Jacob Everitt opened our May meeting with a talk on his search for as many different species of dragonfly that he could identify during 2015. Jacob is a Senior Countryside Warden at Horsham District Council and began by describing to us the difference between dragonflies and damselflies. Dragonflies have joined eyes with no split segment and two pairs of flat wings whereas damselflies have large eyes either side of their head split into coloured segments and much thinner wings that are held against their body.

There are 41 species that are native to Britain and they can be found from Land’s End to John O’Groats, but not in Ireland. Jacob said that 29 of the species can be found here in Sussex.

With a list of Britain’s Dragonflies, an AA Road Atlas, a book entitled ‘Watching British Dragonflies’ and a camera, Jacob began his voyage of discovery. His first visit was to Dungeness in Kent where the many coastal lagoons were an ideal location and here he spotted a Hairy Dragonfly, this large, hardy dragonfly is blue, green and yellow and Jacob found it easy to photograph as this species is happy to sit for periods of time. A Vagrant Emperor was also seen passing through the area, these dragonflies tuck their legs in during flight and use them to catch insects to eat.

Jacob’s hunt continued in the Ashdown Forest where he discovered a Small Red damselfly, a Black Darter dragonfly and the largest of the species at five inches long, the Golden-Ringed dragonfly which is found on heathland.

In late May Jacob visited Norfolk and was fortunate enough to see and photograph a Norfolk Hawker. This is one of two brown Hawker dragonflies found in Britain.

A return journey time of 18 hours and 1036 miles took Jacob to Abernethy Forest in Scotland on a hunt for three target species, the Northern and the Northern Emerald damselflies and the Azure Hawker dragonfly found around boggy pools in moorland.

With over 5,000 miles on the clock and 290 hours driving, including visits to Loch Maree Scotland, the Isle of Sheppey, the New Forest, Hadleigh Castle in Essex and the Isles of Scilly Jacob spotted 45 species of Odonata (the collective name for dragonflies and damselflies) including all of the 41 species native to Britain.

After a break for refreshments Tricia Hall delivered her popular Nature Notes with news of a Great Spotted Woodpecker nesting in a hole in the same tree as last year in the Plantation. Blue tits are very busy in some of the nesting boxes in the village and five fox cubs were seen playing in Clover Lane. Early marsh Orchids are alongside the Rife along with Comfrey, which has medicinal qualities and can be cut, rotted down and used as fertilizer and is also a good food source for Bumble Bees. Ed Miller concluded the meeting by advising us that the draft version of the Arun Local Plan has been modified to reflect the increase of the new housing quota to 1,000 properties per year for the next 15 years. So far this draft plan protects the Goring Gaps.

At our April meeting we welcomed Tim McPherson, a Director of the Angling Trust, publisher, angler, naturalist, ornithologist and conservationist. Tim came to talk to us about the work of the Angling Trust, and explained that the biggest threat to sea-angling is the lack of fish brought about by decades of over-fishing and failed management by the UK government and the EU, through the Common Fisheries Policy. The Angling Trust’s ultimate goal is to allow recreational sea fishing to have a greater say in how fish stocks are managed through lobbying and campaigning, and to allow the promotion and development of this sport for future generations.

The Angling Trust members support the campaigns they carry out to protect fish stocks and together with Fish Legal, the legal arm of the Angling Trust, they use the law to fight pollution and other damage to the water environment – both freshwater and marine – and protect the rights of anglers and angling. The Angling Trust are continually campaigning against poaching, the quality of waters, inshore netting, reform of rod licences and other important issues.

Tim also told us about a popular recreational fishing area called the Kingmere Marine Conservation Zone, this lies between 5 to 10 km offshore of the West Sussex coast between Littlehampton and Worthing and has the ideal topography to attract marine life. This area is one of the largest breeding sites of black bream in the country and is popular with chartered fishing boats. These fish build their nests on hard bedrock overlain with thin sand and gravel. The male fish will make a nest in the substrate and when the female has laid her eggs he will guard the nest until the eggs hatch. Black bream are ‘protogynous’ which means the females turn into males when they reach about 35 cms. Further Marine Conservation Zones will be considered in future.

A short AGM followed a break for refreshments where Ed Miller was appointed as Secretary to replace Debbie Dilks, and Graham Tuppen voted onto the Committee. Other existing committee members were re-elected unopposed.

David Bettiss delivered April’s Nature Notes with news that many migrant birds had been seen around the area including wheatears, male redstart, black cap, chiff chaff, whitethroats, swallows, and great crested grebe. Butterflies seemed more plentiful than last year with peacock, small tortoiseshell, brimstone, speckle wood and an orange tip being spotted in gardens.

Ed Miller concluded the meeting and although there were no new planning applications, there is great concern that the proposed new housing estates in Angmering will cause an additional burden on the already congested local highways.

