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LOCAL
NATURE RESERVES
EVENTS
WILDLIFE
REPORTS
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.
At least two Red-breasted
Mergansers were diving in Widewater and
one of them squabbled with a Black-headed
Gull as the drake
"sawbill" emerged almost under the gull.
Adur
Coastal
26
February 2008
A
Small
White Butterfly was seen in Lancing. This
was the first report of a Small White Butterfly
on these Nature Notes pages for the month of February,
now
making it six species seen locally in the second month of the year since
the start of the new millennium.
Adur
Butterfly Flight Times
Adur
Butterflies: First Dates
Adur
Butterfly List 2008
At
least a hundred yellow Coltsfoot
were flowering on the Downs
Link Cyclepath south of the derelict Shoreham Cement Works.
25
February 2008
The
first spawn
of the Common
Frog, Rana
temporaria, appeared in my garden
pond in Mill Hill Close, south of Mill
Hill, first thing in the morning.
23
February 2008
Two
batches of Common Frog spawn appeared
in the small pond in my back garden in south Lancing.
21
February 2008
My
first Common Frog, Rana
temporaria, of 2008
was seen just before 7:00 pm,
in darkness, on my front doorstep in residential Shoreham,
a few metres from my small pond. The frog
was a sub-adult. Frogs in Sussex are assumed
to hibernate during the winter.
We
have seen a female (I think its female) Common
Frog for about four weeks in the pond
and now a small male has replaced the female. Lots of Smooth
Newts, Triturus
vulgaris, were seen in and around
in the pond in Mill Hill Close for the
last two weeks.
13
February 2008
A
Small
Tortoiseshell Butterfly was seen flying
about my mother’s garden in Hawkins Close, Shoreham by Sea, in the early
afternoon in good sunshine. This
was the first local record of this species for 2008
and
the first ever for the month of February,
making
five species seen locally in the second month
of the year.
Adur
Butterfly Flight Times
Adur
Butterflies: First Dates
12
February 2008
There
was a single Golden Plover
with the hundreds of Lapwings
on Shoreham Airport, noted at 10.35 am
and again at 2.10 pm.
11
February 2008
A
male Brimstone Butterfly
settled on ivy on the wall outside my house in Mill
Hill Drive, Shoreham at midday.
This
was the first local record of this species for 2008.
Adur
Butterfly List 2008
10
February 2008
A
Glaucous
Gull was pointed out to me by the King's
Head, Southwick, on the Shoreham Harbour Canal
at 10.30 am.
The Long-tailed Duck
was showing at midday
on Widewater Lagoon.
Glaucous
Gull Description by Bernie Forbes
The
first Peacock Butterfly
of the year was seen in a sunny Lancing garden in the morning.
Around
midday
a vanessid butterfly
rose from the lower slopes of Mill
Hill and fluttered further up the slope so I had to chase it to identify
the good condition Peacock Butterfly
when it basked briefly in the weak sunshine with its wings open.
These
two are the first February
records on these Nature Notes pages for the Peacock
Butterfly, making four species seen in the
second month of the year.
The
first wild Sweet Violets
of 2008 were
seen on Mill Hill.
Adur
Butterfly Flight Times
Adur
Butterflies: First Dates
Adur
Violets
Cattle
Damage on Mill Hill Report
4 February
2008
After
the recent storm there was a mass stranding
on Lancing Beach east at low tide.
I braved the chill westerly breeze and found the usual 'Mermaid's
Purses' Dogfish Eggcases
(including three with embryos seen inside), Ray
Egg cases, orange
and white sponges, Whelk
shells and eggcases Buccinum, and
also hundreds of dead sea
anemones, including dead and alive Snakelocks
Anemones, Anemonia
viridis and larger Dahlia
Anemones, Urticina felina.
Adur
Coastal 2008
3 February
2008
Bounding
through the green arable field north of Cuckoo's
Corner (on the Coombes road north of Shoreham Airport), a buck
Roe
Deer, Capreolus
capreolus, was very frisky and I would
have a good view if the road was not bordered by trees. I could see clearly
enough to notice its antlers.
1 February
2008
Credit
is due to Ray
Hamblett for discovering a buried hibernating
Common
Lizard,
Zootoca vivipara, under a rotten log at the
top of McIntyres Field, north Lancing.
It was very difficult to see amongst the earth. Lesser
Celandine was seen flowering
for the first time on the verges of the Withy Gap Layby, north Lancing.
A Stonechat
was seen amongst the bushes between Widewater
Lagoon and the sea.
Adur
Lizards |
