Update 17th October 2021

The Friends volunteers have been working away keeping paths open and accessible on the 3^rd Sunday of each month during the summer and early autumn.  Today we had a change and were joined by some members of the Worthing Conservation volunteers to clear around and within the Diamond Jubilee Plantation.  The trees in the plantation are doing extremely well and the Spindle trees are looking particularly striking at the moment.

We also discovered a harvest mouse nest attached to the long grass.  The harvest mouse makes a tightly woven nest by stripping and weaving grass into a ball like structure.  They are the smallest rodent in Britain and the only British mammal with a prehensile tail that can be used like a fifth limb to hold onto grass stems.

Orchids in Macs Field

There is a wonderful abundance of pyramidal orchids in Mac’s field this year.  Over the years they have been spreading throughout the field.  Orchid seeds do not store enough food to grow on their own, so they rely on a mat-forming fungus in the soil.  In turn the orchids protect the fungus. 
The orchids here were growing with bedstraw, agrimony and yellow rattle.

Broomrape in MacIntyres Field

Have you seen the pale pinky spikes emerging in MacIntyres Field?  These are broomrape flowers starting to appear.  They look a little orchid like but are actually a species of parasitic plants which require the roots of a host plant for nourishment.  Broomrapes have no chlorophyll and, therefore, no leaves or green pigmentation.  Fortunately they are not a threat to their host plant.

Woods springing to life

Wood Anemones

Mark captured these Wood Anemones in the  clump area on Sunday during the task day, it’s great to see these becoming established

Raptor at work

Sparrowhawk (Photo credit: NotMicroButSoft (In Sindh, mainly KHI upto 3 Dec))

Thanks to Friends of Lancing Ring member Cynthia in Lynchmere Avenue, North Lancing  for these great pictures of a Sparrowhawk in her garden

Realising the value of our Grassland

Realising the value of our Grassland

Where the wildflowers are ~ The Grasslands Trust blog

Today, David Cameron was supposed to have given his first green speech since becoming prime minister – nearly two years after announcing that this would be the Greenest Government Ever. Damian Carrington in the Guardian lambasted Cameron for abandoning his plans for a keynote speech. There’s no question that he was planning to make this speech – we were one of the “green” groups that were canvassed for ideas to include in the speech and duly committed time and effort to developing ideas in the hope that Number 10 would spot a shiny bauble and pick it up. Instead, The Prime Minister has announced today that Green Energy “must be affordable” . Sound Familiar? – its the same refrain we heard from the Chancellor in the budget – “environmental sustainability must follow fiscal sustainability”  – that means we can only afford to be environmentally sustainable when we’ve got rid of…

View original post 628 more words

A winter walk around Lancing Ring

A winter walk around Lancing Ring.
A set of pictures from Andy Brook of North Lancing dot com 

Lancing Ring LNR

Lancing Ring LNR, a set by Lancing Nature on Flickr.

A selection of images from the Lancing Ring Flickr set of the plants and invertebrates found on the Local Nature reserve.

Observing Spring

Spring is slowly gathering momentum and wildlife will soon be popping up around the reserve.

If you see a Butterfly, Bumblebee, Ladybird or Hoverfly or any other wildlife on the reserve over the next few weeks, please make a note of when and where and send the details to this website using the form on the Sightings page .

Video of visit on Sunday 12th July

The walk was about an hour in length

We arrived at the main car park at around 3:30 in the afternoon and walked into the reserve via the wooded area, reaching the grassy meadow and taking the low path on the south side.
Here was sheltered from gusty wind which was keeping any butterflies from flight.
A few Small Skippers and a Marbled White were active, mostly on the flower heads of the Greater Knapweed.
About half way along, we headed up the slope keeping among the shelter of bushes where possible and made our way to the Dewpond.
Checking for signs of Dragonflies, there was none on the wing. It was still gusty and flight would of been hard work .
Another visitor spoke to us about the sighting of a small Yellow Snake, he had seen on the bank of the Dewpond. Also of seeing some youths with a Vivariam type container.

We continued our walk into the Beech woods area aiming for the far side walking via the area of replanted beech and ash.

Among the woods in the sheltered dappled sunlit spots, were several butterflies . A Comma, two Gatekeepers, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood and Large White.

Beyond the trees in an area of bramble a male Broad-bodied Chaser Dragonfly was seen resting in the sunny sheltered space.
His work of mating and guarding the females when they were egg depositing over the Dewpond is done. Hopefully larvae will develop and flourish .
Heading southwards through the tree canopy a noisy group of Long-tailed tits, twittered in the branches of  Ash trees which swayed in the wind blowing overhead.
We left the woodland crossing back through the meadow and headed home for a cup of  tea.