Leaving behind a career in IT and Telecommunications, Mark McManus decided to venture down a very different path and indulge his passion for wildlife as he became an Assistant Warden for the RSPB’s Pulborough Brooks Reserve and then a Ranger for the South Downs National Park Authority.

Mark now happily imparts his vast knowledge to the many visitors on safari tours around the Knepp Estate and is very much a member of the team there. He came along to Ferring Conservation Group’s June meeting to update members with the latest news of this trailblazing rewilding project.

In the twenty or so years since Knepp began rewilding, extremely rare species have thrived including Turtle Doves, Nightingales, Peregrine Falcons and Purple Emperor butterflies as well as more common species. Moving away from intensive farming has demonstrated how natural regeneration has created new habitats from grassland and scrub to open-grown trees and wood pastures attracting wildlife from far and wide.

Without free-roaming grazing animals, Mark explained the emerging scrub would soon turn into closed-canopy woodland. Over the years the physical disturbance created by grazing animals stimulated a complex mosaic of habitats allowing a more open form of wood-pasture. Although as many ancient breeds as possible were introduced, Tamworth Pigs were substituted for Wild Boar and Exmoor ponies were established for their hardiness and ability to thrive in all sorts of habitat. Roe, Fallow and Red deer roam freely alongside Old English long-horn cattle.

Mark explained that one of the Knepp Estate’s priorities is to liaise with neighbouring landowners to encourage them to allow strategic wildlife corridors, such as in the Chichester area, which links the South Downs National Park with the coastal harbours. This will allow wildlife to move freely across the county.

Two beavers were released into a licensed enclosure in February 2022. Since then, they have had an astonishing impact on their environment, creating impressive dams, building up their lodge and coppicing the surrounding woodland.

Mark took pride in announcing that in addition to Knepp becoming home to the first 2 nesting pairs of wild Storks to breed in the UK for over 600 years in 2020, last year the project has gone from strength to strength with 9 successful nests.

It is hoped that the potential reintroduction of Wildcat and Pine Marten will be possible in the future.

Graham Tuppen then presented the Nature Notes session with photographs of Wall Lizards spotted at West Worthing railway station and a tree completely covered in webs made by the caterpillars of Ermine Moths seen by the roadside at Long Furlong. Graham then showed a beautiful photograph of a field of Native Field Poppies and Phacelia also in the Long Furlong area. Bee Orchids were in bloom at Highdown Gardens while Common Spotted Orchids, Wild Thyme and Birds Foot Trefoil were seen at Cissbury Ring, together with Wild Carrot, Ladies Bedstraw and Yellow-rattle.

To conclude the meeting Stephen Abbott updated members on the latest planning news advising that the planning application submitted on behalf of Greystoke Manor care home for a two-story extension had been withdrawn. Also, the application for an additional house at 44 Ferringham Lane is yet to be decided.

The ancient skill of coppicing was the fascinating subject that Clive Cobie covered at the Group’s May meeting to enlighten members and visitors. Clive is the Centre Manager for Shadow Wood near Billingshurst – a 63-acre bluebell wood in the heart of the Weald Downlands.

Clive explained why this traditional form of woodland management serves two important functions: to provide a renewable source of wood for fuel and fencing and to allow selected trees space to grow to full maturity for subsequent cropping as timber. A very useful effect is that this procedure also lets in light to the woodland floor, allowing plants and flowers growing there to regenerate along with their dependent wildlife – the word ‘copse’ denotes a wood that was once coppiced.

Coppicing means cutting the tree down to ground level to allow new shoots to spring up from the base. This practice stimulates the trees natural power of regeneration as it encourages the tree to produce new poles of wood year after year. Clive explained that as the years go by a coppiced tree will start to form a stool and shoots will be thrown up from this and should be cut back to within 5-8cm of this wood. The most suitable trees for coppicing are Chestnut, Silver Birch and Hazel which should be cut on a rotation of 7 years.

After a break for refreshments Graham Tuppen filled the popular Nature Notes slot with news of sightings of Early Purple Orchids during a visit to Patching Woods. Graham had also spotted Common (smooth) Newts in his garden supposedly from his next-door neighbour’s pond. Graham showed two impressive photographs by Peter Phelps of an adult Cockchafer and a Common Toad, with Peter Dale managing to photograph an Azure Damselfly by the Ferring Rife, where there had also been a recent sighting of a Water Vole, which was welcome.

