BUTTERFLIES
 DRAGONFLIES
 HOVERFLIES
 BUMBLEBEES

Valley and Flood Plain from of the River Adur

River Adur tidal reaches 

Sussex downland on both sides of the River Adur,
including Mill Hill Nature Reserve

Extensive urban area including the coastal towns of Shoreham, Southwick and Lancing, and the inland town of Steyning and countryside villages

Rich marine, seashore, shingle beach and lagoon habitats

Bumblebees
Hoverflies
Butterflies
Solitary Bees
Adur Bees, Wasps & Sawflies
Flies
Beetles
Ladybirds
Moths
Dragonflies

July 2005 This Shepherd's Crown Conulus sea urchin fossil was discovered in my garden at the  Cokeham Reed Beds, Lancing.   Report by June Bratton on flickr

31 July 2005
The expected of glut of Chalkhill Blue Butterflies on the lower slopes of Mill Hill was not visible in the light rain (heavy enough to impair vision). I saw just 31 on Mill Hill before I hurried for shelter. 
Butterfly List for the Day

29 July 2005
The first immigrant Painted Lady Butterflies, in the Adur area this year, were seen on the farm track (north of Shoreham-by-Sea) between New Erringham Farm and Southwick Hill.

Snakes cannot hear (although they can sense vibrations). This can be unfortunate for them if they choose to bask on tarmac roads, and this may explain the death of a Grass Snake on the Waterworks Road directly underneath the A27 Flyover Bridge (at the foot of the old Mill Hill). The snake was a bit flattened and it measured approximately 65 cm (over two foot) in length. 
A brown butterfly fluttering in the Gentle Breeze (Force 3) in Williams Road, a residential part of Shoreham, turned out to be a Wall Brown Butterfly. This not a species usually expected in town. 
Butterfly List for the Day
Cement Works Cliff Images

27 July 2005
It was a misty moisty morning (especially over the sea) and the heat was energy-sapping as well, rising from 16.2 ºC and 94% humidity at 8:00 am to 21 ºC and 85% humidity at 3:00 pm. These figures appeared to show exceptional conditions, as rarely is the high humidity combined with warm temperatures. 
Shoreham Weather Station History

26 July 2005
A low tide visit to the seashore littered with rocks just west of the Brooklands waste pipe showed little variety. Snakelocks Anemones, Anemonia viridis, were common (100+) but other than that there were a dozen Squat Lobsters, Galathea squamifera, and the usual common crabs and other crustaceans. 
 

Snakelocks Anemone	Hairy Crab, Squat Lobster and Long-clawed Porcelain Crab

The Hairy Crab (a true Brachyuran crab) has two claws (chelae) of unequal size, and the very small Long-clawed Porcelain Crab could hide under a 5 pence coin and has only eight visible legs (including its claws) indicating that this crab is actually an Anomuran. 

Adur Intertidal

25 July 2005
After the rain, there was an uncommon sea anemone Sagartiogeton undatus recorded at mid-tide level on Kingston Buci beach at the entrance to Shoreham harbour.

One of the Meadow Grasshoppers, Chorthippus parallelus, on the Slonk Hill Cutting southern bank, sported a fine purple livery. 
Adur Grasshoppers

23 July 2005

Two Southern Hawker Dragonflies sparred over the Waterworks Road. Seven Comma Butterflies were seen in about three minutes. 
Report with Images

22 July 2005
The morning started with a clear blue sky with fluffy white cirrus clouds, but by 11:00 am the sky had become grey and overcast. This meant the butterflies tended to be less active and would be in hiding, but, in theory, should not be so lively when they were discovered. Gatekeepers were the most numerous but the Chalkhill Blues were already common on the the lower slopes of Mill Hill. 
 

Wall Brown	Marbled White	Chalkhill Blue

Although all of the Chalkhill Blues had to be almost trodden on to get them airborne, they were still very restless and took a long time to settle. Common Blue Butterflies were identified positively on the Slonk Hill Cutting only, and a Wall Brown nectared on a Greater Knapweed on Mill Hill. Marbled White Butterflies (18) favoured the upper slopes of Mill Hill. Fourteen species of butterfly were seen during the day. 
Butterfly List for the Day

21 July 2005
A Brimstone Butterfly was seen in south Lancing in the warm sunny morning. In my south Lancing garden a Holly Blue and a Gatekeeper fluttered around and the Large Whites found the cabbages. 

A Peacock Butterfly is unusual butterfly for mid-July. The one seen briefly in the Butterfly Copse (next to the Waterworks Road) was faded, but not worn, and flew off strongly and rapidly. 
Butterfly List for the Day
Adur Levels 2005

18 July 2005

Every summer Grass Snakes visit our garden in West Way at the western end of the Hasler Estate in south Lancing. Our garden backs onto the open low-lying scrub land next to the access road from the roundabout by the Royal Coach PH and Shoreham Airport. This scrub is traversed by a freshwater stream with reed beds. In this study the snake was basking on the patio.

16 July 2005
ABluefire Jellyfish, Cyanea lamarckii, was seen in the shallows off Shoreham Beach. 

This species has not been recorded recently off the Sussex coast although it has been discovered in the shallow seas around the rest of Britain. It is one of the lesser known jellyfish that frequent the seas around the British Isles, although there have been more than the usual number of reports from other shores this year. 
BMLSS Jellyfish

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

15 July 2005

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. 

13 July 2005
At least 62 adult Mute Swans were counted on the Adur estuary including two families with a total of seven cygnets. 
 

