BUTTERFLIES
 DRAGONFLIES
 HOVERFLIES
 BUMBLEBEES

Bumblebees
Hoverflies
Butterflies
Skippers
Solitary Bees
Adur Bees, Wasps & Sawflies
Flies
Ladybirds
Beetles
Moths
Burnet Moths
Hawk-moths
Grasshoppers & Crickets
Damselflies & Dragonflies
Bugs
Spiders

19 August 2022
The White Storks mustered on the mud banks at low tide and departed in two troops as the tide came in.

Eighteen White Storks paraded the low tideline by Shoreham Airport on a rather murky afternoon. They were almost certainly a part of a breeding programme of captive born birds released into the wild in Sussex. They were accompanied on the mudflats by a pair of Mute Swans and their troop of adult sized cygnets, frequent Greater Black-backed Gulls and Little Egrets.

The White Storks returned to the viaduct early in the morning and then, sadly, the first train (of very few today) startled them; they flew in a panic, and one was killed, falling into the river in a shower of feathers.

15 August 2022
Vegetation is very parched on the local downs and this has resulted in the lowest number and variety of August butterflies and other insects this century.

1 August 2022
On what should be the peak period for butterflies on Mill Hill, I recorded a mere 39 male Chalkhill Blues fluttering over a half acre transit of the lower slopes on a sunny humid afternoon, with similar numbers of Gatekeepers, and Meadow Browns, two separate Silver-spotted Skippers, and occasional Common Blues, a few Speckled Woods and White butterflies and at least one Wall Brown.

19 July 2022
It was a record breaking heatwave, the Met Office (Shoreham) shade air temperature attained  32°C at 1 pm, the highest recorded temperature this century, beating the previous record in 2020 by 1°C.
The air temperature reached 33°C at 5 pm.

18 July 2022
It was sunny and warm, the Met Office (Shoreham) shade air temperature attained  26°C at 3 pm.

Shoreham Weather Reports

10 July 2022
A sunny Sunday visit to the lower slopes of Mill Hill produced a handful of the first definite male Chalkhill Blues of the summer.  There were about a hundred butterflies of the common species in the transect acre, mostly Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns.

22 June 2022

21 June 2022

A large bird of prey cruised leisurely in a low level flight over the New Erringham pastures adjacent to the southern part of Mill Hill. Unfortunately, it almost immediately disappeared from sight because of a small undulation of the down. A few minutes later I saw it again as the bird reversed its direction of flight to flying west, parallel with the A27 and again out of sight. This time I was able to recognise it as a Red Kite from its definite forked tail.

The bright orange butterfly spotted yesterday was spotted again, but it flew away so quickly from the meadow south of the Reservoir, I was again unable to get a clear view of it. It was much larger than the usual suspects and was most likely to have been a Dark Green Fritillary. 

9 May 2022

A dozen male Adonis Blue Butterflies visited the abundant newly flowering Horseshoe Vetch, Hippocrepis comosa, on the lower slopes of Mill Hill in the early afternoon.

Early May 2022
There have been numerous reports of up to three Whimbrels on the River Adur at low tide within the Shoreham boundaries. 

17 April 2022
There were precious few flowers on the lower slopes of Mill Hill for a handful of Peacock Butterflies and two Dingy Skippers.
Adur Butterflies 2022

15 April 2022
In the afternoon on the River Adur between the Toll Bridge and the cement works, nine White Storks appeared and circled overhead for quite a while.

With the weak sunshine, the flying insects visited the flowers on the verges of the Waterworks Road, Old Shoreham. Most of them including three species of butterfly were seen by me for the first time this year.
Full List

12 April 2022
A White-tailed Eagle was forced to land in my Truleigh Hill garden by gulls and corvids harrying it.

22 March 2022

A Peacock Butterfly and a Small Tortoiseshell were attracted to a small Pussy Willow tree with its catkins on the road verge on the east side of Erringham Gap. The sun shined pleasantly under a blue sky. 14°C.
Pussy Willow Gallery
Adur Butterflies 2022

2 February 2022

An estimated 150 Lapwings roosted on the mud flats north of the Toll Bridge, Old Shoreham.

27 January 2022

Adur 2019 Reports

Shoreham Weather 2022

EasyTide (Shoreham)
 

Adur Nature Notes 2013