly erected by the experienced team of volunteers…..

 

….before finally departing to leave the new accommodation for local owls to discover.

 

We then moved on to another site we had selected for the replacement of established boxes that had become badly damaged in a nearby location. The original site had become a difficult one for the teams to access in safety, so the new ones were fitted in a location very close to it. This box was the first of the pair to be erected. 

 

This was the location selected for the second box which was effectively mounted by the members of the team. 

 

 When the work was concluded, the team members departed leaving the new boxes ready for barn owl roosting and breeding in the season ahead.

 

Afterwards time was taken to make friends with local neighbours.

 

A further request was received from a local landowner in Hurstpierpoint for a barn owl box to be erected in an agreed suitable location. The team began installing the box on the tree shown above.

 

The erection was undertaken in managed progressive stages….

 

….until final completion was achieved.

 

When finished, the team stood back to appreciate the finished installation….

 

….before loading all the equipment back onto their vehicles.

 

The next location requiring attention, was one where the existing landowners had barn owls roosting in boxes in their barn. 

 

With the barn designated for conversion in the near future, we were asked to install boxes on trees nearby to provide alternative accommodation for the regular owl inhabitants. This was the first tree selected.

 

The box mounting was speedily completed and we moved on to the second tree.

 

The second tree required the clearance of a lot of ivy and interfering branches to make it suitable to mount a box.

 

The team members determinedly undertook the work required….

 

….and soon the task was finished. We were very grateful to the landowners for their consideration for the welfare of these local barn owls.

 

Work then shifted to the installation of a number of tawny owl boxes that had been requested by other landowners in our Mid Sussex Conservation Area. This was the first to be erected by team members.

 

This was the second, which was quickly completed.

 

A further suitable site was selected and the installation of a third box began.

 

This was eventually finished….

 

….and with work completed for that day, the boxes were left to the local tawny owl population to become familiar with.

 

We returned on a later day to complete a fourth box shown here, that we hadn’t managed to include on the previous visit.

 

On a further occasion, a volunteer team was assembled again, and two tawny owl boxes were installed for a landowner in a hillside location in our Southern Mid Sussex Owl Conservation Area. This was one of the boxes erected. A considerable amount of time had been spent beforehand on clearing surrounding foliage, to make the location suitable to meet the tawny owl’s requirements. This clearance exercise was also required before the second box could be mounted. 

 

Further boxes were requested for two landowners in Hassocks. This one was in a woodland where we already had an installation of successful bat boxes. It possessed all the requirements to attract tawny owls. 

 

The box for the second landowner was mounted in woodland on the tree shown. 

 

We now wait to see how successful they are in attracting the required residents.

 

We are still have more boxes to erect and these are being dealt with as soon as possible. We are grateful to all the landowners where the recent new installations have been completed, or have been agreed for future fitting, for donating the cost of the new boxes. This helps us considerably with the costs we already bear for painting them and providing the fixings required. Ongoing cleaning out, maintenance, and inspections are routinely undertaken each year by us to ensure their continued well-being, to provide the maximum benefit for owl re-production and species population survival. With all this nature conservation effort given by volunteers utilising their own time and relying on grants, donations and fund-raising events to undertake it, any financial assistance is greatly appreciated.