Spring 2021 update – from the FOSB committee
After a slow, wet and cold start to the year Spring finally arrived. The Beach has come back to life with colour emerging to brighten up the grey and the lure of staycations bringing people out of lockdown onto the beach. As the summer results in the inevitable increase in visitors let’s hope that the reserve is treated with the respect it needs and deserves.
The May flowering has been later than usual this year but the specialised shingle plant Seakale (see below) has spread far and wide over the winter and is now a splendid spectacle. It has been many years since it grew so widely.
The invasive species flourished during lockdown. Small working groups have been able to tackle some of the Three-cornered garlic and the invasive plants South of the boardwalk helping the specialised rare shingle plants to flourish. Many thanks to the valiant volunteers who did the work. Hopefully larger parties can be mobilised soon. There is a splendid bank of Thrift (below left) and Mouse-ear Hawkweed (below right) on one area at the Eastern end where we started removing Silver Ragwort in 2017.
We have to watch the Tree Mallow plants as they are becoming invasive. This is a problem in Scotland where the plants are growing so thickly the puffins cannot build their burrows in some areas and we want to avoid similar impacts here.
The Port and the FoSB Nature Coordinator keep in touch about the area where the rare Childing Pink is growing. A survey on June 1st only showed three flowers. We hope there will be more later in June as it is usually at its best around the 21st.
We were happy to be able to hold our annual flower walk this year and 27 attendees were able to come on 30th May in glorious weather. A tick list of fifty plants was provided and some were able to find all 50. Many thanks to Sue Denness of the Sussex Botanical Recording Society who put so much into the preparation for the walk. We saw plenty of the famous Starry Clover which is flowering later than usual this year.
Despite our first beach clean being cancelled due to a spring storm the Committee are busy preparing a range of activities for the summer including bird walks, shoreline explorations, beach cleans and hopefully, the return of the ever-popular rock pooling.
We keep a window on the Beach with Facebook and Website blog postings. Our Facebook Page has over 1750 followers worldwide. Have a look on www.fosbeach.com and please follow us on Facebook at Friends of Shoreham Beach. There are now postings of detailed information about the flowers on the beach on Facebook and on our website.
Larger visitor numbers have already shown an increase in dumping particularly at beach access points and we thank the Adur clean-up team for their support in clearing this. We thank those individuals who pick up any litter during their walks on the beach, this community concern means that our beach remains relatively clear. We have also been grateful for the efforts of local U3A, Beaver and Cub groups who have undertaken beach cleans removing significant quantities of litter and debris.
If you want to get in touch, then please email on friendsofshorehambeach@gmail.com.
Originally written for Beach News by Shoreham Beach Residents Association.