EVENTS
WILDLIFE
REPORTS
24
February 2017
The
first frog spawn
is discovered in Shoreham garden ponds.
21
February 2017
The
authorities have decided to drain Brooklands
main lake leaving lots of exposed blackish
mud with small rivulets. Commotion in the very shallow rivulets was when
the large Carp
and smaller silvery fish disturbed
the surface. The Little Egret
threatens to have a bonanza with the small fish, but the large carp,
mostly a dark grey in colour, seem too large
even for Cormorants
and
Grey Herons to
swallow (neither were present). Coots
and Moorhens
waded in the mud and swam on a few shallow pools in the boating lake. A
pair of Little Grebes
dived under the Teville Stream
above the small weir. This stream was murky and nothing could be seen beneath
its surface. A small flow of water trickled over the weir into the main
muddy lake.
18
February 2017
A
pair of Little Grebes
were diving for food at mid-tide underneath the
Adur
Ferry Bridge. At Old Shoreham there were hundreds of mixed
gulls roosting, glistening white in the
sunshine that cast long shadows over the river mud.
A small clump of Gorse was
the only flowering colour.
16
February 2017
Just
the brief rays of the warm 10.2 °C
sun under a blue sky was a pleasant spring day that
brought out my first queen bumblebee, Bombus,
of the year. Daffodils
were flowering on the Saltings roundabout
(west of the Norfolk Bridge) and at the bottom of Parkside, north Shoreham.
Wall
Lizard
On
the carnot
south-facing walls of Shoreham
Fort, I managed a glimpse of three adult
Wall
Lizards, Podarcis
muralis, that quickly skitted
into holes in the flint and mortar. These
were the first reptiles I had seen this year. The
photographed lizard seems to be missing a leg.
15
February 2017
Crab
Apple "Red Sentinel"
Malus
x robusta or Malus baccata
A measured
732 metres due north (one minute flying time) of where the Waxwings
were spotted, five Wood Pigeons
occupied the tree of red berries in
the fading light of the late afternoon.
13
February 2017
6 February
2017
A
Robin
sang loudly from the bushes next to cyclepath in Old Shoreham, north of
the Tollbridge.
A Chaffinch
and a Great Tit
flew across the cyclepath from one bare hedge to another. The pastures
on both side of cyclepath at Old Shoreham were sodden with standing patches
of water that attracted a pair of Mallards.
The
towpath next to the River
Adur was
muddy. On mid-tide in the river, several hundred
Lapwings
were
seen on the mud on both sides of the
Tollbridge,
more than usually seen. The river hosted the usual gulls
and
about fifty Common Gulls on
the first bend upstream from Old Shoreham.
February
2016 Reports
Wild
Flowers 2017
Shoreham
Weather 2017
EasyTide
(Shoreham)
Shoreham
Beach Weather Station
Adur
Nature Notes 2013 |
