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NEWS BULLETIN FOR THE ADUR VALLEY |
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This is the first published
Electronic Newspaper for
Shoreham-by-Sea and the
Adur Valley & District, West Sussex, England
Local News6 January 2003
Planning Committee Meeting: Adur District CouncilRopetackle Detailed Plan
Telecommunications Mast, Buckingham BarnThere is some discussion of these issues on the
ADUR VALLEY EFORUM
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/adur/
27 January - 28 February 2003
The South Downs National Park Designation Order with maps will be put on deposit. During this time representations can be made to the Secretary of State, Margaret Becket.
Clubs and societies are invited to hold an evening Adur World Oceans Day event.
See below for the AWOD events pencilled in for the Adur Festival 2003.
Please send any comments to: Andy Horton
Glaucus@hotmail.com
Wildlife Notes
5 January 2003
The garden ponds in Shoreham town and gardens are frozen over with a glass-like (3 mm to 6 mm) layer of ice for the whole of the day. The temperature remained under 3 ºC for all hours of daylight.
Shoreham Beach Weatherflash (Instant Readings) Page4 January 2003
Widewater Lagoon is in flood after the recent rain and the salinity fell to 15‰. The Little Egret foraged in the shallows as usual. This bird is not ringed.
Widewater Salinity PageThe morning layer of snow is so thin it could be mistaken for frost. The precipitation of Shoreham beach up to 9:00 am was a mere 1.022 mm, with the temperature at its lowest point at 1.7 ºC at 7:50 am and a dew point falling to -0.9 ºC at 6:16 am. Wind chill was -5.3 ºC was 7:48 am and although it is getting warmer, the wind chill in the Light Breeze (Force 2) was still below freezing in mid-morning. There was no ice on garden ponds.
3 January 2003
Amongst the scant remaining vegetation at a high spring tide, at least three pipits perched and flew around just above the water surface south-west of the Footbridge over the Adur (TQ 216 047). These were not the plump Meadow Pipits of the local fields but a different bird altogether, thin and straggly with a much paler speckled breasts with plenty of white, and a more marked face with a bit of a dark top. The white, or was it grey, tail feathers were not so bright either. So this bird was either a Rock Pipit (Scandinavian Race) or a Water Pipit. The former is my favourite choice. They were not easily perturbed, but they all flew off over the estuary before I could get my camera out. The full species name of the Rock Pipit (Scandinavian Race) is Anthus petrosus littoralis. These pipits can be a bit tricky to identify.
Last Meadow Pipit Report
Pipit on Lancing Beach
Trouble with Pipits Identification
Adur Estuary Page
Anthus petrosus littoralis (Sussex records)
Rock Pipits Observation Page (BMLSS)
Rock Pipits (Birdguides)My first butterfly of the year was almost certainly a Small Tortoiseshell that fluttered out of the Hawthorn and Dogwood shrub on the south east corner of the dewpond field on Lancing Clump.
A single Great Tit was spotted before it darted into an Ivy laden Hawthorn.Butterfly Report by Ray Hamblett (Lancing Nature) via the Adur Valley EForum and the British Insects GroupFull Report
Friends of Lancing Ring
2 January 2003
On a day noted for its dampness with mud and sodden ground, there was a remarkable scarcity of birds and other wildlife in all the normal haunts. From a small bush outside the entrance to Ricardo's (TQ 125 059) on the airport side of the Toll Bridge at Old Shoreham, a Song Thrush performed its repertoire of songs, filling the dusk air with melody. The songs were heard again in various parts of Shoreham town. Almost everywhere there were large gardens, or parks on any bushes to sing from the Song Thrush seemed to be singing. The wet winters of late seemed to have benefited this bird that feeds mainly on worms, although in hard winters it is capable of tackling snails when the frozen ground makes worms difficult to come by.1 January 2003
The Long tailed Tits, Aegithalos caudatus, are feeding on peanuts provided in my Shermanbury garden.Report by Allen Pollard via the Adur Valley EForumUpper Adur East (Shermanbury area) Nature Pages
31 December 2002
Six Little Dabchicks (=Little Grebes) are spotted repeatedly diving beneath the flooded Widewater Lagoon.Report by Peter Talbot-ElsdenThere is a complete absence of gulls on the playing fields and parks of Shoreham in contrast to five days before.27 December 2002
Straight as an arrow, the Kingfisher flew the the length of the stream by Adur Metal Works, just over over a metre above the surface of the contaminated water, the turquoise showing for the complete length of the sudden flight under the doctored branches of surviving Monterey Pines (TQ 210 053).
