Monthly Archives: July 2023

Butterfly Count at Cissbury Ring

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On Tuesday 18th July members of Ferring Conservation Group, led by Clive Hope,Graham Tuppen and Jackie Hall, met at Cissbury Ring to take part in the Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count.

Gatekeeper Butterfly

It was a lovely sunny day, with only a gentle breeze, so the conditions were favourable and in all 19 varieties of butterflies, 3 of moths, with numbers of some species well into the 20s. The Group saw Large, Small and Marbled White, Brimstone, Small Copper, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Common and Chalkhill Blue, Brown Argus, Speckled Wood, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell, Wall Brown, Dark Green Fritillary, and Small and Essex Skipper Butterflies, and 6-Spot Burnet, Silver Y and Common Crimson and Gold Moths.

The wildflowers were many and varied, and birds spotted included Goldfinches, a Kestrel, Red Kite and a young Redstart.

The Group also saw the New Forest ponies that grazing freely playing an important part in restoring the iconic features of the landscape. The ponies eat away at dead grass and overgrowing shrubs which help to make space for wild flowers and allows wildlife to bloom.

Everyone agreed that the event was a delightful 2 hours of gentle exercise in a lovely setting with great company.

(Photographs courtesy of Peter Dale)

 

The Water Shrew

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Water Shrew by Michael Blencowe for Sussex Wildlife Trust
I love Jaws, the 1975 movie which sent three men out into the Atlantic on a fishing
boat in search of a marauding Great White Shark. There’s another aquatic monster
hunting in the ponds and shallow streams of Sussex. But to find a Water
Shrew…you’re gonna need a smaller boat.
Water Shrews weigh 15g and measure just 16cm. Unlike other shrews they have an
amazing ability to swim and hunt underwater. They’re covered in dense fur – vital
insulation against the cold and wet. This sleek wetsuit also traps air bubbles,
transforming the shrew into a furry Aero helping it stay buoyant. Powerful, extra
hairy hind feet propel this tiny torpedo through the water.
Water Shrews and Great White Sharks have a common feature that sets them apart
from their close relatives. They both have a striking demarcation between their
dark upperparts and their white underparts. Looking from above, their black backs
blend with the pond bottom or seabed. From below, their pale bellies make them
invisible in the sunlit water. It’s a submarine survival strategy that helps conceal
both hunters and hunted. And the Water Shrew is both.

With sharp, red-tipped fangs, a Water Shrew’s jaws are as fearsome as any shark’s.
But the Water Shrew has a trick up its teeth. It’s Britain’s only venomous mammal.
When it bites it injects a stupefying saliva which subdues its victims. In Jaws, the
grizzled skipper Quint (Robert Shaw) relates the chilling true tale of the torpedoed
WWII cruiser Indianapolis, which sank leaving hundreds of sailors adrift in sharkinfested waters. Well, my mate Barry was once bitten by a Water Shrew in
Newhaven and his finger went all tingly for about two hours. OK, it doesn’t
exactly compare, but the fact that a tiny shrew can make such an impact on a
human is pretty impressive.
Slice open a dead shrew’s stomach and rummage inside and you’ll find bits of
beetle legs, snail shells, and fishbones. They are relentless, frenetic hunters. If the
shrew goes without a meal for more than an hour it will die. What we are dealing
with here is a perfect engine, an eating machine. All this machine does is swim and
eat and make little shrews. Between April and September, the mating of the shrew
can produce 2-3 litters of 3-15 young. They live a fast, brief life. Few of them will
survive for more than a year.
The best way to see a Water Shrew is to sit by a Sussex stream as the sun sets.
Bring a couple of friends and some Apricot Brandy, share some tall tales, and wait
for a shrew to strike!

A Sussex Scrapbook 2

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On 30 June Ferring Conservation Group had another talk by Sussex historian Chris Horlock – on some of the curious things to be seen in the county’s churches and graveyards, on village signs, in records of its folklore, old recipes and health cures.

He began with St Bartholomew’s Church in Brighton, an enormous building, in brick. A photograph of it under construction in 1874 showed how it dwarfed all its neighbours, including all other churches in the town. Rather dull on the outside, the interior was a ‘High Church’ masterpiece of architecture and decoration – more like a cathedral than a parish church. He went from there to possibly the smallest church in England at Lullington, near Alfriston, a mere 16ft by 16ft. And on to Isfield. Burton, Boxgrove, each with curious features, and the gravestone at Walberton depicting a tree falling on the deceased and our own carrier-pigeon memorial in Worthing.

Chris moved on to Sussex health cures, including mistletoe tea, red flannel dressings, keeping a potato in your pocket, swallowing live frogs and ‘bumping the corpse’ to revive the apparently dead; then to some enigmatic village signs and some very strange recipes. It was a fascinating collection of photographs, facts and anecdotes from the Sussex heritage that needs conservation just as much as its countryside and wildlife.

Also, very enjoyable was the news from the Court of Appeal, only a few hours earlier, that Persimmon had lost their case on Chatsmore Farm – their last opportunity to overturn Worthing Council’s refusal of the developer’s application for a 485-house estate in the north Goring Gap. Ed Miller said this was a landmark judgment which would protect the other green spaces along Littlehampton Road.

 

 

Summer Social

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We’re holding our annual Summer social on the evening of Saturday 19 August, and this year it will be at the St. Andrew’s Church Centre, starting at 6.30pm.

There will be a choice of hot buffet main meals, with salads and bread etc, then a choice of desserts and cream to follow, plus one free drink will be included. There will also be a series of fun quizzes with prizes to entertain you and a raffle, so should be an evening of good company and good food as usual.

Tickets are priced at £12.50 per person. These can be bought at our stall at the Ferring  Village Fair at Glebelands recreation ground next Saurday 8 July between 11am and 4pm, or at our next meeting at the Village Hall on Friday 28 July. Alternatively, you can ring David Bettiss on 07502 176374 or send a message via the Contact button on this website to arrange purchase outside the above two occasions. We would ask that you pay at the time as this year we won’t be able to save tickets to be paid “on the door” on the night.