The good, the bad and the interesting!
The “friends of the Sea meadows” group were out on the fields this Sunday. As always the aims are to remove litter, report any issues on the fields, and to record wildflowers and wildlife in these fields.
We normally start in the Pump field, and work our way round the Martello fields, and if there is time, also round the two fields “the Covers” in College Road, near the junction with Ringmer Road
The Bad
There sure was a lot of rubbish! It blows in off the sea and the road and catches up in the fields, mostly in the banks. Obviously this is unsightly and unpleasant but can be dangerous for wildlife and contaminate the fields. The crows were pecking at various plastic food waste items while we were there.
Rubbish collected included the usual litter and even a metal potato masher!?
More worryingly something that looked like asbestos and along the northern edge, several abandoned road signs were rotting away. We removed six bags of rubbish in total.
We noted sadly that the field edges and Pump field have NOT been maintained as they were supposed to be. The cuttings have been left in situ and this is likely to have a detrimental effect on the diversity of the fields. The decaying cuttings will enrich the soil, which will encourage grasses to grow at the expense of wildflowers such as the gorgeous bee orchids that popped up in large numbers during 2024.
The Good
In 2025 we have undertaken to do a formal monthly plant tick. This involves taking our “current list” for each field and ticking when we see it in flower. It’s been a cold few weeks and unsurprisingly there were few flowers in evidence. Just three varieties in fact. A few daisies were in every field, a solitary dandelion was spotted, and annual mercury had a few flowers at the edge of the Covers. (find out more about mercury in Brian’s new blog here)
Undeterred our keen botanists spotted a number of leaves coming through that promised of flowers to come. Often leaves can be a sufficient identification feature! These included seabeet, which flowers all year round and is edible (use instead of spinach!), two types of buttercups, cleavers, bristly oxtongue, smooth sowthistle, common mallow, cow parsley, ribwort plantain, buck’s-horn plantain and spear thistle.
In the Covers there were also leaves from three cornered garlic and common knapweed coming up and the wild clary was starting to grow at the north end of the west Martello field. This plant is related to the salvias in our gardens, and usually puts on a stunning display in Spring.
There were also some interesting seed heads around. Sometimes you need good detective skills to work out what these are! If you look closely these are often incredibly beautiful – they would make a lovely painting if you are feeling creative!
The Interesting
Other things of interest included fungi at the edge of the field, a mermaids purse, a huge patch of holes in the Pump field (we think made by crows looking for food?), and a rather still bumble bee outside a hole in the Martello field. Perhaps the poor thing had emerged a little early. There certainly was not a lot of nectar around here to feed on.
If you have a garden, do grow some plants to help pollinators out in this difficult time of year. For example you could grow pots of heathers or crocus bulbs for early nectar.
The next meeting will be Sunday 16 February, do come along and join our friendly group if you can, we would love to see you!
Friends of the Sea Meadows, 19 January 2024
(supported by Seaford Action for Nature)
