| EVENTS
7 August
2015
Rockpooling at
Shoreham Fort Beach
9:30
am start prompt to view the beach as the tide
falls to low tide at 11:00 am.
Join our resident marine biologist, Steve
Savage to collect and explore the myriad flora
and fauna of the pools that form as the tide goes
out. Children will be fascinated by the tiny fish and plants. Please wear
wellies or beach shoes and bring along plastic containers for your finds.
Members
are free otherwise £2 per child.
Beach
Art Competition follows
23
February 2015
"Life
Between the Tides" ANDY
HORTON, founder member of the British Marine
Life Study Society, introduces the fascinating world revealed at low
tide, how to enjoy a visit to a rocky shore,
the biology and behaviour of some of the most interesting examples of the
British fauna, concentrating on what can be discovered between the tides
on the Sussex coast. Andy is a freelance writer and photographer with a
specialist interest of the seashore around the British Isles, writing regular
monthly articles for the "Aquarist & Pondkeeper" magazine until it
ceased in 2000. He was editor of Glaucus, Shorewatch,
now replaced by the Torpedo News Bulletin, as
well as consultant for seashore books.
Horsham
Natural History Society
13
June 2015
Adur
World Oceans Day
World
Oceans Day was first declared as 8th June at the Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992.
Events
occurred all around the world on and around this day.
Adur
were one of the UK leaders in presenting the sixteenth environmental exhibition
of World
Oceans Day on Coronation
Green,
Shoreham-by-Sea.
The British Marine Life Study
Society present the usual exhibition of
lobsters
and crabs.
The Friends of Shoreham Beach (FOSB)
take an active role with their display of the wonders of Shoreham
Beach. Wildlife writer Steve
Savage presents the whale
and dolphin exhibition. Exhibitors
are available to find the time to answer questions about marine life.
Other
participants will include Southwick
Camera Club with an exhibition of seascapes and marine life.
World
Oceans Day on facebook
Adur
World Oceans Day on facebook
United
Nations: World Oceans Day
WILDLIFE
REPORTS
18
December 2015
Goose
Barnacles, Lepas
anatifera, have been washed ashore
in Dorset in the last few months and now the first strandings of the year
were found on Shoreham Beach, Sussex, left
by the recent high spring tides, washed ashore
attacked to floating objects, a small boat fender and on two bottles. The
Goose
Barnacles were probably alive when left on
the strandline with the usual wracks,
mollusc
shells, Mermaid's Purses,
cuttlebones,
etc., but died, or were dying (after ten minutes waiting for one or two
the filamentous cirri
or feeding tentacles to be seen moving), after being left high and dry
out of the water.
Goose
Barnacles ae a widespread large pelagicbarnacle
found attached to objects by their long stalk or peduncle in warmer seas
than around Britain and most likely have been blown on floating objects
across the Atlantic Ocean from the seas around the south-eastern United
States of America.
BMLSS
Beachcombing
BMLSS
Barnacles
28
September 2015
A Lunar
Eclipse was seen in the early hours of the morning when the Sun,
Earth and Moon were in syzygy.
Photographs taken at 11:19 pm; 2:09 am; 3:25
am; 3:27 am.
27
September 2015
Great Crested Grebe
Another
first for me, a Great Crested Grebe was
spotted on the flooded spring tide River
Adur by the Riverside Business Centre
(between the Railway Viaduct and the
Tollbridge).
It was difficult to photograph because it spent more than half the time
diving underwater. The black and grey plumage means this is a juvenile
diving bird.
25
September 2015
Cats
brought in two large caterpillars, one reported by Lorraine
Courant as green with white dots was most
likely the larva of a Lime Hawk-moth, Mimas
tiliae, and other one reported by
Trev
Smith was recognisable as the larva of
the Elephant Hawk-moth, Deilephila
elpenor.
Adur
Hawk-moths
16
August 2015
A special
planned trip to the downland west of Steyning promised much with an early
morning sun, but when we arrived clouds blotted out the sun and it was
too cool for the butterflies
to be active, but was good for photography if the butterflies could be
discovered. Credit to Mark Colvin
who spotted a Brown Hairstreak,
high up in a Sycamore,
next to the Ash
and Blackthorn.