A female Stag Beetle, Lucanus cervus, was spotted crawling slowly across the pavement outside Lidls store in Worthing next to a busy road. As it was in imminent danger of being squashed, it was transferred to a garden in Lancing. 
Adur Beetles

Meadow Browns, Small/Essex Skippers and Gatekeepers were common (over 100 of each), widespread and ubiquitous butterflies on wasteland. On Lancing Ring meadow, Meadow Browns were abundant (over 1000 per hour) and Small/Essex Skippers very common (over 500 per hour).
Butterfly List for the Day
Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List 2005

12 July 2005
Under the clear blue sky, there were between 30 and 40 Swallows swooping low over St. Giles Close, south of Southlands Hospital, Shoreham. 
Shoreham Town & Gardens

On the lower slopes of Mill Hill, the fresh male Chalkhill Blue Butterflies were out and I counted twenty of them over an area of 400 metres, but this is just the beginning of them. Other butterflies were common, both Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns numbered over a hundred in an hour and Small/Essex Skippers numbered nearly a hundred in the same time period.

Butterfly List of the Day

11 July 2005
Over a dozen (probably nearer twenty) Swifts swooped low and glided over the Hamm Road Allotments, Shoreham town. The first second brood Wall Brown Butterfly was seen on the Coastal Link path near the Toll Bridge. 
The air temperature attained 27.6 ºC.
Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List 2005

10 July 2005
The small yellow and black hoverfly Chrysotoxum bicinctum was discovered on the Slonk Hill Cutting (southern bank) in the hedges. 

9 July 2005
A female Broad-bodied Chaser (dragonfly) is discovered emerging from a garden pond south of Mill Hill in Shoreham. 

8 July 2005
I have finally concluded that the dragonfly on the Waterworks Road was a Southern Hawker. Two Chalkhill Blue Butterflies may have emerged on the lower slopes of Mill Hill but they flew away much too quickly to be sure of their identity.Six-spot Burnet Moths were emerging and about a dozen Ringlet Butterflies were confirmed on the Slonk Hill Bank Cutting (south).
Butterfly List for the Day
Adur Butterflies: First Dates

7 July 2005
Only the second Ringlet Butterfly positively recorded on the Adur Nature Notes pages was discovered on the Slonk Hill Cutting (southern bank) and spotted amongst the long grass and faded Spotted Orchids on a day that was too breezy (Force 5) for butterflies. 

A yellow and black Soldier Fly Stratiomys potamida was discovered on a Stinging Nettle on the Waterworks Road with a hoverfly Volucella pellucens.

Previous Record of a Ringlet
Soldier Fly Report and Image
Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List 2005
Adur Butterfly Flight Times

6 July 2005
An astonishing 16 Comma Butterflies were seen on the Waterworks Road (Old Shoreham), and these excluded the possibility of counting the same butterfly twice. Other butterflies seen in the day included one Large White, one Large Skipper, three Small (or Essex) Skippers, two Green-veined Whites, one Gatekeeper, one Red Admiral, six Meadow Browns and four Small Tortoiseshells. 
Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List 2005

5 July 2005

Swallows have taken up a hunting site around an Elm tree at the edge of Malthouse Meadow, Lancing. Three juveniles were taking time out to rest on the back of a bench sited beneath the tree.
Butterly List for the Day

Four cygnets are observed with their Mute Swan parents on Widewater Lagoon. The previous offspring of seven and six cygnets respectively all perished earlier in the year. At least two Little Egrets were feeding in the flooded lagoon. 
On the Adur estuary at low tide, opposite Shoreham Airport, a minimum of 55 adult Mute Swans were counted with at least one Little Egret. 

3 July 2005
A magnificent dragonfly settled on a pine tree on the southern edge of the copse on the top of Mill Hill. It was a female Southern Hawker looking very fresh and dangerous to other insects. My impression was that this was possibly a different dragonfly species to the one seen on 1 July because it was not quite so active on its patrols and this one appeared slightly smaller with less of a green thorax. However, these differences could be explained by my failure to get a good look at the first one. 

Two butterflies made their first appearance of the year just after midday, the Gatekeeper amongst the hedges and taller undergrowth on the southern side of the Slonk Hill Cutting, and the first confirmed record of a Small Skipper that settled and could be positively identified in the same area where there were a dozen of these restless small skippers.
 

Butterflies were common with over a hundred seen in the first 30 minutes, although three-quarters of these were the ubiquitous Meadow Browns, which comprised about two-thirds of the butterflies on the day.
Butterfly List for the Day
Adur Butterflies: First Dates
UK Leps (Yahoo Group)

1 July 2005
A large dragonfly was patrolling like before on the eastern verge above the Stinging Nettles, about 30 metres north of where the footpath crosses the Waterworks Road (Old Shoreham) at the southern end. It estimated speed must have been about 19 mph, and it visibly wilted after it was hit by a rain drop and then darted under the hidden cover of the Sycamore wood as the rain poured down. However, this time I was able to get a slightly better view and I would still estimate the total length of the dragonfly to be at least 75 mm. The thorax was bright green but the abdomen was now seen to be dark blue patterns on a white background and without any yellowish tint on an overcast day. 
This large dragonfly is either a female Emperoror a female Southern Hawker, and I have had this identification problem without resolving it at least three times before.  The size is difficult to estimate with such rapid and unceasing flight.
Previous Report
Adur Damselflies and Dragonflies
 
 

Adur Butterfly Flight Times

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List 2005