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
 

30 June 2014

As the high tide lapped against the Sea Purslane near the banks of the River Adur at Old Shoreham, a shoal of tens of thousands of first year juvenile Grey Mullet milled around in the shallows just south of the Toll Bridge. There was another shoal of a similar size on the first bend in the river further north. 
Teasel plants appeared on the verges of the cyclepath in Old Shoreham, showing the capitulum (pseudanthium or flower head) but not yet the purple flowers.
Adur Teasels

29 June 2014

Two Bar-tailed Godwits arrived on the muddy margins of the River Adur (opposite the Airport, near the Toll Bridge) just before midday as the tide came in. 

26 June 2014
Road verges can often be productive in wild flora and fauna, and the road verge south of Buckingham Barn is conveniently located within the Shoreham town boundaries. On an overcast afternoon, the butterflies were not very lively, but two Meadow Brown Butterflies were seen immediately followed a minute or so later by a settled Large Skipper and a restless Marbled White. 
 

Spotted Orchid	Large Skipper	Pyramidal Orchids

Then nothing for quarter of an hour until I glimpsed a bright Red Admiral over the Brambles to the south of the path. I was pleased to spot the Large Skipper as I only see a handful very year, but more surprised by my earliest ever Gatekeeper in the long grass and dense vegetation. I had to chase it around to confirm its identity as a fresh male specimen. 
Adur Butterflies: First Dates
Adur Butterfly List 2014

23 June 2014
The slow looping flight of a butterfly on the southern bank of the A27 opposite Slonk Hill was characteristic of my first Ringlet Butterfly of the year. Despite its languid flight it fluttered over a lot of the verge meadow, over the last of the Spotted Orchids, and there were at least ten seen on a sunny mid-afternoon. 
 

Ringlet Butterfly

I also spotted my first Burnet Moth of the year in flight. As I was leaving Buckingham Cutting south I spotted by first of the year of the most impressive of hoverflies Volucella zonaria. 
Adur Butterflies: First Dates
Adur Butterfly Report

19 June 2014
On a hazy day I took an unplanned trip to Mill Hill where the lower slopes were covered in the white flowers of a massive invasive growth of Privet bushes. June is not a particularly good month for the variety and numbers of butterflies but I was pleased to disturb at least twenty Marbled Whites in the long grass in the middle of the lower slopes. These were the last of six species of butterfly on a very brief visit to the outskirts and the downs.
 

Marbled White on Privet	Eyebright & Bird's Foot Trefoil	Southern Marsh Orchid

Three species of orchid were seen on the Mill Hill Cutting SE bank: Common Spotted Orchid, Pyramidal Orchid and Southern Marsh Orchid. 
Adur Butterflies: First Dates
Adur Butterfly Report

10 June 2014
A flash of turquoise in the roadside woods by Ladywell's Stream, on the Coombes Road, was a Kingfisher flying  straight like an arrow. This stream on the eastern side of the road hosted Sticklebacks and I noted an Azure Damselfly, Coenagrion puella, on the streamside vegetation. At Cuckoo's Corner Ladywell's Stream ran rapidly out to the sea; amongst the trees that bordered the bank, two flashes of dark blue were two male Banded Demoiselles, too far away to photograph. A very fresh Speckled Wood Butterfly was seen at Cuckoo's Corner.
Adur Pyralids
Adur Damselflies

9 June 2014
On the lower slopes of Mill Hill, I spotted my first Large Skipper and first Meadow Brown Butterfly of the year. The beginning of June is often devoid of butterflies and apart from a dozen Brimstones, about eight Common Blues on the lower slopes, half a dozen Small Heaths and that was the lot seen around midday. 
 

Small Heath Butterfly	Large Skipper

On the middle slopes there was another very white Brimstone and my second Meadow Brown, and on the top of hill another Common Blue. South of the Reservoir I spotted my first two Cinnabar Moths of the year. 
Adur Butterfly List

7 June 2014
A male Common Blue Butterfly was spotted south of the carnot wall of Shoreham Fort, but it was the unexpected appearance of an early immigrant Hummingbird Hawk-moth, Macroglossum stellatarum, flying just in front of my feet that was most unexpected. I don't think I have seen one so early in the year before. 
Adur Moths
 

Little Egret	Common Blue Butterfly

A Little Egret stalked the rock pools at low tide, feeding avidly on small fish (larger than a stickleback though) at a rate of about six a minute, until prompted to take flight at the sound of gunfire. 

4 June 2014
A single Peregrine Falcon perched on a ledge on the Shoreham Harbour Power Station chimney on a ledge where the nest box used to be. (The nest box was not reinstated because of the death toll of the fledgings made it an unsuitable location.)
It was a low neap tide and just about suitable for a brief morning spell of shrimping (using Peter Talbot-Elsden's second smaller shrimp net) in the light rain at Southwick Beach. There were hundreds of Brown Shrimps, Crangon crangon, including at least half of very small ones that were probably hatched this year, about a dozen Pennant's Swimming Crabs (the little speckled ones) Portumnus latipes, two South-clawed Hermit Crabs, Diogenes pugilator,  two very small Lesser Weevers, Echiichthys vipera, an almost white Shore Crab Carcinus meanas, a very small Solenette (Slipper Sole), Buglossidium luteum, and dozen small flatfish fry.

2 June 2014
A bit later than in most years, I discovered my first Small Blue Butterflies of the year on my first visit to the southern road bank opposite Buckingham Barn, north Shoreham. 
 

Small Blue Butterfly	Common Spotted Orchids	Yellow Rattle

These tiny butterflies were hiding in the tall vegetation in the late afternoon, but after four minutes I spotted the first pair of about ten butterflies basking on some green leaves. