Friends of Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve

Friends’ Events in 2024

Saturday 23rd March, from 10.30-12.00 noon in the Isabel Blackman Centre

Grey Owl’s Legacy and Attenborough’s Dream, with Peter Smith

 Grey Owl was a popular writer and conservationist whose views on wilderness conservation brought international attention to the negative impact of exploiting nature and the urgent need to develop respect for the natural world - early in the 20th century. Born Archibald Stansfeld Belaney in Hastings in 1888, in the latter years of his life he passed as half-Indian, claiming he was the son of a Scottish man and an Apache woman. Peter Smith will talk about how Grey Owl is still revolutionising nature conservation and how his legacy is influencing us today.    

Peter, now manager of the RSPCA's Mallydams Wildlife Centre in Fairlight, was the founder & Chief Executive of the Wildwood Trust for 18 years. He has been a leading proponent of rewilding since the start of his career over 30 years ago. Peter has worked across the world on some of the most ground-breaking conservation programmes at the leading edge of ecological science. 

Saturday 13th April, from 10.30-12.00 noon in the Isabel Blackman Centre

Coastal Flowering Plants, with Barry Yates

 Barry Yates will talk about the wide range of flowering plants which we might see on our local coastline and their adaptation to their environment.

After a start in academic life, studying the breeding of wading birds in Sutherland and Shetland, Barry managed Rye Harbour Nature Reserve for almost 40 years. He is now advising on the management of local wetlands where breeding waders are a priority. He is also trying to work in the wider landscape to encourage farmers and landowners to maximise the wildlife potential of their land.

Tuesday 14th May, from 10.30-12.30 pm in the Nature Reserve

Identifying resident birds by their songs and calls, with James Duncan

James Duncan has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Sussex birds and a keen ear to detect their presence, visible and invisible. This guided birding walk is another excellent opportunity to refine your skills and expand your knowledge of species to be found in the Nature Reserve at this time of year, under James’ direction.

James is Communities and Wildlife Officer with Sussex Wildlife Trust and has been a regular and valued contributor to our Events Programme for the last three years. He has wide-ranging interests including wildlife and landscape and urban night photography and is passionate about the natural world and conservation. Before coming to Sussex, he worked for RSPB surveying the corncrake population and leading guided walks in the Outer Hebrides. His ‘Species Spotlight’ articles for SWT are delightfully informative and well worth searching out on the SWT website.

Saturday 15th June, from 10.30-12.30 pm in the Nature Reserve

What’s the Buzz: insect pollinators in the Nature Reserve, with Andy Phillips

 Insects have been shockingly neglected in our Events programme in recent years and this is our first attempt to make up for the oversight. Andy Phillips is the leader on this walk, searching for and identifying early summer insect pollinators in the Nature Reserve. Andy’s brief biography (see above, February’s event) demonstrates the extent of his relevant experience for guiding us in the search.

 Saturday 20th July, from 10.30-12.30 pm in the Nature Reserve

Flowering plants of acid grassland, with Judy Clark and Jacqueline Rose

 This guided walk continues the series of botanical walks led by Friends’ members and plant experts Judy Clark and Jacqueline Rose, focussing on flowering plants to be found in the different habitats and glens of the Nature Reserve.

Jacqueline and Judy are field botanists with many years experience recording plants in East Sussex. For the past 10 years they have conducted vegetation surveys in Hastings Country Park Nature Reserve as part of the monitoring of the Higher Level Stewardship agreement, and will continue to do so when this becomes the Countryside Stewardship agreement in 2024. These 10-year agreements provide government funding to HBC for the management of HCPNR.

Tuesday 20th August, from 10.30-12.30 pm in the Nature Reserve

Looking at Trees in Summer, with Owen Johnson

 The trees of the Nature Reserve are another important feature that our recent programme overlooked until last November, when the planned winter tree walk was cancelled because of too much weather. Fortunately, our local expert with a national reputation, Owen Johnson, has kindly agreed to try again this year. Our August event will focus on identifying trees in full leaf, apparently harder to do than when without.

