GreenerCuckfield Community Groups & Events, Nature, recovery, Wildlife

Be a Home Scientist and Save the World!

We can all be home scientists just by observing and recording what is going on around us. Many organisations rely on citizen science (aka crowd science) to get data. This data can make a real difference to where organisations might start projects, what they might ask the government to change and the money they might be able to get to fund their work.

You can have a major role in these citizen science projects. Right now conservation organisations across the UK are asking individuals like you to help them with their important conservation work. There is no way that without members of the public these groups can get a real picture of animal, plant or insect populations right across the country. Take a look at the studies you could be a part of right now:

Butterfly Conservation’s Big Buttery Count
From now until 7th August Butterfly Conservation are asking you to spare 15 minutes to identify and count the butterflies and day flying moths in the area where you are. This could be out on a walk or in your local park or back garden.

Swift Mapper
The RSPB together with other conservation groups are asking us to record swift numbers on their Swift Mapper. This time of year, you might hear the screaming of swifts up and down the streets where you live. These incredible birds travel all the way from Africa to nest here in the UK and the RSPB want to know if you hear groups of swifts (called a screaming party), if you know where there is a nest or even a swift nest box.

Great Eggcase Hunt
If you are heading to the beach this summer, the Shark Trust are interested in the shark and ray egg cases you might find on the shoreline. Known as mermaid’s purses these fascinating egg shells can be seen all over beaches in the UK and will give the Shark Trust a good idea of how different populations of sharks and rays are doing in our waters.

National Bat Monitoring Programme
The Bat Conservation Trust would like your help to keep a track of where the bats are hanging in the UK. They have a number of different monitoring projects they want you to get involved with. You can do a sunset survey, a night watch or a boost count if you have a bat roost near you. If you know how to use a bat detector – the device which can pick up the bats high pitched calls – you could also take part in a full survey.

Mammal Mapper
If you love our furry four legged friends you might want to take part in the Mammal Society‘s Mammal Mapper app. You can record the signs of mammals – such as dropping, footprints or the mammals themselves, when out and about on a walk, run, cycle or even as a car passenger. The Mammal Society are asking all citizen scientist to help them collect this important biological data so they can keep an eye on mammal populations.

Every Flower Counts
White clover, self-heal or something rarer – what wonders are cropping up on your lawn or greenspace this July? Take part in #EveryFlowerCounts to find out. It’s fun, free and helps Plantlife to better understand our grasslands. The second Every Flower Counts survey starts today and says it runs until the 17 July, though we believe you can still submit your results at the moment. No matter how you’ve been managing your lawn, or whether you took part in the first survey in May, you can still take part and find out how many pollinators are benefitting from the floral feast you’ve created. Click here to take part.

These are just some of the ways you can help conservationists across the UK to help protect our beautiful and diverse animals. If you come across any more then please comment on this blog and we can share.  Or email us at hello@greenercuckfield.org

by Nicola Brewerton

GreenerCuckfield Community Groups & Events, cuckfield, Nature, Wildlife

Greener Cuckfield Nature Competition 2022

Welcome to our contest page for our first ever competition!! Please see below for all the details.

Please also check out our Terms & Conditions here.

Cuckoo

Please send your submissions to hello@greenercuckfield.org by 31 August 2022. We will announce the winners on 6th September 2022.

Two categories are Under 10s and 11 Plus

When entering please include the details below in the body of the email:

> Name of Photographer
> Age of Photographer
> Title of Photograph (if there is one)
> Name of Photographer’s Parent/Guardian
> Telephone Number of Photographer’s Parent/Guardian

Please also include NATURE COMPETITION in the subject line.

Good Luck everyone. We can’t wait to see your entries!

GreenerCuckfield Uncategorized

Woods are Blooming and Birds Returning

We are so lucky in Cuckfield to have two beautiful woods right on our doorsteps. In both New England Wood and Blunts Wood the bluebells are on the very verge of exploding into their annual sapphire blue. Bluebells flower anytime between mid-April right to late May depending on how mild the weather has been. They are quite early this year so can be seen right next to white wood anemones, vivid yellow lesser celandine, and the beautifully fragile looking light pink cuckooflower. The cuckooflower (aptly named for Cuckfield!) seems to be more abundant this year than last year when my daughters and I were taking our Covid exercise in New England Wood nearly daily, watching the seasons pass. This year there are large sun-speckled patches of the pretty flower near the banks of the stream in Blunts Wood, a habitat they prefer. Also known as lady’s smock, the cuckooflower blooms from April until June which coincides with the arrival of the cuckoo from sub-Saharan Africa.

Whilst thinking about cuckoos I came across a tracking project run by the British Trust of Ornithologists. One particular bird, named PJ, is as I type, in Southern Spain and has flown all the way from Angola, through Gabon, Togo, Ghana and crossed the Sahara Desert. PJ will finally make it to Suffolk where he will breed before turning round in July and making the whole epic journey back again – awesome. I know cuckoos get a bad reputation for using other species nests and parents to bring up their own oversized chicks, but you have to respect such an incredible journey. Hat’s off to PJ!  https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/cuckoo-tracking-project.

