BUTTERFLIES
 DRAGONFLIES
 HOVERFLIES
 BUMBLEBEES

Bumblebees
Hoverflies
Butterflies
Solitary Bees
Adur Bees, Wasps & Sawflies
Flies
Ladybirds
Beetles
Moths
Grasshoppers & Crickets
Damselflies & Dragonflies
Bugs
Spiders

WILDLIFE REPORTS
 

June 2012
The Met Office reported the wettest June for over a century.
"Provisional Met Office figures for June show double the average amount of rain has fallen, making it the wettest June since records began in 1910." (Extract)
Shoreham Weather Reports

29 June 2012
A seal was reported swimming in the River Adur near the Norfolk Bridge. From past sightings it was probably a Common Seal, Phoca vitulina.

28 June 2012

The large 4 kg male European Lobster, Homarus gammarus, on display at Adur World Oceans Day 2012 was put into a large holding tank at Monteums Ltd, Shoreham-by-Sea, for captive study. There is an even larger (but not so heavy) female for a possible mating. 

27 June 2012
 

Meadow beneath Mill Hill	Eyebright & Bird's Foot Trefoil

On a humid overcast day, large swathes of Bird's Foot Trefoil were seen on the pastures and meadows below, above and on the middle slopes and upper plateau of MIll Hill. 
Mill Hill Report

26 June 2012
Eventually the breeze died down sufficiently so it was worth checking out the population of Childing Pink, Petrorhagia nanteuilii, on Silver Sands on Shoreham Beach. 
 
 

There were well a hundred single flowers showing and I eventually discovered just a single double flower with scores of the second flowers budding. This population of this scarce protected plant was thriving in numbers unprecedented this century. 

24 June 2012
There were not many butterflies on Mill Hill despite good conditions: two Meadow Brown, 17 Small Heaths and a Marbled White, (my first of the year), were recorded.

20 June 2012

A flash of red and my first Cinnabar Moth of the year flitted into some Cotoneaster on Spotted Orchid swathed southern bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting and completely disappeared. Later in the late afternoon, my first Meadow Brown Butterfly of the year also made an appearance fluttering strongly over the southern bank of the Buckingham Cutting. 
Full Butterfly & Moth Report
Adur Butterflies: First Dates (Worksheet)
 

15 June 2012 A "woolly bear" caterpillar of the Garden Tiger Moth, Arctia caja, crawled over the Marsh Marigolds in my front garden. The green speck is Duckweed. More have been seen in Shoreham Beach gardens and by the houseboats where they are known as Hairy Marys.  Adur Moths

14 June 2012
Just a footprint away, I nearly trod on an Adder on the lower slopes of Mill Hill, all coiled up basking under the clouds, before it slithered into the undergrowth before I could get my camera to focus. It was an adult grey snake with the distinctive black diamond markings and a chunky good looking specimen. 
 

Spotted Orchid	Bee Orchid	Southern  Marsh Orchid

Four species of orchid were now in flower in Shoreham: Spotted Orchids and the first budding Pyramidal Orchids mostly on the southern bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting, three of the already fading Southern Marsh Orchids on the southern bank of the Mill Hill Cutting, and the small but magnificent Bee Orchid on the verge on Mill Hill Road. 
Life Style of a Bee Orchid
 

Yellow Rattle	Common Eyebright	Broomrape

Parasitic plants were also appearing, notably on Mill Hill with the first appearance of the year of a species of Broomrape (possibly Knapweed Broomrape) and the first of the prevalent Yellow Rattle and the dimunitive Eyebright had come into flower. 
Mill Hill Report

Too cool (about 16 °C, Force 5) for butterflies to be active, I nevertheless recorded six species on Mill Hill and the approaches, with four moths disturbed or otherwise flitting about on the lower slopes of Mill Hill Nature Reserve. 
Full Butterfly & Moth Report

With the Horseshoe Vetch almost gone on Mill Hill, the large patches of yellow plants on the downs pastures and Adur Levels were Bird's Foot Trefoil. 
Wild Flower Picture Report

On the the first bend of the River Adur north of the A27 Flyover, a Grey Heron stood on the sandbank at low tide, but it flew off and away as soon as I pointed the camera in its direction. 
 

