WILDLIFE
REPORTS
Rosehips,
Elder
Hawthorn
Adur
Thorn
Adur
Thorn 2022
24
August 2022
I
was glad to see Clouded Yellows
on Mill
Hill, but I stopped chasing them when
a Large Conehead
Cricket, Ruspolia
nitidula, parachuted down in front
of me to pose for photographs.
It is a scarce vagrant from southern Europe.
Adur
Grasshoppers & Crickets
Another
visit to the lower slopes of Mill
Hill was truncated because of my walking disability with at least one
each of Chalkhill Blue, Adonis Blue, occasional
Common
Blues, a restless Clouded
Yellow and two definite Small
Whites, frequent
Meadow
Browns
and
Small
Heaths, the latter two mostly at the top
of the southern steps.
19
August 2022
The
White
Storks mustered
on the mud banks at low tide and departed in two troops as the tide came
in. The next reports were received from France, on their migration south
to Africa.
.jpg)
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.
.jpg)
White
Storks
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.
18 August
2022
About
fifteen White Storks
roosted on Adur Railway Viaduct this
evening during a railway strike.
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.
.jpg)
Silver-spotted
Skipper on Greater
Knapweed
Lower
slopes of Mill Hill
12
August 2022
The
Met
Office (Shoreham) shade air temperature
attained 30°C
at 11 am.
4
August 2022
I
made a cursory visit to a breezy lower slopes of Mill
Hill, where about fifty restless male Chalkhill
Blues fluttered over a quarter acre transect.
A female crawled over the Horseshoe Vetch looking to lay her eggs. There
were smaller numbers of
Gatekeepers,
and Meadow
Browns,
a very clear Silver-spotted Skipper,
and occasional Common
Blues, a few Speckled
Woods and at least one Wall
Brown and one Red
Admiral. I also spotted two of my first
second brood Adonis Blues
of 2022,
3 August
2022
Only
a brief visit was made to the upper part of Mill
Hill where there were scores of
Common
Blue
Butterflies.
frequent Gatekeepers,
and Meadow
Browns,
two
Wall Browns one Chalkhill
Blue and a Large
White. I did not look too hard in
the breeze.
Illustrated
Report
.jpg)
Chalkhill
Blue
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.
Adur
Skippers
Carline
Thistle, Ploughman's Spikenard, Chalkhill
Blue
Silver-spotted
Skipper, Dwarf Thistle. Speckled
Wood
Mill
Hill
For
more new reports go to
Adur
Valley & Downs facebook
Shoreham
Birding facebook
Wildlife
& Conservation of Lancing, Sompting & Surrounds facebook
World
of Widewater
facebook
Sussex
Ornithological Society Sightings
Butterflies
of the Biosphere
Mill
Hill Nature Reserve on facebook
August
Reports 2021
Adur
Butterflies 2022
LINKS
Shoreham
Weather 2022
EasyTide
(Shoreham)
Adur
Nature Notes 2013 |
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