Please note the poster below advertising the talk.

 

The Woodland, Flora & Fauna Group is supporting a talk by Hurst ReThink group by Edward Mayer of Swift Conservation UK entitled  ‘Swifts and our local Biodiversity’. It is to be held in the New Inn, Hurstpierpoint High Street on Wednesday, 14th June at 7pm. We actively support any event promoting the interests of wildlife and countryside and will be attending to assist this cause. We have already assisted this group by erecting some swift boxes on a building at their request, to provide nesting opportunities for these valued birds in an area they used to be regularly witnessed. If you live locally and are able, please attend to support this event and possibly learn how you can help the swift population to flourish.

 

The Woodland, Flora & Fauna Group is holding an illustrated public talk given by Clare Blencowe on Wednesday, 12th April at 7.30pm. It is to be held in the Club Suite of the Village Centre, Trinity Road Hurstpierpoint, BN6 9UY.

It will follow immediately after a brief introduction by The Woodland, Flora & Fauna Group.

Clare is the manager of the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre and her talk is entitled ‘Making Nature Count’ in which she will describe how her team meticulously record wildlife and flora species that have been identified in the Sussex countryside and how this benefits their welfare. She will illustrate some of the species discovered and recorded.

 

 

Clare was the Record Centre Manager who was instrumental in ensuring that all the data collected in our group’s intensive countryside biodiversity study was included in the Sussex records.

 

 

She is a very busy person so we are privileged that she has found time to speak to us. If you want to learn more about our local countryside and wildlife and how the collected data helps with their protection, this opportunity should not be missed.

Entry is free and all are welcome.

 

 

 

We hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you there.

 

Supported by: www.wherecanwego.com

2022 was not the best year for surveying our bat box installations. The late summer weather became progressively more wet following the abnormally hot summer and dry days in which to undertake them became fewer and fewer as autumn arrived. This meant the work was protracted and difficult to achieve. The wet weather and windy days were so frequent that it became a case of seizing the first opportunity of a dry interlude, which was usually at very short notice due to the erratic weather patterns.

 

The bat survey this year was difficult due to the bad weather.

 

This obviously made the formation of the teams necessary to undertake each survey a last minute attempt and many surveys had to proceed with less than a desired compliment of team members to make any progress. These outings were obviously harder to complete with less volunteer support and took a great deal longer. Such was the difficulty, that our survey period of approximately a month to visit all our installations became stretched to a period spanning from the first one at the end of August, to the last one at the beginning of November. Some of these opportunities had to be undertaken in very low temperatures and often immediately following gale force winds, so advanced expectations of poor levels of occupancy were often realised.

 

Difficulty was experienced in recruiting sufficient volunteers at short notice when dry weather permitted.

 

Following our hugely successful year last year when we had Bechstein’s bats occupying several locations in addition to an increased number of other species, we feared the weather conditions would make the 2022 results significantly poorer. To a degree this was indeed the case, but we found a reasonably high occupancy including a retained Bechstein’s bat presence despite this.

 

Despite the poor weather we managed to retain a Bechstein’s bat presence again this year.

 

Due to the very high winds experienced, we found many woodlands contained a large number of fallen trees, often blocking the integral avenues utilised by bats for access into them.

 

We found many trees had fallen in the high autumn winds.

 

This meant in some instances we had to unblock some of the avenues as we proceeded to maintain the flight paths and roosting suitability required for a continuing bat presence. This again added to the difficulty.

 

 Access avenues had to be kept clear to maintain woodland flight paths.

 

In one woodland, we found that so much rain had fallen that areas we normally required to erect our ladders in were flooded to a depth of a metre of water. These boxes were obviously inaccessible to us this year.

 

Erection of ladders in flooded areas proved impossible.

 

We have also made an effort to replant removed trees where necessary to maintain the quality of the wood and its ongoing suitability for bats.

 

To restore woodland suitability for bat occupation some replacement trees were planted.

 

The working parties made progress despite reduced numbers of helpers.

 

These difficulties have made a year when we were struggling to catch up with a late start to the year’s commitments due to unavoidable problems, even more awkward to achieve. Again, the end of year wet weather was continuing to be an obstacle to us. We battled on however, hoping that the erratic seasonal weather conditions returned to a degree of normality to help us. This improvement unfortunately, did not materialise. Below we include a pictorial record of some of our survey ventures and some of the 2022 bat population monitoring activities and the results obtained for you to share with us.

 

The physical effort required was unchanged….

 

….to allow boxes to be accessed. 

 

The bad weather just made it harder and more prolonged with the limited number of dry days to select from.

 

We gained access to most boxes….

 

….despite the extremely wet ground as seen here.

 

The hot summer followed by a very wet autumn had encouraged bramble understorey growth to accelerate and make ladder transportation and positioning extremely difficult.

 

Most woodland terrain is also very uneven…. 

 

.…making safe positioning for ladder footings….

 

….extremely important when working at such high levels, especially when the ground is waterlogged.

 

The helpers on the ground below always ensure the ladder footings remain secure for the person operating at these extreme heights.

 

Despite our fears of poor survey results….

 

….our initial findings contradicted this.

 

The majority of bats found this year….

 

.…were Common Pipistrelles….

 

….found at varying stages of growth….

 

….and numbers.

 

Bats found in boxes have to be treated with care.

 

Many remain stationary….

 

….while others can crawl around while they are being recorded.

 

It is therefore necessary to keep track of all occupants….

 

….while identifying all individuals contained.

 

Groups can be particularly awkward….

 

….as an initially tight cluster can explode outwards….

 

When each survey has been completed, the whereabouts of every individual is important to prevent any being trapped in the door when it is closed.

 

We were very pleased to find Bechstein’s bats in our boxes for a second year running.

 

This makes us feel that all the effort expended in making conditions perfect for them, worthwhile.

 

The work is hard and only for the dedicated to undertake with the necessary expertise, but the year-on-year improvements in numbers we are achieving provides us with the encouragement that the effort is making a significant improvement to local populations.

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.