Lancing Clump (TQ 180 065) and meadows (map)
Click on the map for a larger image

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Lancing Ring and Meadows: 

The wooded clump area covers about 8.4 acres, the large meadow about 19 acres and McIntyres Field a further 9.8 acres. Other large areas including the large steep western bank, the Chalk Pit, Barton's Wood, with various small spinneys and grass outcrops, and the west facing slopes. 

Lancing Ring Measurements

EVENTS

WILDLIFE REPORTS

Lancing Ring Wildlife Reports 2007

23 November 2006
The frosts show no sign of coming, so I collected 270 g of Sloe berries from the Blackthorn at the western end of the Lancing Ring meadows. All the berries were hard to reach, so I suspect other human fossickers had picked the easy ones. There were a a few Haw berries and Rose-hips to be seen and it was muddy underfoot. Nothing moved on the forage harvested meadows or in the clump where the Golden Pholiotas (fungi) were past their best. 

One Elm Tree had been lopped in the wood to the west of McIntyre's Field.

20 September 2006
A passage journey in the afternoon sunshine up the incline on the western bank of Lancing Ring Nature Reserve following the narrow winding path to the top of Lancing Clump, was uneventful with just a handful of Common Darters (dragonflies) and a few wild flowers including one Harebell spotted. 
 

In the scrub at the top I quickly disturbed a Red Admiral Butterfly and a Painted Lady and spotted a settled Comma Butterfly. The dewpond was dry. The meadows were covered in the young growths of Dogwood that looked like they could threaten the meadows unless the land is forage harvested this year. Wild flowers had mostly faded and the only fresh flowers were of Common Toadflax. Butterflies took at least three minutes before a Meadow Brown was spotted flying rapidly over the meadows and in the distance a Common Blue Butterfly was seen.
Adur Butterfly List

28 June 2006
At least half a dozen attractive Broad-bodied Chasers (dragonflies) patrolled the reeds and shallow water of Lancing Ring Dewpond in the early afternoon sunshine. 
The first butterfly was not seen until I reached Lancing Manor where a Red Admiral was spotted. Passage travel through McIntyre's Field, Barton's Wood and some of the meadows of Lancing Ring Nature Reserve similarly produced only a few butterflies which is often the case in the lull period at the end of June. The following were noted in the order first seen: Red Admiral 3, Speckled Wood 5, Large White 2, Meadow Brown 15, Marbled White 5, Large Skipper 5, Common Blue 3 and Small Heath 2. The Large Skippers were courting and all of them were seen on Greater Knapweed. 
A handful of the first Burnet Moths of the year were seen on Lancing Ring meadows and around the dewpond.
Adur Butterfly List

18 June 2006
In McIntyres field now you would hardly know that it was a mass of flowering Grass Vetchling last week. It has all but gone but now there are hundreds of  Pyramidal Orchids in flower.

Report and Photograph by Ray Hamblett on the Lancing Nature Notes
and on flickr Sussex Wildlife Gallery

The remains of three Stag Beetles were seen on a woodland path at Lancing Ring. Some predator (most likely Magpies) must have eaten the juicy bits. 

The beetle Dascillus cervinuswas also discovered. This is a common downland species.
Image
 

Report and Photographs by Ray Hamblett on the Lancing Nature Notes
and on flickr British Insects & Other Arthropods

Adur Beetles
Stag Beetle Helpline

11 June 2006
Thousands of Grass Vetchling were seen growing in the lower half of McIntyres Field on Lancing Ring Nature Reserve.

Report and Photograph by Ray Hamblett on the Lancing Ring Blogspot
and on flickr Sussex Wildlife Gallery

8 June 2006
A Common Spotted Orchid was seen on Lancing Ring Nature Reserve.

Report and Photograph by Jan Hamblett on the Lancing Ring Blogspot
and on flickr Sussex Wildlife Gallery

Adur Orchids

25 May 2006

Roe Deer on Lancing Ring
on the western slope overlooking Halewick Recreation Ground
Photograph by Ray Hamblett on the Lancing Ring Blogspot
and on flickr Sussex Wildlife Gallery

16 May 2006
Four Speckled Wood Butterflies and one Red Admiral were seen on a very brief visit to Lancing Ring.

A fine display of Early Purple Orchids were in full bloom in the Ash woodland under the developing leaf canopy on Lancing Ring.

Report & Photograph by Ray Hamblett (Lancing Nature Gallery) 
on the Lancing Nature Smart Group & the Lancing Ring Blogspot

1 May 2006
The most impressive thing on Lancing Ring was the Sloe blossom. A heavy crop of flower on a large bank of Blackthorn was notable for its intoxicating fragrance.
I saw a single Speckled Wood Butterfly in a one hour visit. This was the first  the first of the year from Lancing. I did not get to the west facing slope.