The Little Egret on the adjacent mud flats looked to be very slender and to have a much finer beak than normal. Maybe, it was a juvenile bird probing in the shallows at half tide.26 December 2002
On the edge of Widewater Lagoon, a Kestrel took a Goldfinch in mid-flight, hard enough to down the bird before finally capturing it.
Hundreds of gulls filled the air and covered the sodden school playing fields and green grass of the parks, totalling thousands. It seems that there are more than usual at this time of the year: Black-headed Gulls, with striking red legs (probably a different population than the summer resident gulls) make up the bulk of the influx, but there were scores, totalling hundreds of Herring Gulls, both mature and immature. Many of the gulls were "paddling" for worms. The mud flats at half tide opposite the airport were denuded of gulls and six Grey Plover were the largest birds, feeding at the water's edge on a breezy overcast day.
25 December 2002
The Sparrowhawk returned to my Eastbrook Road, south Portslade, East Sussex, garden on Christmas morning. The large rose in the right hand corner at the back of the garden are a meeting point for sparrows entering ours and two other adjacent gardens. The sparrows rushed to the centre of the bushes and the Sparrowhawk swooped down and landed on the bird table. It then flew around the rose bush and forced its way through the branches taking a sparrow with it. As we have now been feeding the birds at this point, more birds were present than the last time.The Sparrowhawk hooded its prey on the ground behind the buddleia and after a few minutes it started to pluck the sparrow. About half an hour later, when we were ready to leave I checked the hawk and it was still busy eating. I was just about to leave when I saw a large cat drop from the wall onto the Sparrowhawk, unfortunately most of the scene was hidden behind the buddleia but flapping of wings and flashes of white fur were visible. After what was probably only a few seconds the hawk broke free and managed to clear the garden wall, the cat sniffed around where the hawk was and did not find the sparrow so the hawk must have managed to take it with it.
Sparrowhawk
Full Report
Other Sparrowhawk Reports
23 December 2002
Six Brent Geese were feeding on the flooded airfield. Five of them had dark breasts, and a sixth one was lighter in colour. The sky was black with hundreds of Lapwings.December 2002
There have been repeated reports of a Grey Heron by the roundabout underneath the flyover north of Old Shoreham, and even on one occasion of the bird landing on the concrete slipways leading to the main A27 trunk road.Report by Helen Swyer and others
- British
Web Sites
Dragonflies
of the Hampshire & Surrey Borders
Flight
Times (First Seen)
- Historical
Snippets
10
July 1942
Landing Craft
LCP(L) No.93 (8-11t) Destroyed
by fire at Shoreham, S England.
D-Day was 6
June 1944.
LCA Landing Craft, Assault
LCG Landing craft, Gun
LCI Landing Craft, Infantry
LCM Landing Craft, Mechanized
LCP Landing Craft, Personnel
LCS Landing Craft, Support
LCT Landing Craft, Tank
LCT(R) Landing Craft, Tank
(Rocket)
LCVP Landing Craft, Vehicle
and Personnel
LSH Landing Ship, Headquarters
LSI Landing Ship, Infantry
LST Landing Ship, Tank
Glossary
The evacuation of Dunkirk in 26 May to 3 June 1940 show the urgent need to create of all parts a many fleet of special landing ships.
As for the smaller barges
the such LCM (Landing Mechanized Craft) and LCP (Landing Personal Craft),
they derived from the light boats flat-bottomed are used in the lagoon
of Maracaïbo and Gulf of Mexico for the service road of the oil platforms
offshore oil rig.
Source
Adur Valley Book ListSussex Archaeological Society
http://www.sussexpast.co.uk
- Words
of the Week.
nidicolous | ndk()ls | a. E20. [f. L nidus nest + -I- + -COLOUS.] Ornith. (Having young which are) helpless at birth and confined to the nest until sufficiently developed to live without parental care; altricial. Opp. nidifugous.nidicole n. a nidicolous bird M20
irruption
| rLp()n | n. M16. [L irruptio(n-), f. as prec.: see -ION.] I 1 The
action of bursting or breaking in; a violent entry or invasion, esp. of
a hostile force or people. M16. 2 spec. An abrupt local increase
in the numbers of a migrant bird or other animal. E20.
