Dear Volunteers and Supporters,
The Manhood Wildlife and Heritage Group is run almost entirely by volunteers, many of whom have been with us for many years. Our new short film highlights why our passionate volunteers continue to dedicate their time to protecting and championing the unique and special wildlife and heritage of the Manhood Peninsula.
A big thank you to Sophie Reeve-Foster for creating this beautiful film.
You may be a volunteer already, or thinking of volunteering, and perhaps are looking for a less strenuous role than some of our outdoor work. If so, we have opportunities for you to join our work in other ways:
We are looking for more Trustees to join us, to contribute to the long term strategy of the group and ensure that we adhere to the Charity Commission rules.
If you have worked in an administration or secretary role, please consider using your skills to be our Honorary Secretary.
If you have a background in Health and Safety we would be delighted to have you as our Health and Safety Officer to provide help and guidance.
Join the Selsey Photo Archive volunteers to help with cataloguing and uploading photos to the archive's website (training will be provided).
If you would like more information about any of these roles, please contact us through our website.
Read on for our usual project updates, wildlife survey results, and to find out what we've been up to over the summer. Look out for the lovely footage of water voles, which were spotted in Birdham on our wildlife cameras!
Wonderful Tea Party for Volunteers
By Lesley Bromley
On Saturday July 13th we had an afternoon tea party for MWHG Volunteers, held in the garden at Bill Martin’s house in Sidlesham. It was a splendid party, the weather held and we had sunshine all afternoon, although not long after we all left it did rain!
Bill and his wife Sue put on a marvellous spread with sandwiches, cakes and scones with cream and jam. Gallons of tea were consumed and plenty of cold drinks too. There were people from all our activity groups, which carry out wildlife and heritage conservation activities, so an opportunity for those who look after the East Beach Pond to meet those who work on the Hedging Our Future project the Selsey and West Wittering tree nurseries, and the Selsey Photo Archive to name but a few. Most of the Management Team attended so again a great occasion to meet and talk.
We would like to say a big Thank You to Bill and Sue for their hospitality and hard work to make this a really lovely event.
Wittering Area Community Conservation Project Update
By Jane Reeve | Wittering Area Community Conservation Project
I have been away over the summer but behind the scenes some great volunteers have carried out species surveys at different sites across the area with great data being sent to the Sussex Biodiversity Records Centre via iRecord. We have had a couple of camera traps out and the footage of water voles pickling about on the water’s edge is brilliant and confirms all the evidence we have seen when working at this pond. Check out some of the water vole footage, below!
Quick glimpse of a young water vole in the water
Adult water vole swimming
Our moth trapping over the summer has not been as successful as we hoped with poor weather, unfortunate issues with accidently unplugged traps and malfunctioning bulbs. However, we had two great sessions in mid-August, one at Vitacress in Runcton, and the other in a beautiful garden in West Wittering. From the first session we had 69 moth made up of 37 species, many micros, and at the second we had 120 moths made up of 48 species. Tony, dedicated volunteer, took hundreds of photos and will be sorting through them, checking them against the id list created, re doing the list so that we can then submit them to iRecord.
We will start our program of habitat management again in September, so a busy winter of work planned where we hope to see lots of volunteers to help out.
Heritage News
By Bill Martin | Selsey Tramway Project
The Selsey Tramway exhibition is now available at the Novium Museum with a film made with members of MWHG and Millstream Productions (Emsworth). The Novium is open Tuesday - Friday 10.00 - 4.30, Saturday 10 - 5.00 and Sunday 10.00 - 4.00, closed on Monday. Admission is free, donations are welcomed. Copies of the Selsey tramway walking guide can be purchased at the museum.
A podcast about the Tramway can be heard on BBC Sounds, called Secret Sussex, The Hapless Sidlesham Snail. Another podcast can be heard about Selsey's Mulberry harbour and others about Selsey's Blue Plaques and The Pavilion as well as Sidlesham's Land Settlement Association will follow.
The anniversary Tramway walk took place on Saturday 31st August (re-arranged due to heavy rain on 24th August). 15 people walked from East Beach car park to the Anchor Inn in Sidlesham, passing the locations of 8 stations along the route, including Golf Club Halt and Chalder (see photos below) where the platform is being restored. Each station location has an invitation board. The one at Selsey Bridge Station was vandalised recently and has now been replaced with a thicker and hopefully stronger version.
The Tramway's Golf Club Halt (L) and Chalder (R) stations
Over the next few months, the Discover Heritage map on the MWHG website is being updated to include a list of heritage assets in each of the Parishes on the Manhood Peninsula with links (pins) to further information where known.
Last of the Summer Wildlife Records
By Nikki Timney | Find Wildlife From Home Survey
Our survey received 70 wildlife records during July and August, consisting of 135 individuals, bringing the total number of records submitted for this survey to 1579! See below for a selection of the many wonderful photos and survey results submitted during this period.
Coming soon, the 24th to 31st of October is (not surprisingly!) Bat Week, an international celebration of the only flying mammal. Although it is hard to determine species of bats when surveying without specialist equipment, it is still worth while documenting the presence of any bats in your local area, so do let us know if you see any.
Survey Results for July and August 2024
1 Sparrowhawk | 1 Small Skipper Butterfly | 1 Elephant Hawk-moth |
33 Inlaid Grass-veneer Moths | 4 White Satin Moths | 1 Red Admiral Butterfly |
1 White-shouldered House-moth | 4 Blackbirds | 2 Jersey Tiger Moths |
4 Light Brown Apple Moths | 2 Double-striped Pug Moths | 3 Caddisflies |
Tell us about the wildlife you've seen in your garden, neighbourhood and surrounding local area and we will also submit your records to the National Biological Records Centre on your behalf.
To take part in our wildlife survey, click on the button below.
News from the Verges
By Lesley Bromley | Selsey Pollinator Highway Project
This is our third year of looking after the unmown verges of our Pollinator Highway in Selsey. The wet spring resulted in a very low number of pollinators when we surveyed the sites in June / July, but hopefully this is an exceptional year and we will have more next year.
The flowers we are seeing at the sites are changing over the years. The first year we had lots of poppies at Sunnymead drive. This land had been disturbed before it was seeded with wildflowers. Poppies commonly appear after ground has been disturbed, as they did in the fields of Flanders after the first world war. Now after 3 years of not being disturbed the poppies have disappeared, but we see more oxeye daisies and yellow spurge, fewer cornflowers, but more thistles.
We have been joined this august by an undergraduate student from Exeter University who is writing a dissertation on Pollinator Highways for her geography degree. She is surveying species and insects during August and will share her results with us.
It is only a few weeks until we will be cutting the verges. We now have a scythe mower for this purpose, which will make the task easier. Shortly after the cut, once the seeds have had a chance to drop, we will be raking and removing the cuttings. We will be needing some volunteers to help so watch out for dates and times!
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