Williamson Weekly Nature Notes July 1 2009

Different birds are usually seen in the county each year. The harbours have about 80,000 waterfowl living in them each winter.

We have here some of the best wildlife habitats in Britain, with native woods of oak and ash and birch. Lowland heaths with heather, river valleys with dragonflies and unusual fishes, kingfishers and flowers.

We have downland hills with unique collections of flowers. We have chalk cliffs with seabird colonies. The wealden woodlands are full of rare plants, wild mammals and birds.

Our scenery is the envy of the world. So too is our conservation structure, which began right here at Kingley Vale back in 1911, when ecologist Arthur (later Sir Arthur) Tansley saw the finest yew forest in Europe and vowed that it should be protected for ever more.

How much do you know about your county's wildlife treasures? You could find out more if you come along to a popular talk I am giving on the subject next Thursday, July 9. This is a RSPB benefit lecture as part of the Chichester Festivities. I shall be showing slides of many of the birds on the downland nature reserve I managed for 30 years and show what has happened to them during four decades since I have monitored their population's weekly.

I have done the same for the butterflies for 33 years so we will look at the remarkable swings and lows of 30 different species.

Another thing I've been up to is photographing from fixed points vegetation changes for 40 years. You will be amazed at how quickly the countryside changes in just a few years, let alone four decades.

Something else I will show you are pictures of all the waterfowl in the harbours. I have been counting those for 40 years too.

Then I shall blow my old grandfather's bird whistles so that you can identify the various calls all these birds make. We shall travel through Amberley Wildbrooks, Chichester harbour, Kingley Vale, West Dean woods, and even the peregrines on the cathedral.

I shall also talk about our archaeological heritage, especially one of our richest archaeological sites of all with a display of some of the artefacts I have found there.

Will you forgive me for reading two of my favourite poems about the countryside, and for mentioning how my father came to write Tarka the Otter?