Stephen Abbott concluded the meeting by updating the audience with news of local planning issues. The Call-In submission to the Secretary of State was not successful for the 47 houses approved to be built on the land adjacent to Kingston Lane, East Preston. The 3 houses proposed for a garden behind Ferring Nurseries has been rejected, along with an additional dwelling at the back of 4 Sea Lane. A planning application for a two-storey rear extension to Greystoke Manor care home has also been submitted.

Ferring Conservation Group’s April meeting had a very interesting, and well-presented talk on the History and Wildlife of Broadwater Cemetery – one of Worthing’s oldest burial grounds, now a nature reserve but still visited by family members of those who were buried there in its latter years. ‘Friends of Broadwater Cemetery’ document its history (which goes back to 1861) and, in cooperation with Worthing Borough Council, maintain its extensive grounds in a way which preserves and encourages the wide range of wildflowers, birds and other animals, and butterflies.

Debra Hillman, the Chairman of the ‘Friends’ talked about the early days of the cemetery and some of the well-known local people buried there, including the naturalists W H Hudson and Richard Jefferies. Less well known were the 115 victims of the Worthing typhoid epidemic of 1893, to whom there is a common memorial. But the old Chapel, with its splendid interior, is a listed building.

Paul Robards leads the work on keeping the cemetery’s extensive grounds tidy and removing the ivy which quickly grows over the headstones, hiding the inscriptions and the stories they tell. He is also a lifelong naturalist and does everything he can to preserve and encourage the abundant wildlife – which includes slow worms, many songbirds, and a wide variety of butterflies. He showed some excellent photographs to illustrate his talk, and Conservation Group members were encouraged to join one of the Cemetery Tours, on the first Saturday of every month in Spring, Summer and Autumn,

The Group held its AGM later in the meeting. Pete Coe was elected Chairman, David Bettiss as Secretary and Ed Miller has taken over as Membership Secretary.

The February meeting had over 80 members and visitors present to hear an excellent presentation from Tony Pratt, a representative from The Wey and Arun Canal Trust. Tony explained that the canal formed the final part of a vital route from London to Portsmouth without going to sea. This became of great military importance, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. Sadly, this was never a commercial success and as railways became the preferred mode of transport for goods, the canal was closed in 1871 and had been little used.

Over 100 years later The Wey and Arun Canal Society was formed which in 1973 became The Wey and Arun Canal Trust. This body of 3,000 members, volunteers and staff have been instrumental in restoring significant stretches of the canal. The Trust has a showcase site at Loxwood, West Sussex where it is possible to book boat trips and where canoeists and paddleboarders are welcome to use the waterway.

The Wey-South Path was one of the Trust’s earliest successes and is a long-distance footpath that runs either alongside or near to the canal route. Along this scenic route an abundance of wildlife can be viewed and also from the canal boats.

After a break for refreshments Graham Tuppen enlightened the audience with news of local wildlife sightings, including Chaffinches, a Brimstone butterfly and a Bumble Bee. The first Newt had been seen and a Heron taking numerous frogs from a pond in a local garden.

Chiara Agnarelli, a local volunteer with the Marine Conservation Society, gave a talk to our 26 January meeting, highlighting the many threats to the sea’s wildlife, the world’s food supply, its function as a ‘carbon sink’ and its value for recreation. The main threat, she said was the increasing pollution from litter and sewage, but other problems like over-fishing of many species and ‘bottom trawling’ which scraped the sea floor, killing vast numbers of small animals and plants.

The Marine Conservation Society, founded in 1983, aims to work with governments, businesses and communities to reduce pollution, maintain edible fish stocks and keep our seas and beaches as pleasant unspoilt facilities for recreation. It works by influencing, campaigning and invigilating every aspect of damage to the marine environment, and by direct action with local amenity groups in Beach Cleans and cleaning the rivers and streams that often carry litter and other pollutants out to sea. Individuals too were being encouraged to reduce their own impact on the sea – by buying only responsibly-caught fish, avoiding single-use and unrecyclable plastic, and being careful with what they flush down the toilet.

Chiara said it was a long, hard battle to stop the unnecessary damage to the sea and its wildlife and there were many setbacks, but it was very good to see the number of conservation groups along the Sussex coast making such an impact. In West Sussex alone some 560 volunteers collected nearly 14,000 pieces of litter in 2022 and the figures for 2023 were expected to show much more being done.

David Bettiss said Ferring was doing its bit as the Conservation Group’s beach cleans and litter picking from the Rife banks were regular, well organised, and very well supported and it was good to hear of so much work being done at county and national level,

Graham Tuppen reported on work being done at Warren Pond to protect and enhance its wildlife, including a hibernaculum for over-wintering animals and insects, and on the bird life all over Ferring. He said the Big Garden Bird Count at the end of the month was expected to show a good number of Waxwings.

