The Beacon February 2011 - Beacon Parish of Ditchling, Streat ...

Newick Decorative and Fine Arts Society
Tuesday February 8th at Plumpton Village Hall 2.15 pm
Porcelain for the Chinese Emperors.
For this lecture we are lucky enough to have Anne Haworth who not only
lectures at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Museum but is also a
Guide for private tours of the State Rooms and the Queen's Gallery at
Buckingham Palace. This will be a digital presentation and the illustrations are
superb.
Porcelain was originally only made for the Emperors and their families from as
early as 500 AD. It was not until much later in the 17 th century that it was begun
to be made for the Western market.
Come and enjoy what should be a very interesting lecture. Payment for non
members is £5 on the door with tea and biscuits afterwards. If you need any
further information please contact our secretary Carole Burgon on 01273
890301 or Marjorie Blunden on 01825 723250.
Annette Shelford
Nature Notes
The Waxwings I wrote about in the December magazine, duly made it to this part
of the country. Typically the ones I saw just after Christmas were in Tesco’s car
park in Lewes. Many supermarket car parks have attracted these birds, not by
any of the products in the stores, but because many of them have been planted
with berry-bearing trees, the food supply of these wandering birds. The light was
not good but we had clear views of over a dozen of them.
An idea of how far they wander is demonstrated by the colour-ringing of an
early one that arrived in Scotland from northern Russia, in October being
photographed on Portland just after the New Year. The advantage of putting a
combination of coloured rings on the legs of birds is that, without capture they
can be positively identified in the field or in this case a television aerial.
After the second bout of cold weather, there are still many birds coming to the
feeders but there must have been considerable mortality in such severe
temperatures. This will be confirmed and measured by the many surveys that
amateur naturalists take part in. These can be by the simple Garden Bird Counts
many of us complete to the more complex ongoing studies of breeding
populations and the Atlas work. The smallest contributions are valuable, putting
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