10 - 11 June 2012 The awful weather continues, this time with a deluge of rain in the south-east of England with the worst recorded at Shoreham weather station, with 24.6 mm recorded in 24 hours up until the end end of 10 June 2012, and according to BBC Radio 5, 55 mm fell in Shoreham over night.  Shoreham Weather News Reports

9 June 2012

The twelfth Adur World Oceans Day 2012 took place in the marquee on Coronation Green, by Shoreham Footbridge at the High Street end on the second Saturday of the Adur Festival. Len Nevell of the British Marine Life Study Society presented the usual exhibition of lobsters and crabs. The Friends of Shoreham Beach (FOSB) took an active role with their display of the wonders of Shoreham Beach. Wildlife writer Steve Savage presented the whale and dolphin exhibition with the life sized replica of a Bottle-nosed Dolphin.

Click on the image for more photographs of Adur World Oceans Day 2012

Waves from the south-west battering the Shoreham Harbour wall Photograph by Alec Trusler 8 June 2012 White caps appeared on the waves driven diagonally across the River Adur from the WSW in a constant Gale Force 7, gusting to Storm Force 10, constantly throughout the day without remission.  Shoreham Weather News Reports

7 June 2012 Three Common Starfish Asterias rubens, were found on the shore at Southwick, on the syenite rock defences on a low spring tide. One was on top of an algae covered boulder, another medium-sized one seemingly washed and dashed against the rocks and the third very small one was in a rockpool formed underneath a boulder. Thousands of small mussels had attached themselves to the huge boulders that form the sea defences.  Full Report BMLSS Echinoderms

Velvet Swimming Crab

4 June 2012 The wind died down and the sun shined weakly making ideal conditions. for a rockpooling visit to Worthing Pier on a low (0.4 metres) spring tide, which produced a surprise Common Brittlestar, Ophiothrix fragilis,as well as some infrequent summer occurrences like two large Velvet Swimming Crabs, Necora puber, a handful of small Common Hermit Crabs, Pagurus bernhardus, in winkle shells, a single Common Starfish Asterias rubens, one Dahlia Anemone, Urticina felina, one small Long-legged Spider Crab Macropodia rostrata, and one sub-adult 5-Bearded Rockling, Ciliata mustela.

A Greater Pipefish, Syngnathus acus, was rescued from the beak of a Herring Gull. Daisy Anemones, Cereus pedunculatus, were frequently found in chocolate brown hues. Snakelocks Anemones, Anemonia viridis, were common as usual with frequent Beadlet Anemones Actinia equina. 
Full Rockpooling Report
Brittlestars of Cornwall

3 June 2012
A steady Fresh Breeze (Force 5) was not conducive to the Shoreham Beach Wild Flower Photography Walk, organised by the Friends of Shoreham Beach (FoSB).

Swathes of Red Valerian in flower dominated the shingle on east Shoreham Beach with the contrasting leaves of Silver Ragwort which was beginning to bud, and the patches of Sea Kale which were showing their first flowers. Starry Clover, Trifolium stellatum,was flowering on the grass and herb banks of the Old Fort and on the shingle. The woody stems of Tree Mallow were impressive swaying wildly in the breeze. Two Wall Lizards, Podarcis muralis, skittered by the Old Fort, one over the shingle making for the safety of the wall and another large greenish one in the long grass near the west facing flint carnot wall.
Full Flower Walk Report

2 June 2012
A quick Adur World Oceans Day 2012 collection visit to Kingston Beach on a 0.8 metre low tide brought one notable discovery of a a Worm Pipefish, Nerophis lumbriciformis, under a rock. It could be mistaken for a thin strip of brown seaweed. There was also a fine first year Corkwing Wrasse, Symphodus melops. 
Full Rockpooling Report
BMLSS Worm Pipefish

1 June 2012
 

Dawn was sunny and a Speckled Wood Butterfly visited the Marsh Marigolds in my front garden for the second time this year and the second time in the last few days. But the sky filled with clouds before midday and the butterflies went into hiding. It needed a careful look to spot the first of the tiny Small Blue Butterflies this year, amongst the flowering Kidney Vetch on the southern bank of the Buckingham Cutting, where the Spotted Orchids were beginning to flower.
Adur Butterfly Flight Times
Adur Butterflies: First Dates
Full Butterfly Report
Adur Orchids

A very early start at 5:30 am to catch the roosting butterflies on the lowers slopes of Mill Hill; there were many roosting butterflies, mainly on clumps of tall grasses. Afterwards I did my weekly transect:

Adonis Blue male 92
Adonis Blue female 22  (total 114)
Common Blue 8
Small Heath 29
Small Copper 1

June 2011 Reports

Adur Nature Notes 2011