My 2015 in Uckfield nature photos

As the year draws to a close it's time to look back on the wildlife I have seen in and around Uckfield during 2015.

January

January started with the BSBI New Year Plant hunt, in which I spent an hour looking for wild flowers that were out in bloom. I found a total of 21 different types - surprising considering that we had a few days of hard frost. 

Campanula on old wall at the top Uckfield's High Street.

Towards the end of the month, I took part in Lime Aid's volunteer session - trimming back unwanted growth at the feet of the amazing old Lime trees that once led to Uckfield House.

Before and After - Lime Tree Avenue.

As usual, the month ended with the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch.

February

On the 8th, four tiny Goldcrests were fluttering round the lower branches of our laurels and nearby bushes. One was displaying to the others with his normally inconspicuous crest feathers fluffed up in a bright orange "quiff".  One sunny day brought out a tattered but still lovely Red Admiral.

Red Admiral, Manor Park garden.

March

When Hazel catkins are shaken by the wind, you can see how they get the name "lambs tails". This year has been exceptionally windy.

Hazel, Manor Park garden.

April

Two Fallow Deer bucks, who are regular visitors to the Manor Park estate, came into the garden for a couple of hours. I and others were concerned that the darker one was limping. However it showed a fair turn of speed when escaping would-be rescuers.

 

Fallow deer, Manor Park garden.

May

May is, of course, bluebell time. This year I visited Boothland Wood, which in the next few years will be surrounded by the Ridgewood Farm development.  The woodland has a light, airy feel because it is surrounded by open farmland and has many elegant, slender beech trees.

Bluebells, Boothland wood.

Later in the month, the splendid WRAS rescued an injured woodpigeon from our back garden.

WRAS to the rescue, Manor Park.

The month ended with the Garden Biobliz in which I tried to find as many wild flowers and creatures in the garden as possible.  In the end, I identified 129 species compared to 104 last year.

Tree bumble bee spotted during Garden Bioblitz, Manor Park garden.

June

June was dominated by 30 days wild. This project meant having one wildlife moment a day.  To me it meant pausing and really taking notice of what was around me. My most memorable Uckfield discovery was a pair of Grey Wagtails that live on the part of the River Uck that flows under our station. I saw them courting and mating and was able to follow their progress up to the point when I saw a fluffy youngster.

Grey Wagtails on riverbank, seen from Uckfield station platform.

Another highlight was spotting Uckfield's very own Stickleback Si (named after one featured on BBC's Spring Watch) in the Hempstead Meadow Nature Reserve. I could see his red tummy and I was delighted to see him duck into his tunnel nest for a moment. 

July

Towards the end of July, I spent time pulling invasive Himalayan Balsam in the Hempstead Meadow Nature Reserve.  It was very pleasant to spend time in the reserve like that and getting to see special trees like rare Black Poplars and all manner of tiny creatures.

Black Poplar (left) and Himalyan Balsam (right). Hempstead Meadow

July was also marked the start of the Big Butterfly Count.  This year I saw more butterflies (108 in 12 counts) than last.  Our most regular visitor were bright orange and brown Gatekeepers. 


Gatekeeper butterfly, Manor Park garden.

August

The 8th of August was flying ant day. Suddenly they erupted from our lawn and were flying skywards like so many golden angels. It wasn't just us - all over the country, people were commenting, via social media, on the ants.  

Black ants, Manor Park garden.

On the 22nd of August 2015, I spent a lovely hour in our garden experiencing the light fading away and the creatures of the day finding their way home.  I counted about 400 Rooks as they flew past our house to their roost - probably Lime Tree Avenue.

On a wet bank holiday, I finally found the little remnant of heathland habitat on Manor Park, which is home to hundreds of dainty Autumn Ladies Tresses flowers.

Autumn Ladies Tresses, Manor Park estate.

September

September mornings found our garden full of spider webs sprinkled with jewel-like drops of dew. I was pleased to see that they seemed to be catching plenty of crane flies.

Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) in Manor Park garden.

At the end of the month, I cut through Hempstead Meadow Nature Reserve and found plenty of flowers still out including a blue, Meadow Crane's-bill.

Hoverfly (Syrphus ribesii) on Meadow Crane's-bill. Hempstead Meadow.

October

In the run up to Halloween I expect to hear much talk about bats and other spooky things but I don't expect to see real ones. However the long, late summer brought us two surprise visits. One on October the 18th at about 6:15pm when we saw three dancing in the fading light and another at about 5pm on October the 30th.

Autumn leaves and Halloween decorations.

November

A grim month in all sorts of ways. At the start of the month fog swept in closing both Gatwick and Heathrow and on the 21st there were snowflakes in the rain.  Even the foxes that regularly visit our garden stayed away for most of the month.

One of the few fox visits in November. Manor Park garden.

December

In the run up to Christmas we had a few visits from a fallow deer with fine antlers. This is probably the lighter of the two bucks that we saw earlier in the year. Sadly the darker one wasn't with him.

Fallow buck, Manor Park garden.

Christmas is a time when we traditionally bring greenery inside. I'll leave you with the lovely Nordman tree that I bought from Vulcan Farm. 

Boothland Wood

It's the early part of May, which means it's time to go and see some bluebells.  We have a bluebell wood, Views (Williams) Wood, just a few hundred yards from where I live. I looked round my old friends: the bluebells, the strange stumps and the kingcups on the May Day bank holiday weekend. Today, I visited Boothland Wood, owned by Uckfield Town Council.


Tall trees in Boothland wood.

Although I had never visited this wood before, it has been much in my thoughts recently. Within the next few years it will be engulfed by vast new housing estates.  There is also a Facebook group discussing the situation here. At a Neighbourhood Planning event that we held on the 7th of March, several people mentioned the lovely bluebells in Boothland Wood and their concerns that the wood would be spoilt by too many pairs of feet or the addition of inappropriate pathways.

The wood itself is charming. Although, like Views (Williams) Wood it is an ancient woodland carpeted with bluebells, the atmosphere is very different.  The wood is much smaller but it has a light, airy feel. Partly this is because the trees are different. Views (Williams) Wood is full coppiced sweet chestnut with some sturdy oaks.  Because it was once part of a grand house's park and adjoins a housing estate, a mixture of odd species such as sycamores and rhododendrons have been planted or have found their own way in. To my inexpert eye, Boothland seems to be full of hornbeam and elegant beeches soaring skywards.  It appears to have far fewer 'interlopers'.

Light slanting into the wood.

Because Boothland is surrounded by fields, light seems to bounce in from the slides, playing beautifully with the textures of bark and greenery.

Looking outside of the wood, you can see a farm. Seeing wool caught on the wire seems especially poignant, knowing that the sheep that once grazed there will soon be replaced by houses.

Wool caught on a fence and farm equipment in the background.

On a brighter note, the plans suggest that the farm and oast houses will be kept.

Farm and oast house.

At the moment, the woodland floor is thick with bluebells. A myriad of small paths thread through allowing a curious animal or photographer to get right into the flowers without doing any damage.  As I found my way through the wood a small group of great tits squabbled amongst themselves with little concern about the lumbering human watching them.  Butterflies flitted between the sunlit fields and flower rich woods.

Female holly blue butterfly.

The spring succession of flowers is well under way. I came too late for the wood anemones but there are bluebells, cow parsley, red camion, lesser celandine, herb robert and so many more. The delightfully named, goldilocks buttercup was a particular treat.

Goldilocks buttercup and lesser celandine with the bluebells.

I fear that the paths and the flowers surrounding them will be trampled into dust and the birds will find nesting much harder once the wood is surrounded by thousands of people and their cats and dogs. So it was a lovely but rather troubling visit. The wood seems quite delicate and will need considerable care if it is to survive the new estates.

Note: The outline planning application is here - you need to scroll down the page and hit accept to see it.  It is too late to make comments on this stage of the application.