I haven’t heard a cuckoo yet this year, but I think I spotted another of the epic travellers last week – a swallow. My very favourite arrival though, is the sickle shaped form of the swift. Incredibly swifts make their 5000 km migration from West Africa to the UK in only five days – swift indeed! When the young start flying in June and July you might hear their high-pitched calls (screaming parties) as they swoop and roll over our gardens and roads. My Dad’s garden in Warninglid gets a particularly exciting aeronautic display each year. If you are lucky enough to live near a swift nesting site or see a screaming party the RSPB would love to hear about it. Numbers of swifts have dropped over the last decades and mapping where they nest can help organisations such as RSPB and Action for Swifts work out which areas need protection and where to provide nesting boxes.

https://www.swiftmapper.org.uk/. The swifts should be with us any day now – exciting.

by Nicola Brewerton

GreenerCuckfield Community Groups & Events, Composting, Composting, cuckfield, energy, gardening, Nature, Repository, Sustainability, sustainable living

Mid Sussex Community Garden

Mid Sussex Community Garden has lots of exciting goals so if you love the great outdoors and want to help your community thrive please join us at our site in Cuckfield.  Things have been developing rapidly since spring 2020. We are a partnership between the community, Warden Park secondary school (the site) and the Sussex Learning Trust. We have fantastic support from UK Tree Action and the Woodland Trust who donated 350 diverse native saplings which were planted in last November by lots of enthusiastic volunteers.   The project is self funded and we recently had a very successful crowdfunder.

So far we have levelled off the site, created raised beds ready for the school children to start growing plants, cleared masses of brambles and debris and built an additional shed.  A poly tunnel and pond liner will arrive shortly, and a new greenhouse is in situ.   By the end of April, 120 hedging plants from the Woodland Trust will be delivered.   Water is piped in from large water butts.

A native species woodland and wildlife pond are planned, and one third of the site will be a fruit orchard with a wildflower meadow growing through it.  Being   passionate about enabling nature to thrive we intend to install hedgehog houses, bat boxes, bird boxes and large bug hotels, and hope to connect with re-wilding projects.

Pauline Sutherland who is training with the RHS says the project is “an ideal way to give back to the community, create inspiring learning spaces as well as to prioritise nature which is so important”.  

Our mission is to ensure the space is easily accessible, safe and welcoming for all ages and abilities. We want people to simply come and enjoy, grow food and plants and to volunteer their time and energy.   A large wooden cabin will also be built as an additional learning space for the school to use in the day, as well as offer the community another space for wellbeing, gardening and environmental learning. We are off grid and energy will be supplied by solar, toilets will be compostable.    

If you would like to join us please see our FB page Mid Sussex Community Garden https://www.facebook.com/groups/355617022278239/?ref=share

Or mscommunitygarden@yahoo.com

by Catherine Edminson

GreenerCuckfield Nature

Bud Burst

On the first really warm day of spring this year I saw my earliest butterfly of the year – always a heart warmer after the long winter (an especially long winter this year). It was a brimstone butterfly, a large, pale yellowy green butterfly – I think it was a male as females are lighter in colour. Brimstones are often the first butterflies seen as they can spend the winter hibernating, tucking themselves into tangles of bramble or ivy (makes sense in our garden as we have a lot of both!) in sheltered sunny places and emerging when the sun warms them enough.

Just a few minutes later a bumblebee dive bombed by, being chased by my father’s dog who thankfully, for both their sakes, didn’t manage to catch her. Female or queen bumblebees are another native insect which overwinter. In late autumn they dig holes in chilly north facing banks to avoid being warmed up by any winter sun and emerging too soon. There are many bumblebee species in this country (24 according to a quick Google), but this one didn’t stop long enough for an ID check.

These insect flybys were just one of many clues that spring has sprung. Snow drops have already finished their bright white show by the beginning of March; crocus, daffodils, aconites and wood anemones close on their heels. The blackthorn bushes – a very common sight on the sides of Sussex roads – burst into beautiful white blossom. If pollinated these flowers will become sloes later in the year. If you look around a wood in early March the buds are bulging, just waiting to burst and fill the canopy with fresh green again.

The birds too, are clearly in the throws of spring, frantically collecting nesting materials and singing for mates.

We have recently moved and are lucky enough to have a lovely garden which backs onto farmland. Although clearly once much loved, our new garden is currently overgrown, full of bramble and bindweed, great for wildlife but not so fab for a gardener perhaps. Saying this – as I spend hours meticulously digging bindweed roots out – I will, most definitely be making room for wildlife in our garden plans. My children have started their wildlife pond design and I will take heed of Monty Don’s advice and leave some areas of lawn long – it will be interesting to see what weed species crop up. I love spring.

by Nicola Brewerton