It was the only one seen by a group of half a dozen searchers.
It was only the second one I had ever seen.
Adur
Butterfly Report
19
July 2015
Dark
Green Fritillary
Spectacularly
a pristine Dark Green Fritillary
stole the butterfly show in the sunny meadow
south of the Reservoir on Mill Hill. It
was blown a bit on the breeze and fluttered from one Greater
Knapweed flower
to another quite rapidly. Fourteen other butterfly
species included five male Chalkhill
Blues, new Peacocks,
new Comma Butterflies,
and the whirring Six-spotted Burnet Moths
seen for
the first time this year.
Mill
Hill Report
14
July 2015
On
a cloudy humid day, I spotted my first male
Chalkhill
Blue of the year on the lower slopes of
Mill
Hill at 1:43 pm.
It flew off after 31 seconds and visited
Self-heal,
followed by Eyebright,
and after four minutes flew strongly over the bottom hedge and disappeared
from view entirely.
Butterfly
Report
July
2015
26
June 2015
An
adult
Ringed Plover
was still present with the fledged juvenile which can now fly on the Shoreham
Harbour dock road beach.
June
2015
Shoreham
Beach
Mill
Hill
24
May 2015
Mill
Hill
A Buzzard
descended from the low-flying clouds and a Kestrel
hovered over the lower slopes of Mill Hill.
There were more butterfly watchers than actual butterflies,
10
May 2015
Green
Hairstreak
Mill
Hill
8 May
2015
Hawthorn
was beginning to flower.
7 April
2015
Blackthorn
was now flowering next to the Steyning
Road in Old Shoreham. A Small White Butterfly
briefly showed.
Adur
Butterfly List 2015
6 April
2015
A rare
appearance of a Red Kite
over Mill Hill
Photograph
by Etienne Fournier
5 April
2015
Easter
brought a spell of weak sunshine and an Adder
basked in air temperatures at 8.6 °Cin
the afternoon. It was curled up on a bed of grass by the steps going down
to the lower slopes of Mill Hill. It stuck
its forked tongue out and slithered off under the thorn. The coiled up
snake was my first reptile of the year. It seemed to have lost the end
of its tail end with regrowth, but I had only fifteen seconds before it
sensed me and quickly disappeared. There were a few bumblebees
and the inevitable flies
on the Alexanders,
but no still no butterflies in flight.
The first Dog Violets flowered
on the lower slopes of Mill Hill, with the Sweet
Violets much less than in previous years.
Green shoots of various herbs appeared through the layer of moss.
Adur
Violets
20
March 2015
A
partial Solar Eclipse
was viewable over the United Kingdom where the mostly hazy low cloud weather
allowed.
At Shoreham the clouds
parted for just 6 seconds at 9:21 am
2 March
2015
A
dolphin
was discovered washed up dead on Shoreham Beach near the Burrells. It was
is a decrepit condition and most likely to be a Common
Dolphin, Delphinus delphis.
BMLSS
Whales & Dolphins (by Steve Savage)
Juvenile
Redshank
22
January 2015
Barrel
Jellyfish, Rhizostoma octopus
Photograph
by Margaret
Burton
Two
large Barrel Jellyfish, Rhizostoma
octopus, were discovered washed up
on the shore at Lancing.
4
January 2015
First
butterfly
seen of the new year? It was seen at the Cat
and Canary Pub Downslink car park, Henfield,
a Peacock
fluttering around the parked cars.
I
recorded my first wild flower of the
year, a Lesser Celandine
in Southwick, previously seen last year on Christmas
Day 2014.
1 January
2015
The
New Year was heralded in by cold (6.5 °C
at midnight)
and dry weather. The wind rose to a constant Force
5 during the day.
The
first bird seen in 2015
was a Herring Gull swooping
over the roof tops.
Wild
Flowers 2015
Shoreham
Weather 2015
EasyTide
(Shoreham)
Shoreham
Beach Weather Station
Adur
Nature Notes 2013 |