 Owen has spent the last twenty years studying and recording over 60,000 trees around Britain, and is an expert in field identification. He is Registrar at the Tree Register where he has compiled and written ‘Champion Trees of Britain and Ireland’ (2003). Other publications include ‘The Sussex Tree Book’ and the ‘Collins Tree Guide’. As a naturalist, he manages a Local Nature Reserve near his home in St Leonards for the Sussex Wildlife Trust. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to the Environment. In 2020 he was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society.

 Saturday 21st September, 8.00-10.30 am in the Nature Reserve

Coast Watch: tracking the Autumn bird migration, with Ralph Hobbs

This is a popular annual event that has been plagued by unsuitable weather in recent years and we have brought it forward to September in the hope of finding better weather both for flying and bird-watching. We welcome Ralph Hobbs to lead the 2024 guided watch: members please note the early start.

Ralph has worked as an agronomist, conservation and land management adviser including for Natural England, the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group and Hastings Borough Council.  He is an experienced ecologist with a long history of working in the environmental services industry. His areas of expertise and interest include birds, ecological restoration, wildlife management, sustainable development and plant ecology. He also has 7.8K posts on social media platform X relating to nature, the climate and environmental crisis and related politics.

 Saturday 26th October, from 10.30-12.30 pm in the Nature Reserve

Finding Fungi with Friends, a guided walk with Martin Allison

We are very pleased to welcome Martin Allison back to lead our annual ramble across heath and woodland in search of seasonal fungi specimens for him to identify, hopefully increasing our knowledge of the species to be found in the Nature Reserve, but definitely not to ‘provide for the pot’.

Martin is the Sussex Country Recorder for Fungi (Basidiomycota), which is the second largest group of fungi with over 3,000 species. He is a member of the British Mycological Society and the Sussex Fungus Group, and focuses his expertise specifically on the Fungi of Sussex (with the exception of two small areas of Kent). He runs identification courses for a number of organisations including SWT, RSPB and the Conservators of Ashdown Forest. Martin’s most recent report on fungi recordings in Sussex can be found in Adastra 2020, under the Projects and Publications tab on the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre website at sxbrc.org.uk.

Thursday 14th November, from 2.00-3.30 pm in the Isabel Blackman Centre

Sussex Living Seas: marine conservation along our coast, with Ella Garrud

 It is a pleasure to welcome Ella Garrud back to our Events Programme after her previous contribution in November 2020, early on in her work with Sussex Wildlife Trust. Since then, there have been significant developments in marine conservation and restoration along the Sussex coast, and Ella will bring us up to date with some of them in this presentation. 

Ella is Living Seas Officer and Wild Coast Sussex Project Manager at Sussex Wildlife Trust, where she has worked since 2020. She has an MSc in Marine Environmental Management and uses her understanding of marine ecosystems and the threats they face to inform her work advocating for the conservation of marine life in Sussex. Her experience in environmental education and awareness efforts is used to engage with various demographics in creative ways through her work managing the Wild Coast Sussex project, to improve ocean literacy and increase coastal connection in our local communities. She was recently a member of the Steering Group for The Ocean Symposium 2023 held in Bexhill under the auspices of the UNA Climate and Oceans organisation.

Saturday 7th December, from 10.30-12.00 noon in the Isabel Blackman Centre

A Picture History of the Country Park Nature Reserve, with Steve Peak

Looking back over many years of history, using old photos, pictures and maps.

Steve is a journalist and author who has written many books on the history of Hastings and St Leonards. These include: Fishermen of Hastings, The America Ground and A Pier Without Peer. He also set up the website www.hastingscountryparkhistory.com. Steve is honorary curator of the Fishermen's Museum and a trustee of the Old Hastings Preservation Society.