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. 
 

Sea Beet Sea Campion
	Turnstones on Shoreham Beach

Reports 2008

4 December 2007
On the strandline of Shoreham Beach, I discovered an intact shell (=test) of the Purple-tipped Shore Urchin, Psammechinus miliaris, on the strandline. Discoveries are unusual because this urchin is scarce intertidally and because the test is very fragile and gets quickly bashed to bits. The sharp spines had all broken off. 
 

There were thousands of Slipper Limpets and frequent Whelk, Buccinum,shells seen in a few minutes as I was buffeted by the breeze. 
BMLSS Echinoderms

24 November 2007
A half a dozen Oystercatchers trotted over the rock defences on the seaward side of Widewater Lagoon. 
 

On the shingle beach, aMeadow Pipit fed in the landward side of the beach huts. It showed a olive green hue which is not all that clear in the photograph on the right.This bird was contrasted to a taller and slenderer Rock Pipit seen on the Sea Purslane on the edge of the River Adur on 22 November 2007.

14 November 2007
At least 25 Turnstones took off from Lancing Beach. Thrift, Dandelions, Ragwort and Hawkweeds were still seen in flower around the Old Fort. A Rock Pipit perched on the flint and brick of the Old Fort long enough to recognise it to species. And a Red Fox defecated in broad daylight amongst the bushes of the most easterly roundabout along Old Fort Road. 
 

8 November 2007 Plants in flower along the cyclepath by Widewater spotted as I cycled past included Red Valerian (one), Viper's Bugloss, Cow Parsley, Yarrow, Hawkweeds, Scentless Mayweed and a Wallflower, Lobularia maritima. This was a garden escape. It is native to the Mediterranean region and Macaronesia (Canary Islands, Azores).   ID of Wallflower by Ray Hamblett on  flickr ID by species by CA Floristics on  flickr

There was again a dozen Turnstones on Lancing Beach trotting along the extra lorry loads of shingle that had been deposited to protect the shore. 

26 October 2007
About 10:30 am, there apppeared to be about a dozen Turnstones on Lancing Beach, but when disturbed a flock of about 35 rose and the flock swirled in a slight curve before settling thirty metres to the east. One Wheatear (over the shingle by the Golden Sands Caravan Park in Lancing) showed its white tail and there were a dozen plus Meadow? (or Rock) Pipits which occasionally perched on the wooden groynes. I looked out to sea for the seal, but I could only spot two Cormorants on the surface and actively diving under. 

26 September 2007
Two Wheatears flew over the shingle by the Golden Sands Caravan Park in Lancing.

11 September 2007
 

In the warmth (20.4 ºC) of the midday sun, the six Wall Lizards, Podarcis muralis, seen on the Old Fort on Shoreham Beach were particularly lively clambering much further up the wall on two occasions than I had ever seen them do before, with behaviour uncharacteristic of the Common Lizard. One Wall Lizard basked on a ledge right near the top of the wall and another skittered that high before disappearing around to the shady side and out of view. A male Common Blue Butterfly fluttered by and then settled. 
Adur Lizards

5 September 2007
A faded Painted Lady Butterfly fluttered over Shoreham Beach Green on the green open space by the toilet block. 
Adur Butterfly List 2007

3 September 2007
The summer seems to be over even before it has started; three Wheatears were seen on Lancing Beach by Widewater, feeding amongst the vegetation before making their long flight south. Their white tail feathers were most noticeable as they flew from one wooden post to another. 
 

3 September 2007 This plant was seen on the pebbles on Shoreham Beach by (north of) the beach huts by the toilet block on Shoreham Beach Green. This looks like the Broad-leaved Everlasting-pea, Lathyrus latifolius. Flora of Shoreham-by-Sea (List)

Broad-leaved Everlasting-pea,  Lathyrus latifolius.

July 2007
I have discovered Starry Clover, Trifolium stellatum, growing in my garden at 58 Riverside Road, Shoreham Beach. I know it used to grow at my mother's house at 49 Riverside Road but it was killed off by flooding river water.  Other nearby locations have been "developed".

