Seaford Head

The storm on Friday/Saturday had cleared a lot of the shingle from Seaford Beach.  A few days earlier the shingle was up to the top edge of the outer wall of the Martello Tower.  Now it is over six feet lower.  Before the run of storms, the shingle extended in a level platform the length of the beach and now the sea has raked much of it away to a shallow gradient leaving the sea wall exposed to the waves.  The effort to restore it was being concentrated on the west end on Sunday.
We looked for Kittiwakes at Splash Point, but it is really too early for them to have arrived yet.  We did see Fulmars, however.  There were Skylarks singing over the golf course on the cliff top and Stonechats, Meadow Pipits and Goldfinches about too.  It was sunny and warm, but we were quite unprepared for the sight of a Tortoiseshell Butterfly in flight on the cliff top.

At Cuckmere Haven the sea had cut back into the shingle and eroded part of the cliff behind the sea defences below the coastguard cottages.  A tremendous effort has been put into building up sea defences to prevent this from happening and all seems to have been swept away in a couple of storms.  The future for this landmark row of cottages is now looking uncertain.

Up the valley there were Shelduck, a Grey Heron, some Little Egrets, and a big flock of Oystercatchers and a much bigger flock of Canada Geese.

Steyning Downland Scheme Birdwatch

A rare sight on Sunday morning as we walked around the rifle range on our Steyning Downland Scheme bird survey: frost!  In shaded areas in the bottom of the coombe there were patches of frost on the grass.  It has been such a rare sight on winter mornings this year that it is worth noting.  Not that it seemed to us to be particularly cold and there was plenty of bird activity.  Greenfinches, thrushes, robins, dunnocks, great tits were all heard singing and calling and, in the wooded around the spring a green woodpecker was 'yaffling' very persistently.  In all, we logged 16 species, not a huge number, but there was much activity and our last sighting on site was a house sparrow with what was very likely some nest material in its beak.  A sign of spring?

The rifle range itself was an example of a dry downland valley turning temporarily into a wet one.  A stream was running through the middle of the valley and forming quite a waterfall over the edge of the cutting down into the springhead.  There must be many sights like this around the county after this prolonged period of heavy rain.

Lichens on twigs

The recent gale force winds have been blowing twigs off the trees in our garden and I have been looking at some of the lichens on them.  On the apple trees we have Lecanora chlarotera, Flavoparmelia caperata, Xanthoria parietina, Ramalina farinacea, Physcomia distorta, Physcia adscendens, Lecanora conizaioides. 

Lecanora chlarotera

Twigs from our great Copper Beech tree have  Amandinea punctata, Arthonia radiata, Graphis scripta, and Physcia tenella.

Amandinea punctata

The Greengage tree has in addition Parmelia  sulcata and Hypogymnia physodes

Parmelia sulcata

Newts in the Pond

Newts have appeared in our pond for the first time this year.  As the weather has been so consistently mild we have been checking regularly to see how early they would put in an appearance and we had our first sightings today.  They are Smooth Newts, Triturus vulgaris and they have been turning up in our pond every year for many years.  Last year we had a peak count of about ten.  Occasionally I turn up young ones in the garden in soil or under flower pots.  Our sightings were very brief and I was unable to tell which sex any of them were; apparently the males usually turn up first.
There were also a couple of large Water Boatmen, probably Corixa sp. swimming up to the surface and back down to the depths again.

West Wittering

A lovely day at West Wittering on Sunday.  Sunny, windy and a very high tide and very crowded with dog walkers.  I suppose the attraction is that everywhere else is so waterlogged that WW is an ideal place to bring the dog if you do not want it to get too muddy.   A small flock of Sanderling put in an appearance on the beach as we arrived, but did not stay long as the tide was racing in and it was getting crowded with people and dogs. I spotted one with a blue ring again, but not the red ring. Presumably it was the same bird.
With the tide coming in so high many birds had been squeezed off the foreshore and were taking to the fields.  Besides the usual flocks of Brent Geese, there were Oystercatchers, Dunlin, Curlew, Ringed Plover and Lapwings in the fields.
Water levels were high in Snowshill, too, but I am not sure if this is due to high tide levels, or the new sea defences retaining more water.  There were a few Teal, Wigeon and Lapwing there.  We were amused by a Carrion Crow which flew in with a large white object -a piece of bread? - which it stashed in the tussocky grass.  Having poked it in well, he pulled up tufts of grass and pushed them in on top.  Then stalked away.
Ella Nore was packed out.  Dunlin and Curlew were shoulder to shoulder and a nearby sailing boat was covered in Turnstones and group of eight Great-crested Grebe sailed by
Star turn of the day was, however, a Great Northern Diver out in the harbour.  Glad to get in out of the rough sea, I expect.
Part of the path to Ella Nore is bordered with old Oak trees, some now in danger of collapsing as the shoreline is eroded.  They have probably been here a long time.  A very common plant in the understory is Butcher's Broome, a key ancient woodland indicator plant.  But at one time Elm may well have been dominant; one section is now a sad avenue of dead young Elms.  There are suckers arising, but they too will no doubt succumb to Dutch Elm disease eventually.  On a brighter note, there was some Winter Heliotrope in flower at the end of the path.

January Rainfall

We had 200mm (7.87in) of rain in January.  The total since the wet spell started on 14 December 2013 was 375mm (14.75 in). For an area which normally experiences about 700 to 750mm in a year, this amounts to six months rain in six weeks.  Nationally, January 2014 has been the wettest winter month since records began in 1767 and it is easy to believe that on the basis of our experience here.  It has been very mild, too.  We have had about a half a dozen night frosts and no daytime ones this winter so far.  This is not normal.  If you can believe after this that our climate is not changing - and fast - then you need to get out more.