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This was the first field day at Sandgate Park in 2017.

There was a good turn out and the weather was fine, with sunshine and a clear blue sky.

In the woods the team set to coppicing the trees and tidying up the pile of branches that had accumulated last year.  The twigs and small branches were burnt and the logs neatly stacked.

On the heather bank we continued removing the brambles and invasive shrubs to let the heather regenerate.

Almost all of the heather bank has now been cleared and we are anticipating a good show of foxgloves in early summer and heather later on in the summer. There are still some pine seedlings that need to be taken out, mainly from near the top of the bank.

As usual we stopped halfway through the morning for tea or coffee and cake and for a bit of a chat.

An excellent talk by Les Allen-Williams on Wednesday evening focused on the need to record plant (including mosses and lichens) and animal (including insects, arachnids, fish and amphibians) species sighted locally. This is so an accurate picture can be formed of what species occur locally; which are common and which are rare.

Les directed us to the iRecord website to record sightings or, if you prefer, send details of your sightings to him [email protected]  A photograph would be extremely helpful.

Les made the point that common species tend not to be reported so the records of sightings of common species, such as wood pigeon and magpie are odd – we all know they are there but the records do not say that they are!  So it is worth reporting common species as well as the rare ones.

Some types of animals and plants are under-reported because it is difficult to distinguish between species. If anyone has a passion for, or expertise in, any type of plant or animal it would be really helpful if they would report their sightings.

We were told that global warming is a reality – as we all know. This has and will have negative aspects and positive aspects. One consequence is that in the south of England we are increasingly seeing species previously seen further south in Europe, some welcome, some not so welcome. The welcomed species include the Hoopoe and Golden Oriole, both which have been sighted at Sandgate Park in recent years, and the Black Kite which was sighted nearby.

Birds are not the only type of animal that migrates to Britain.  Summer visitors include insects from warmer latitudes.

Les took us on a ‘tour’ of Sandgate Park, pointing out the various habitats, such as the sandy heather bank that is home to mining bees,  the ponds that attract damsel and dragon flies and the hidden meadow that is favoured by butterflies.  He also gave us some tips on what we could do to improve the habitats in Sandgate Park. These included

• remove some rhododendron
• keep the holly
• remove the small pines
• leave piles of logs, especially beech and oak
• remove some bramble from the hidden meadow
• try to get some umbellifers, such as cow parsley and hogweed, into the hidden meadow
• remove the invasive birch saplings and shrubs from the wet heath
• leave some nettles

We will do what we can with our resources and within the Horsham District Council management plan for the site.

Finally, Les asked us to keep an eye out for any dodder on the heather, which may appear as the heather regenerates on the dry sandy heather bank.  If you see it please report this rare plant.  It will look like thick red thread entwined around the heather.

Sandgate Conservation Society has been invited to display our activities at the ‘Storrington on Show’ event being planned for this Spring by the Storrington and Sullington Community Partnership.

We have been asked to provide material that can be included on the promotional material for the show, such as quotes from our volunteers about the Society and what they get out of being a member and volunteering with us. Stories from volunteers about our activities and why they started volunteering may also be used.

If you have anything you want to share please email [email protected]

Ice from the snowfall a couple of days earlier still lay on the ground as we gathered to start work on Saturday morning.  Local dog walkers stopped for a chat with Andy while he waited for the Sandgate Conservation Society volunteers to arrive.

Our task for the day was to complete the clearing of the European Gorse from the top of the large barrow to the south-east of the Green. The barrow, one of nine recognised barrows on the Warren, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.  This means that it is under the authority of English Heritage and specific management requirements. The barrows need to be kept clear of trees and shrubs but these cannot be removed by digging as that would damage the archaeology.

So we cut the gorse and brambles by hand and dragged the cut material down the slope for loading onto the tractor trailer, for it to be taken to the NT site at Georges Lane for disposal.  As we worked the sun came out and the sky turned blue.  We stopped briefly for tea and coffee and excellent cakes, the dutch stollen was particularly delicious.

With many hands we made light work of the gorse patch and soon it was gone.  A job well done.

Next month we will be clearing invasive vegetation from a different area of the Warren and as we will be working away from the barrows we may be having a bonfire.  This will probably be our last opportunity to carry out shrub clearance before the bird nesting season starts in March.

 

 

This was the last field day of 2016.  It was a mild, dry, morning which attracted a group of around a dozen volunteers with ages ranging from early teens to late 70’s.

We continued to clear the gorse, saplings and brambles from the top of the Bronze Age barrow.

We loaded the cut material into a trailer so that our local NT warden could take it away and burn it off site. No bonfires are allowed on this part of the Warren because it is the site of scheduled Ancient Monuments.

Once the trailer was full we stopped for our mid morning break when we had. delicious home-made cake, including a Christmas cake!

After the break we moved onto pine-pulling – pulling out by hand, where possible, any pine saplings.  Any pine saplings that resisting hand pulling were cut at ground level.  The pines are invasive.  They break up the areas of heathland making the heath less hospitable to heathland wildlife, and the pine woods themselves do not support many species.