2005

Adur Flood Plain

Chalk Downs

Coastal Fringe

Intertidal (Seashore)

River Adur Estuary

Lancing Blogspot

Sea (off Sussex)

Town & Gardens

Widewater Lagoon

Lancing Beach

 
 

2004

Coastal Fringe

Chalk Downs: Mill Hill

Intertidal (Seashore)

River Adur Estuary

River Adur Flood Plain

Sea (off Sussex)

Town & Gardens

Widewater Lagoon

Lancing Ring (Nature)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Overview

Shoreham Beach is a shingle spit about three miles long, separated from town of Shoreham-by-Sea (Sussex) by the River Adur, which been has deflected eastwards by the longshore drift over the centuries. Wood and rock groynes have been installed to stabilise the moving shingle and to minimise erosion and prevent flooding. 
 

Coastal Wildlife 2006 (Link)

10 December 2005
At low tide on the sand on the beach by Widewater, two Oystercatchers and handful of Common Gulls were noted as nothing unusual with a score or more omnipresent Black-headed Gulls.

9 December 2005
On the pebbled shore by the Old Fort, there were a dozen Pied Wagtails in each of three directions when I looked east, south and west, as I was standing on the strandline littered with seaweed, whelk shells and dozens of whelk egg cases. There were about a hundred Starlings that rose as a flock and a handful of brown speckled pipits, probably Rock Pipits* searching for morsels amongst the debris washed up. (* These small brown birds were diffcult to pick out amongst the seaweed and pebbles and were only discovered after a scan with my binoculars. Because their legs appeared to be orangey or paler in colour and did not appear to be black, these could be Meadow Pipits?) 

8 December 2005
Nothing newsworthy to record on the pebbles adjacent to Beach Green, Lancing, where the usual two dozen plus Crows were scavenging and a few were dropping molluscs on to the rock sea defences. Pied Wagtails were prominent with a half a dozen seen on Lancing beach and more in Shoreham and Worthing. 

16 November 2005
A Snow Bunting was seen at Shoreham Old Fort on the west side of the entrance to Shoreham Harbour. The Sussex Ornithological Society classifies this bunting as a scarce passage migrant or winter visitor. 

15 November 2005
There were hundreds of Slipper Limpet chains, Crepidula fornicata, washed on the strandline on Southwick Beach. These molluscs were probably washed up during the gales last week as all the shells were dead and could be prised apart easily revealing the orange flesh inside. 

13 November 2005
A flock of at least seven Stock Doves*, Columba oenas, flew rapidly in off the sea in a very direct due north direction over Shoreham Beach Green and then over Shoreham town.
* I am unfamilar with these birds that looked different from a normal pigeon, faster in flight and smaller than Wood Pigeons, but larger than Collared Doves. The identification is only a best guess and has not been confirmed.

12 November 2005
Another Grey Phalarope was seen and photographed at the western end of Widewater Lagoon, Lancing until early afternoon when it flew off. Also two Black Redstarts and a late Wheatear on the beach.

29 September 2005
As more Wheatears were leaving: two were seen at the east end of Widewater, a Red Admiral Butterfly was seen flying directly and rapidly in off off the sea (at head height) by the Half Brick in east Worthing. This was the first time I was able to confirm a probable immigrant butterfly actually flying in off the sea like that. The wind direction was WSW.

19 September 2005
The sunset (7:15 pm) on a exceptionally low equinoctial spring tide on Lancing Green beach, was a thin ribbon of red sky that outlined Worthing Pier three miles to the west. Dark skies were illuminated by a huge* Full Moon rising in the eastern sky around 8:00 pm. 
(* the large size was an optical illusion.)
At the same time, a young Fox cocked his leg in the road just to the east of the Church of Good Shepherd and ran on to the shingle beach, where for a few seconds it was a silhouette on the brow of the pebbles where it was joined by another Fox only three metres apart before they both disappeared out of sight on to the beach below the high tide mark. 

12 August 2005
The unmistakable white rump of the Wheatear was just confirmation of at least three birds by Widewater about to embark on their long migration south for the winter. 
There was some Rock Rose just south-east of the Footbridge on the riverbank. 

3 August 2005
At least four greenish Wall Lizards, Podarcis, were seen skittering along the bottom of the flint walls of the Old Fort and one of them was seen poking its small head out of a brick-sized cavity at ground level. They will all far to quick and sudden to photograph. A male Common Blue Butterfly fluttered around the grasses by the Old Fort. There was a small mushroom as well. 
On Silver Sands, the Childing Pink, Petrorhagia  nanteuilii, had almost finished flowering and there were no double flowers to be seen. 

26 July 2005
An area of several square metres on or even below the high tide mark ws covered in prostrate green vegetation of the Spear-leaved Orache, east Worthing, west of the Brooklands outfall pipe. A plant of Great Lettuce was also recorded on the edge of the new cyclepath. 
Intertidal Report

16 July 2005
A very green Wall Lizard, Podarcis, was spotted on the Old Fort shingle near the remains of the fortress walls. 