4 July 2007
I walked Shoreham Beach from the Old Fort to Widewater, and back via Shoreham Harbour. Four adult and one flying young Ringed Plovers were spotted not far west of the Old Fort, nine Sandwich Terns on Southwick Beach and odd ones at sea, a Rock Pipit at the Old Fort, and a total of 16 Sand Martins flying west into the wind. From the town Footbridge two more Sandwich Terns, one Yellow-legged Gull and one Oystercatcher. By the houseboat creek there were ten Redshanks, a Lapwing and a Common Sandpiper with another by the Toll Bridge. A total of seven Little Egrets were encountered.

9 June 2007 
A Painted Lady Butterfly fluttered around the Red Valerian just south of the Footbridge. 

23 May 2007
An exceptionally green and heavily gravid female Wall Lizard, Podarcis muralis, skittered out from a clump of Sea Kale on the shingle part of Shoreham Beach south of Shingle Road. Apparently, they are often seen in this area and in the gardens of the houses and the school grounds in the same road. 

NB: I have also received past reports from two separate reliable sources of a green lizard brought in by a cat and lots of unidentified lizards in a garden (by a visitor not the owner) from the same area. 
Lizard Reports and Comparisons

21 May 2007

16 April 2007
A Peacock Butterfly landed on the flint wall of the Old Fort and a Holly Blue Butterfly fluttered over Ferry Road. In the sunshine just one Wall Lizard was seen on the Old Fort, skittering from the grass over the pebbles to the flint wall. 
Thrift, Red Valerian, Ragwort and Sea Campion were beginning to flower.

26 March 2007
Garden escape plants in flower decorate the higher (furthest from the sea) shingle parts of Shoreham Beach including Spring Starflower, Ipheion uniflorum, Grape Hyacinths, the first Bluebells of the year and Narcissus. 

11 March 2007
At least 21 adult Wall Lizards, Podarcis muralis, were spotted on the flint wall of the Old Fort, Shoreham Beach, basking in the sunshine and displaying far more energy that I had ever seen before with one lizard skittering right up to the top of the wall. With an air temperature of 14.4 ºC at 1:53 pmit was the warmest day of the year so far. 
Adur Lizards
 

A rather dark Peacock Butterfly fluttered in the sunshine over the Old Fort.
Adur Butterfly List 2007

26 February 2007
At mid-tide (with sand showing) about fifty (estimated) Sanderlings flew in a tight flock over the sea opposite Brooklands. 

25 February 2007
Danish Scurvygrass, Cochlearia danica, burst into tiny flowers on Shoreham Beach between Ferry Road and the row of beach huts to the west. 
Flora of Shoreham-by-Sea

24 February 2007
A dead Gannet, a dead Puffin, and other sea birds, together with miscellaneous cargo debris were discovered washed up on Shoreham Beach. Dozens of pens, car parts, chocolate boxes and bars were seen. These two sea birds are not usually washed ashore in Sussex in such a fresh condition. 

If these are as a result of the deliberate stranding of the container ship 'Napoli' off Dorset, the cargo and pollution must have spread all along the south coast. However, no reports have been received of other debris. 

BMLSS Strandline Reports

18 February 2007
Nine Oystercatchers on a wooden pier in the Shoreham Harbour entrance at high tide was unusual. They appeared to be feeding and the only obvious prey was the Bilge Bug, Ligia oceanica. Two or three Turnstones were foraging on the strandline by the Old Fort and scores of Pied Wagtails were seen snapping up small insects on the shore. 
 

The usual natural debris of millions of Slipper Limpets, hundreds of Whelk egg masses, Tertiary Lignite (sea coal) seaweed, and the occasional Cuttlebone were washed up on the shore, the day that a 12 metres long motor yacht caught fire out on a calm sea and the smoke rose vertically as there was little to no wind. 

6 February 2007
A brightly coloured Stonechat was seen over the shingle beach near the Church of Good Shepherd. Lancing. 

24 January 2007
South-east England woke after an overnight flurry of snow and Shoreham was no exception with a layer in Shoreham town and even on the beach pebbles and in the countryside.
 

As the air temperature was always above freezing and the dew point only just below zero Celsius, so by the early afternoon much of the snow had melted.
Shoreham Weather Highlights 2007
 

Coastal Wildlife 2006 (Link)
 
 

BMLSS Molluscs
BMLSS Marine Gastropods