Blown away by Michael Blencoe! The Wonderful wildlife of Seaford.

On Saturday January 29 we were very lucky to welcome Sussex naturalist Michael Blencowe to a packed audience at Seaford Baptist Church. This event was jointly hosted by On the Verge and Seaford Natural History Society – this was the first event of a year-long series of talks and walks planned by the two groups. Find out more here! What a great treat to kick it off!

We were regaled with expert information and amusing stories, illustrated by stunning photography, of the some of the 6,000 + different creatures and plants to be found within just the two parishes of Seaford and Cuckmere Haven.  We are lucky to live in one of the most biodiverse areas in Sussex, with so many different habitats, from cliffs to wetlands to chalk downland.  Some of the standouts of the talk for me included the vomiting (!) fulmars, hosts of beautiful moths, glorious toads and elegant orchids.

Michael made a request to the audience to submit sightings of creatures and plants – particularly those known to be newly established, such as red kites or threatened, such as hedgehogs and cuckoos to the Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre at www.sxbrc.org.uk in order to track the health of different populations. Anyone can submit!

Jackie

Editor note – apparently there have been no frogs recorded in Seaford in the last three years! – Michael reminded us how important it is to submit even common species to the records office! This can easily be done via an app such as iRecord

Find out more about the next talk by Alex Worsley here