14 July 2005
 

On Silver Sands on Shoreham Beach, the first double flower of the Childing Pink, Petrorhagia  nanteuilii, was recorded for this year. There are many less plants this year, not many more than thirty, as Kidney Vetch and other plants have invaded. A small patch of Rough Clover was recorded near the Old Fort. 

The temperature reached 25.1 ºC but the humidity never fell below 59% which was exceptional for a warm sunny day.

9 July 2005
The handful of smallish white butterflies discovered fluttering inside the stems of the Sea Kale on Lancing Beach (between Widewater and Lancing Beach Green) have been identified with difficulty as Small White Butterflies. These were not the only butterflies in flight and were outnumbered by larger white butterflies with black tips to their wings. About a dozen refused to settle, but the one that did was identified as a Green-veined White. There were no white butterflies observed over the sections of the beach (Worthing) that did not contain Sea Kale. 
Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List 2005

21 June 2005
On Silver Sands, Shoreham Beach, Kidney Vetch has invaded and almost taken over the designated Childing Pink, Petrorhagia nanteuilii, area, but these small mauve-pink flowers have spread to their preferred sandy habitat, an area between the Harbour Club and the river. They are not in double flower yet which is characteristic of this plant. The Kidney Vetch was just past flowering, and it was also found on the grass foreshore opposite the Lifeboat Station on the Shoreham Beach peninsular side of the Adur estuary. 
 

On Old Fort, a single Wall Lizard, Podarcis, poked his head out of a hole in the flint wall, for a fraction of a second three times. It was the only one spotted in the middle of the day. The large shingle plants of Tree Mallow, Red Valerian, Sea Kale, Viper's Bugloss  and Silver Ragwort spread our of the undisturbed shingle foreshore. Two species of ground hugging Stonecrops were in flower, with Bird's Foot Trefoil, but the expanse of Starry Clover, Trifolium stellatum, covering over a square metre had finished flowering. Thrift was fading. Black Medick (? ID ? Hop Trefoil) was even growing in cracks in the pavement. 
Old Fort Flora
Maximum temperature: 25.4 ºC

29 May 2005
The beach flora between Ferry Road and the Church of the Good Shepherd was looking very colourful with the introduced  Red Valerian, was set off by the Sea Kale and Silver Ragwort, with a few more naturalised garden plants like Spring Starflower, and natives like the Tree Mallow. 

28 May 2005
I noticed both the occasional taller White Campion near the concrete path by Widewater and the very common ground-hugging Sea Campion on the flood plain. 
 

Tree Mallow was in flower but this is on the beach margins near the Lancing Sailing Club. 

25 April 2005
Two Linnets and a pair of Goldfinches were seen on Shoreham Beach between Ferry Road and the Church of the Good Shepherd. 

c. 8 April 2005
Part of a fish skeleton was discovered on the strandline on Shoreham Beach, as shown in the photograph. There were at least half a dozen of these skulls of various sizes. 
 

The skeleton has not been positively identified, but the best guess is that it is a skull of the Lesser Spotted Dogfish, Scyliorhinus canicula.

5 April 2005
Lizards skittered around Cheal Close on Shoreham beach. The species was not identified. They could be Wall Lizards or Common Lizards. 

31 March 2005
On an overcast day when there was no sign of sunshine and the air temperature reached a maximum of 13.6 ºC, it was no surprise that that was no presence of the lizards on the walls of the Old Fort on Shoreham beach. 
The pebble beach by the Old Fort contained the usual prevalancy of Whelk eggcases, abundant on the strandline all along the coast, mollusc shells and just one badly damaged Mermaid's Purse. In its dry state it measured 62 mm long (excluding the horns) and it was probably the egg case of the Undulate Ray, Raja undulata, although a bit on the small side for this species. (It lacked the square appearance of the egg case of the Thornback Ray egg purses, Raja clavata,)
What does an eggcase look like? (Shark Trust link)

23 February 2004
Twenty Cormorants were counted standing on the groynes on east Worthing beach (near Brooklands). These numbers never seem to change much over the years, the most I have counted was 23 a few years ago. 

4 January 2005
 

Xanthoria parietina ?

The wooden fence separating the shingle from the concrete promenade (parallel with Widewater) has probably been there for over fifty years. There are two common and distinctive lichens growing well above high tide limit (in air laden with salt spray in the breeze that was steady Force 6  gusting to gales, with white crests to the foamy sea waves breaking up to a metre in height) and these were the yellow and blue-green species illustrated above. 
Adur Lichens

By the beach huts between Widewater Lagoon and the sea, a smallish brown pipit was feeding amongst the mosses on the shingle. It was very plump and healthy looking with strong dark brown breast, and it looked like it had less white tail feathers than the resident Meadow Pipits. I still did not get close enough to identify it properly. It was not so much that it was any less shy than usual and pipits occur on the beach most winters, but it was more easily observed through my binoculars and there was scant vegeation for it to hide in. As it flew away, it did not ascend Meadow Pipit fashion but there was a Strong Breeze (Force 6) off the sea, so this may have been the explanation. The legs were a pale and this is diagnostic of the Meadow Pipit. This small can vary in appearance according to the state of its moult and winter visiting birds often appear a richer brown than the locals (my observations only). 

Adur Coastal 2004

Adur Nature Notes 2005:   Index Page