1
M. IGNATIEFF This sudden irruption of riot into the little frame of Natasha's
existence. 2 Bird Watching Immigrations or irruptions of Continental birds
looking for 'open ground'.
mendicant
| mendk()nt | n. & a. LME. [L mendicant- pres. ppl stem of mendicare
beg, f. mendicus beggar, f. mendum defect, fault: see -ANT1.] A n. 1 A
mendicant friar (see sense B.1 below). LME. 2 A beggar; a person
who lives by begging. L15. B adj. 1 Designating or belonging to any of
the religious orders whose members (known as friars) lived solely on alms.
L15. 2 Begging; given to or characterized by begging. Also, characteristic
of a beggar. E17.
---------------------------------------------------------
Excerpted
from The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia
Developed
by The Learning Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 1997 TLC Properties Inc.
Tucows Software Reviews
|
Web
Monkey :
The Web Developer's Resource
Location:
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/
Digital
Photography Review
http://www.dpreview.com/
Computing Net Support Site (for computing problems) ****
http://computing.net/windows95/wwwboard/wwwboard.html
The upsurge of EFora on
all subjects (a
few have been recommended before in these bulletins) are an important way
in which the Internet
will change the world.
A list of recommended eFora
are shown in the left hand column. Please make any suggestions.
Smart
Groups
At
present almost all groups are receiving sustained attacks by spam mail
(junk mail) which is a serious nuisance.
Fight
Spam on the Internet
http://spam.abuse.net/
Literature
Image Gallery
Floods at Mock Bridge, River Adur, 3 January 2003
Photograph by Allen Pollard
Religion in the Adur District (Churches)
Archaeology in Sussex to AD 1500 ****
WSCC
LIBRARY *****
Excellent
and essential service with a full catalogue of books, CDs, videos, on-line
renewals, book ordering.
- The
Glaucus 2002 CD-ROM includes the complete Shoreham-by-Sea
and Adur Valley web sites.
|
ADUR VALLEY EFORUM PAGE |
Events
Farmer's Market
11
January 2003
Fresh
produce
East
Street, Shoreham-by-Sea
ADVANCE
NOTICE
Adur
World Oceans Day 2003
ADUR FESTIVAL ENTRIES
Shoreham and the River Adur's seafaring traditions stretch back for over a millenium. In the days of sailing ships the public hards each side of the Coronation Green were important for loading and unloading cargo and Shoreham has a history of seafaring and fishing that stretches back centuries to the beginning of written records and before.
The
Adur Festival celebrates this tradition and the local connection with the
sea with the opening procession from St. Mary de Haura church down East
Street (known as Oriental Street in the 18th century) down to River Adur
to Coronation Green (Legal Quay in medieval times) in the centre of Shoreham-by-Sea.
31
May 2003
ADUR
WORLD OCEANS DAY
Coronation
Green, Shoreham-by-Sea
10:00
am - 4:00 pm
Admission:
Free
Open
air celebration of the wildlife of the oceans with exhibitions of live
marine creatures, marine aquaria, nets and fishing gear, colouring competitions
and other interactive activities for children, whales and dolphins exhibits,
films and video shows, sea food tasting, all designed for a family day
out. Allow at least one hour, preferably more, to wander around the marquees,
with experts on hand to answer questions about life in the sea and on the
seashore.
Organised
by the Adur World Oceans Day group
- Adur
On-line Events page
- http://appspace.nexus-solutions.net/arc/asp/diary/diaryoutput.asp
- Please send in any details of local events.
- Web
Sites
American
Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:
Fourth
Edition *****
- SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY
For any company or organisation wanting nationwide green publicity, there is an opportunity to sponsor the journal "Glaucus" of the British Marine Life Study Society.
There remains sponsorship opportunities on the BMLSS (England) web site and other publications, including Torpedo.
Sponsorship is also available for the Adur Torpedo Electronic News Bulletin and the Shoreham-by-Sea web pages (which preceded the Adur Resource Centre web site), which would be more suitable for a local firm(s).
Web Site Design Services are available from Hulkesmouth Publishing
Normal
advertisement rules apply.
Submissions
accepted by EMail only.
Adur Torpedo was written, designed and distributed by Andy Horton.
INDEX
OF PREVIOUS ISSUES (Link)