Penny Green, an Ecologist from the Knepp Estate near Horsham, opened our March meeting with a talk entitled ‘Knepp Wildland – A Naturalistic Grazing System’. Penny explained that the Knepp Castle Estate has been privately owned by the Burrell family for over 200 years. The current owner, Sir Charles Burrell, was devoted to traditional arable and dairy farming but with heavy clay soil and small fields the land was not ideally suited for intensive agriculture. In 2001 Sir Charles shifted his focus to regeneration and restoration projects aimed at nature conservation. Sir Charles introduced various herbivores, cows, deer, horses and pigs on to the 3,500 acres of land. Over time this affected the vegetation to create mosaics of habitats including open grassland, regenerating scrub, bare ground and forested groves. Longhorn cattle create paths through scrub, spread seeds and create a distinct browse line, while the Tamworth Pigs rootle up the ground looking for food. Exmoor ponies and deer browse the sallow and other tree species also stripping bark especially when food is scarce in winter. The animals live outside all year without supplementary feeding and are allowed to roam freely with little intervention. The aim is to improve the biodiversity of the land by encouraging the return of wild flowers and grasses, trees and shrubs, insects and butterflies, birds and small mammals. It is hoped that eventually the ecosystem that once prevailed in the area will return and although grazing animals are used elsewhere in the UK as a conservation management tool it is unusual for a mixture of animals to be used in this way. This project may well encourage other areas of marginal land in the UK to become ‘rewilded’ linking up diversity hotspots to create a ‘Living Landscape’.

Following a break for refreshments Julie Toben from Wadars provided an update on the future of this respected animal charity. Julie explained that although their initial plans for a ‘state of the art’ rehoming centre were still in the running, realistically this would take the charity much longer to achieve than first thought. Therefore after much consideration, and to utilize the existing facilities as soon as possible, a more practical plan had been agreed. Some of the existing stable blocks are to be renovated and converted to kennels while a prefabricated UPVC cattery would be constructed with sympathetic planting and fencing to help the buildings blend into the landscape. The charity hopes to be fully operational by March 2018.

Ed Miller followed with an update on planning news. Ed told us that the second planning application for 23 Yurts on the land north of the A259 had been refused. Globe Estates (Southern) Ltd have submitted plans, at detailed design stage, for 8 apartments on the site of the former Beehive Cottage. A new planning application for 8 apartments at the corner of Sea Lane and Sea Close is soon to be advertised, this time to include an underground car park. There is also an application for the former Village Interiors showroom in South Ferring to be converted to flats.

Michael Brown concluded the meeting with the latest news regarding the Rampion Windfarm. Michael advised us that the offshore foundations were now complete and there would be no further piling, and that E.on are now busy installing the turbines to the towers and to date have completed 4. They are on schedule to complete this part of the project by autumn of this year along with 50% of the cabling.

Neil Hulme, a Project Officer from Butterfly Conservation, gave an informative and interesting, illustrated talk regarding a three year conservation project launched in April 2015 by the wildlife charity, to halt the drastic decline in numbers of two of the rarest woodland butterflies in Sussex.

In the 1970’s both the Pearl-bordered and small Pearl-bordered Fritillary were common in woods, along with the Cuckoo and the Nightingale. In fact last year no Small-bordered Fritillaries were seen at the only remaining colony site in the county. Both butterflies are similarly marked on the upper side of their wings, with striking orange-brown colour, overlain with black spots. The underside of the rear wings is intricately patterned resembling a stained glass window. The range of blocks of colour and the arrangement of numerous silvery-white studs – the butterfly’s ‘pearls’, helps to distinguish between the two species.

With funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund the project plans to restore a healthy population by re-introducing captive-bred butterflies to suitable areas, by improving habitats and offering advice to landowners in how to manage areas of woodland for the benefit of these endangered species.

A return to traditional methods and practices will hopefully encourage clearings and glades for flowering plants such as Bluebell, Bugle, Wood Anemone, Lesser Celandine and Wild Garlic to thrive where sunlight can again penetrate through the trees to reach the woodland floor. The caterpillars of both species feed on violets which flourish shortly after an area of woodland has been coppiced or cleared. Community engagement is encouraged by the project and children in particular are able to help by growing and planting out violets for hungry caterpillars to eat.

After a break for refreshments Tricia Hall delivered her popular Nature Notes with news of a three year Nest Box project. Tricia asked if members would be willing to sign up and volunteer to monitor the nest boxes that had been sited throughout the village and record their findings. Tricia also commented that crocuses, daffodils, snowdrops, primroses and catkins were all evident in gardens, verges and the banks of the Rife.

Ed Miller followed with an update on planning issues and gave us news that the planning application for 8 flats on the site of the old Beehive Cottage had been approved and the developer had immediately put up two very large advertising hoardings at the building plot. The planning application for 23 ‘eco’ yurts on land north of Littlehampton Road has still to be decided. Ed commented that as far as the Goring Gap is concerned there is still no sign of a planning application from Persimmon Homes.

