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 2009 Reports

15 December 2008
A Harbour Porpoise, Phocoena phocoena,  was washed up dead on the beach by Brooklands Boating Lake, east Worthing near the Lancing border. It was 1.5 metres long (adults attain a length of 2 metres). 

A gathering of forty Crows alerted me to a small wreck of Starfish, Asteria rubens, of several hundred were washed up on the strandline opposite the Burrells road. There were a frequent egg cases of the Lesser Spotted Dogfish, Scyliorhinus canicula, a few Whelks, Buccinum undatum, as well as the usual wreck of seaweed and Slipper Limpets, Crepidula fornicata. 

7 October 2008

1 October 2008

On the high spring tides the sea seeps under the shingle and forms a temporary seawater lagoon in a Lancing garden near the shore

8 September 2008
Large and heavily marked specimens of the Large White Butterfly were frequently seen, especially around the Sea Kale on Lancing Beach.
Adur Butterfly List 2008

19 August 2008
Much too late in the year, I checked out the Childing Pink, Petrorhagia nanteuilii, at Silver Sands on Shoreham Beach, and I saw just the one wind-damaged flower being blown about in the breeze. 

1 July 2008
A Swift flew hither and thither over Ferry Road on Shoreham Beach. A Burnet or Cinnabar Moth fluttered rapidly over the shingle and vegetation near the Old Fort. 
Adur Moths

24 June 2008
 

20 June 2008
 

On the shingle above the high water mark adjacent to Widewater Lagoon, there were very frequent to common (probably over a hundred) clumps of Viper's Bugloss dominating the vegetation in the area by the Beach Huts. A few clumps of Lesser Burdock and a single flower of Spear Thistle was seen amongst a clump, with Slender Thistle blown about in the breeze and Yellow-horned Poppy. 
 

Wild Carrot was recorded for the first time, although it seems likely it has been in flower for several weeks and just not noted down. There was one clump of flowers photographed on the above left and identified as Feverfew.
Adur Wild Flowers 2008

9 June 2008
About a dozen Common Blue Butterflies were seen fluttering over the Bird's Foot Trefoil on Shoreham Beach near the Old Fort, and a Large White Butterfly in the same area. No Wall Lizards were seen on the walls of the Old Fort, despite the sunshine. 
Adur Butterfly List 2008

3 June 2008
Cycling past Lancing Beach Green, I must have seen at least 70 Crows on the grass and beach huts and possibly more.
 

Plants in flower noted for the first time this year on Lancing Beach shingle and surrounds included Viper's Bugloss, Opium Poppy, Yellow-horned Poppy, Silver Ragwort and Slender Thistle. The seed heads of Goat's Beard were very noticeable on the borders of the shingle and cyclepath. And Tree Mallow by a gate marked Lancing Point to the west of Lancing Sailing Club. The sole butterfly seen on the day was a Large White in the same area as the Tree Mallow. 
 

22 May 2008
A male Common Blue Butterfly fluttered over the expanses of Bird's Foot Trefoil, with plenty of Sea Kale, Ivy-leaved Toadflax and Thrift in flower with Sea Campion, Scarlet Pimpernel, Sow Thistle, all prominent on the Widewater flood plain near the pipeline inlets. Small White Butterflies were frequently seen amongst the flowering Sea Kale and the occasional Large White was noticed. 

6 May 2008
On the Old Fort, Shoreham Beach, the fleeting glimpse of a Wall Lizard, Podarcis muralis, skitting into the undergrowth next to the sun-baked south-facing flint surround wall was the first of the year. Sea Kale and Tree Mallow were in flower near the Old Fort. These plants had probably been in flower for a few days, perhaps even a week or longer before I noted them. A clump of flowering Bird's Foot Trefoil was seen on the shingle to the west of the Old Fort, but a few metres before the houses.
Adur Lizards

5 May 2008
Red Valerian was prominent on Shoreham Beach and Sea Thrift was noted just east of Lancing Sailing Club for the first time in the wild this year.

8 April 2008
Another Wheatearflew over Lancing Beach Green. 

7 April 2008
A pair of Tufted Ducks swam on Brooklands Boating Lake, with a few of the usual Mallards and Coots seen in passing. 
Almost all the snow had melted on the shingle. My first immigrant Wheatearof the year flew over Lancing Beach Green. 

17 March 2008 
After the storms and the report of a mass stranding of Common Starfish, Asteria rubens, on Brighton Beach, I inspected the strandline on Shoreham Beach. All along the strandline there was a greater number of hundreds of thousands of Slipper Limpets and tens of thousands of Whelk egg balls amongst the usual mixed shell collection including Whelks and Oysters and frequent lumps of Tertiary Lignite (sea coal). One Undulate Ray eggcase looked in good condition and was placed in an aquarium in case the embryo was still alive. There were a few dozen dead Starfish at the Old Fort, but not the hundreds reported from Brighton beach. 

To qualify as nationally newsworthy a Starfish stranding must be in tens of thousands. 

Starfish on the beach in Kent (March 2008)
BMLSS Common Starfish
Sussex Marine Life Reports

The small Danish Scurvygrass, Cochlearia danica, was recorded in flower in several places on Shoreham Beach.

12 March 2008
A clump of Spring Starflower, Ipheion uniflorum, (an alien species) was blown about in the gusts to Gale Force 9 on Shoreham Beach. There were several clumps of Wild Turnip, Brassica rapa, (possibly arable escapes) scattered about on the shingle. 

27 February 2008
There upwards of fifty Turnstones resting on a single syenite rock groyne on the shore south of the eastern end of Widewater at high tide.

5 February 2008
Almost all the wood has now been removed from Shoreham Beach. It was all stacked up in a large pile on the Old Fort land. 

4 February 2008 

23 January 2008
 

Two 'Mermaid's Purses', containing the eggs or young of the Lesser-spotted Dogfish, Scyliorhinus canicula, were found lying amongst the timber and seaweed debris on the strandline of Shoreham Beach. A Meadow Pipit hopped around the beach huts on the shingle bank south of Shoreham Beach Green and then rose and flew away with its characteristic pipit flight. 
BMLSS Molluscs

21 January 2008

Timber from the Greek-registered Ice Prince, which sank about 26 miles (42 km) off Dorset after a storm on 15 January 2008, began getting washed up on Lancing beach in the evening of 19 January 2008 and tonnes of pine planks littered the local beaches from 20 January 2008. The usual debris was on the strandline including an Undulate Ray, Raja undulata, eggcase illustrated above. It measured 67 mm long and 48 mm wide. A few Pineapples were also washed up. 
BMLSS Marine Wildlife News (Winter 2008)
BMLSS Eggcases

11 January 2008

BMLSS Molluscs
BMLSS Polychaete Worms
 

Coastal Wildlife 2007 (Link)