Ed Miller gave an update on local planning issues: the application for 47 houses in the Kingston Gap would almost certainly be refused by Arun DC and he was confident that the Persimmon appeal regarding the housing estate on Chatsmore Farm, would finally be dismissed following the Public Inquiry in February.

Wilder Landscapes

Fran Southgate from the Sussex Wildlife Trust gave the Group’s October meeting an interesting presentation on Sussex landscapes and the efforts of the Trust to ‘re-wild’ them.  Much work had been done on the Trust’s own reserves (1,900 hectares/4,700 acres) but this was only 0.5 per cent of the areas of the two counties. More effort was going into persuading landowners and farmers to manage their land in more traditional ways which allowed native species to survive and create biodiversity. Trees and hedges added to the landscape, and less use of insecticides helped pollination, and of veterinary treatments like ivermectins (for worms) avoided harmful effects on wildlife.

She said nature conservation was moving away from a focus on individual species and towards a restoration of ‘ecosystems’, recognising the interdependence of plant and animals in food chains and in keeping soils fertile and farm animals healthy. The free movement of wild animals was particularly important, and the Trust was working with many agencies and landowners to create wildlife corridors across the two counties – with some success already. There is now a corridor from Climping to Horsham, including the Knepp estate where rewilding has transformed the landscape while sustaining viable agriculture.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Stag Rut (photo by Paul Lindley). One of many great illustrations from Fran’s talk,

  The Trust is also involved in conservation of Sussex rivers and the coastal waters. There are 145 km/90 miles of chalk streams under protection, and beavers have been reintroduced in other rivers, to help with flood control by building their dams. The underwater landscapes off-shore were hardly thought of a few decades ago but now we know that the kelp forests are under attack by trawlers, and the Trust is involved with groups like the Littlehampton Kelp Divers, to find way to protect this asset.

Responding to questions, Fran stressed the message that while food production, housing needs and public health were bound to make demands on the landscape, they could all be managed more carefully and in ways which allowed more of our natural wild landscape to survive.

Graham Tuppen gave his update on local wildlife, including the large numbers of smooth-hound sharks recently washed up on Goring and Ferring beaches, and Ed Miller reported on the three current planning appeals and the changes in Government policy which meant they would almost certainly be dismissed.

This was the subject at Ferring Conservation Group’s September meeting, very well presented by James Milton of the Sussex Dolphin Project, based at Shoreham seafront.  Their mission is to protect local dolphin species through research, awareness and education to restore and increase the population of these fascinating marine mammals. He began with some excellent video footage of Bottle-nosed dolphins following a boat from Newhaven, swimming and leaping into the air. James said dolphins and porpoises can be seen from the shore, all along the Sussex coast and often within 20 metres of the shore but the only way to see them at close quarters is from a boat, and the Trust arranges regular boat trips between May and October out to their favourite locations, including near the Rampion Windfarm.

Dolphins and porpoises belong to the same group as whales, ‘the Cetaceans’ and he told us that the Orca, or ‘Killer Whale’ is really a dolphin species. Dolphins are much more common in our waters than porpoises, and the most common dolphin species is the ‘Bottle-nosed’. They are air-breathing mammals, taking in air when on the surface, or in their leaps, hold their breath while submerged and expelling it through a blow-hole in their head, just like whales. They eat Cod, Whiting and Pollack, and sometimes squid and crustaceans, finding their prey, by echo-location and communicating with each other by ‘clicking’ signals,

The only real threat to their survival is the ‘Super-trawler’, that can be up to 130 metres long, with gigantic nets, catching fish of all sizes and throwing the unwanted species, including dolphins – dying or badly injured, over the side, or selling them to be made into pet food. The Sussex Dolphin Project joins other conservation groups in pressing the Government to regulate super-trawlers more effectively – existing regulations are easy to evade.

We learned a great deal from this talk, including the different outlines of bottle-nosed dolphins and Harbour Porpoises, the only porpoise to be found off our coast.  The Bottle-nose, and the sickle-shaped dorsal fin is very distinctive for our dolphins; our porpoises are smaller and stockier, have more rounded faces and a triangular fin, and they usually swim alone. After this talk Graham Tuppen gave an update on local wildlife sightings, Ed Miller on planning applications and appeals, and Pete Coe on the Group’s practical conservation projects.