David Bettiss concluded the meeting by informing us that a cheque for £570 from the sale of Christmas cards, calendars and painted pebbles, was recently presented to the Chestnut Tree House Children’s Hospice by himself and Tricia Hall. David also reminded members that any contributions for our 2017 magazine would be gratefully received and must be sent to Tricia Hall by Thursday 16th March.

At their first member’s meeting of 2017, Ferring Conservation Group had the pleasure of welcoming horticulturist and apple expert Peter May from the Brighton Permaculture Trust to talk to them on the subject of – The History of Apple Growing in Sussex, and Sussex Apples. This was particularly relevant to the Group as they were just approaching the first anniversary of the planting of their Community Orchard at the Glebelands recreation ground in the village, and all the apple trees in the Orchard had been propagated by the Trust.

Peter firstly ran through details of some of the 30 or so varieties of Sussex Heritage apples, including First and Last, Saltcote Pippin and Golden Pippin which make up part of the Ferring orchard.

He then informed the Group that the Sussex apple story started far away in the remote mountains of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, as all of today’s orchard apples are direct descendants of the apples that still grow in the natural forests there. There were then references to apples in Saxon times with local place names such as Apuldram, Crabtree and Appledore, followed by details of tithe and tax returns from the C14th including from Ferring when cider was mentioned.

The 1950s was the peak time for Sussex apple growing with many thousands of trees being planted after the war across the County. Locally the East Preston area was a hot spot for growing, as well as in North Ferring, but the most important area was the East Sussex border with Kent, and this is still the case today, although the majority of orchards have sadly been lost in Sussex. This is why the initiative of Community Orchards is so important in maintaining our history of apple growing.

Later in the meeting, Tricia Hall in her Nature Notes section reported amongst other things tens of Lapwings being seen in the fields just west of Ferring Rife near Kingston – quite a rare but welcome sight these days. Vice Chairman Ed Miller reported on a planning application just off Sea Lane in Sea Drive to demolish a house and replace it with a block of 8 flats – something to which the Group would be objecting. He also reported that Arun District Council in their emerging Local Plan would now have to find a total of 1000 new properties every year in their area, as well as the likelihood of Persimmon Homes soon submitting plans to build 475 new homes in the Worthing part of the north Goring Gap near to Goring railway station. This disastrous move for the local area especially in relation to the inevitable traffic problems will be fiercely resisted by the Group in partnership with fellow Goring groups and others.

As November can often prove to be a gloomy month, what better tonic for our Group than to welcome Michael Blencowe into our midst. Michael, in his usual jovial and entertaining manner, introduced us to the world of the nocturnal wildlife of Sussex and beyond. Michael explained that we need to use our ears as much as our eyes to understand what is happening around us during the night. Many birds migrate under cover of darkness and navigate by the stars, they feed by day and fly by night. As it is difficult to spot birds in flight in dark skies we can gain much information by listening. We may hear owls and sedge warblers among others, these birds sing extensively during the night. Michael showed us some fascinating video footage of fox cubs playing, badgers, deer, and hedgehogs that had been taken from a camera placed in local woodland. Even when we are tucked up in our beds, other creatures in our houses are wide awake; spiders and silverfish are crawling and scurrying around going about their business during the night hours. Many domestic cats are also on the prowl at night, hunting and defending their territory, and as there are 7 to 8 million now in the UK our gardens could well be a hive of activity. Michael also delighted us with photographs of his holiday to the Somiedo National Park where, in this forgotten corner of Spain, he was fortunate enough see Cantabrian bears in the wild. These animals are crepuscular and feed on grasses during twilight and dawn.

After a break for tea and mince pies Tricia Hall began her Nature Notes by advising us that the Marine Conservation Society has announced that the number of plastic bags found on beaches has almost halved in a year. Unfortunately there is still a vast amount of other rubbish found, including a significant rise in balloon litter! Tricia said that Storm Angus had dislodged red seaweed that was now laying in a 2ft layer along the beach, also green sea lettuce, sea slugs and crab shells had also been found. Stonechats were seen sitting, two by two, on the trees that were planted by the group along the Rife. Kingfishers, wagtails, egrets, teals, snipe and a water vole had been spotted in this area.

Ed Miller followed with planning news and advised us that indications are that Globe Estates (Southern) Limited are likely to submit a new planning application for a large block of 8 apartments on the site of Beehive Cottage on the corner of Beehive Lane. David Bettiss concluded the meeting with a reminder of events on Saturday 10th December. The day starts with the Tree Dressing on the village green in the morning, the Christmas Market in the village hall at 4.30pm and the official switching on of the lights at 5.30pm.