Events
Forthcoming Friends’ Events
Please email ashdownfriends@aol.com for more information or to book a place.
Thursday, 2nd December 2021
Members’ Annual General Meeting
2.00pm in the Education Barn, Ashdown Forest Centre.
Your chance to hear about the work of the committee and the latest Forest news.
Tuesday, 8th March 2022
Forest Fun with Digital Photography
10.00am to 12.30pm at the Ashdown Forest Centre
A talk on the theory of digital photography by local photographer Dave Brooker in the Information Barn will be followed by a walk and practical experience. Refreshments will be available.
Bank Holiday Monday, 2nd May 2022
Spring and Plant Fair
11.00am – 3.00pm at the Ashdown Forest Centre
All are welcome to join us for this event.
Tuesday, 5th July 2022
A Tour of Nutley Windmill
2.00pm at the Windmill
Join us for a guided tour of Nutley Windmill followed by tea and cakes. Numbers are limited to 30 for this event so to reserve your place, please email ashdownfriends@aol.com.
Tuesday, 18th October 2022
A Talk by Brian Short, Emeritus Professor of the University of Sussex
1.30pm in the Education Barn
“Looking for the ‘turbulent foresters’ of Ashdown and writing their long history.”
Tuesday, 1st November 2022
Fungi Walk with Martin Allison
10.00am in Friends Wood
Meet in the Forest Centre Garden. Numbers are limited to 15 for this event.
Thursday, 1st December 2022
Cheese and Wine Tasting Quiz
12.00 noon to 2.30pm in the Education Barn, Ashdown Forest Centre
Extra events being planned for next year with final arrangements to be confirmed:
Bird Walks with members of the Ashdown Forest Bird Group.
Tuesday, 10th May 2022
A Guided Tour of Pippingford Park. Time to be confirmed.
September 2022
A Talk by Juliet Murray – My Life as an Artist
AmazonSmile – The Friends of Ashdown Forest
It may be that because of the lockdown, you are doing more online shopping. If so, you might like to know that you can support The Friends of Ashdown Forest by shopping through AmazonSmile. AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon with the same products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon.com. The difference is that when you shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to the charitable organization of your choice.
The Society of the Friends of Ashdown Forest have now registered. We are inviting our supporters to support the Friends by shopping at AmazonSmile.
Ashdown Forest News is usually published twice a year in Spring and Autumn by and for The Society of Friends of Ashdown Forest. It is issued free to all members of the Society.
Below are some articles to download.
Recalling some Dialect Words -
Some Forest Moths
News from the forest
Report of birdlife on Ashdown Forest
FEBRUARY TO EARLY APRIL 2021 DURING 3RD LOCKDOWN
CLIVE POOLE, Voluntary Ranger 7th April 2021
February 2021 was cold as usual but the weather was not severe enough to kill off our population of resident DARTFORD WARBLERS. They could be heard calling while sheltering in thick gorse, where they hunted for spiders, their crucial winter diet. Occasionally a fleeting glimpse of a tiny dark -coloured long-tailed bird would confirm the presence of a “furze wren “, the old Sussex name for Dartford Warbler. They rely on heather for nesting and gorse for shelter and most of their food supply.
Our second avian relative UK rarity is the WOODLARK and our breeding population arrived back on the Forest in early February from their wintering grounds on the South coast or across the Channel (without needing to comply with lockdown restrictions). This season they have benefited locally from the gorse-management activities of the conservators who have removed some large blocks of very tall old straggly gorse, useless for wildlife. This has left areas of bare ground, gorse litter and scattered seeds. Just the job for WOODLARKS who are opportunistic colonisers after fire damage or major ground disturbance. They, paradoxically, both feed and breed on the ground on open heaths (not inwoods despite their name) searching the bare and battered ground for seeds and insects. They also favour feeding on short grass grazed by rabbits.
Woodlark Male Redstart Willow Warbler Tree Pipit