Report by Ray Hamblett on the UK-Leps (Yahoo Group)

Adur Butterfly List 2006

17 April 2006
On Lancing Ring LNR above the cemetery (south-west), there is a large area of Nettles which covers about an acre. They were lush as they are beginning their new seasons growth, and stand about 15 to 20 cm tall. Treading through this we disturbed six Small Tortoiseshells and a single Peacock Butterfly.

Report by Ray Hamblett on the Adur Valley Biodiversity Smart Group
and on the UK-Leps (Yahoo Group)

8 April 2006
In the warm sun but breezy in exposed areas up on Lancing Ring Nature Reserve, Jan Hamblett spotted a large Red Fox at Barton's Farm, a Brimstone Butterfly at the Cemetery seat, and two Small Tortoiseshell duelling butterflies (first confirmed this year) at the top of butterfly meadow near to Brian Old's seat. Finally she saw a Red Admiral on the ground south of the eastern car park on the grassy area after walking through the wooded copse. 

Report by Ray Hamblett (Lancing Nature Gallery) 
on the Lancing Nature Smart Group & the Lancing Ring Blogspot

1 April 2006
Spring has finally arrived under a blue sky with the warm rays of the afternoon sun, the flowers were out on Lancing Manor and McIntyre's Field (east of Lancing Clump): Lesser Celandine, Field Speedwell, Sweet Violets, Chickweed and Red Dead Nettle were noted in profusion. Katherine Hamblett was the first to spot one of the frequent 7-spot Ladybirds. Queen Buff-tailed Bumblebees crawled from their holes in the mown ground before buzzing off. A single medium-sized Syrphus hoverfly was spotted on a sun bathed leaf.
Adur Bumblebees

The air temperature reached 12.9 ºC at 3:19 pm.

Jan Hamblett spotted a Peacock Butterfly at the  bottom of McIntyre's Field and Ray Hamblett spotted a Comma Butterfly at the top and the disappearing tail of a Common Lizard. The latter two were firsts of the year. A Green Woodpecker called noisily from the wood to the east of the field. 
Adur Butterfly List 2006
Adur Butterfly First Flight Times

28 March 2006
Dru Brook reports a Painted Lady (first of the year) and a Red Admiral Butterfly in McIntyre's Field (east of Lancing Clump). 

Report by Ray Hamblett on Lancing Nature Notes and on the Adur Valley Biodiversity Smart Group

Adur Butterfly First Flight Times

6 March 2006
The first Peacock Butterfly of the year is seen by Dru Brook near the eastern car park on Lancing Clump.

Report by Ray Hamblett on Lancing Ring Nature Notes

Adur Butterfly List 2006
Adur Butterfly First Flight Times
 

16 February 2006
The first Sweet Violets began to open in a clearing of the woodland under Common Ash trees on Lancing Clump. These qualify as the first wild flowers* of the year.
The fungi on a felled fallen Ash looked very much like the Tripe Fungus, Auricularia mesentrica.

Report by Ray Hamblett on Lancing Ring Nature Notes

February Blogspot Report from Lancing Ring

Fungi ID suggestion by Mark Pike on British Fungi (Yahoo Group)

Adur Violets

6 February 2006
The first Honey Bee recorded this year is photographed on the Lancing Ring Nature Reserve.

Report by Ray Hamblett on Lancing Ring Nature Notes

February Blogspot Report from Lancing Ring
 

5 February 2006

A 7-spot Ladybird, Coccinella septempunctata, made its first appearance of the year in the weak sunshine on Lancing Ring Nature Reserve.

Report by Ray Hamblett on Lancing Nature Notes

Adur Ladybirds

20 January 2006
Some Gorse is in flower on Lancing Ring, but this cannot count as the first flower of the year as it is a shrub. A colourful Jay flew amongst the bare top branches of the Clump. 
 

Fungi noted in the wood to the east of McIntyres Field were the black blobs called King Arthur's Cakes, Daldinia concentrica, on upright and fallen trees and there were many fallen trunks and branches in the wood and under the Clump where I recorded some Trametes bracket fungi. 
The dewpond contained a fair amount of water with thick muddy margins. 

Lancing Ring Wildlife Reports 2005
 

Aerial Map
Lower Adur Levels (MultiMap) including Lancing Clump and Mill Hill
 
 

EMail Address for sending in wildlife reports from the lower Adur valley
Only a selection will be included and only reports with the name of the reporter

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Mill Hill (Link)

History of Lancing (Ray Hamblett)

Lancing Ring

Lancing Ring & Mill Hill Information 1 (requires Acrobat Reader)
Lancing Ring & Mill Hill Information 2 (requires Acrobat Reader)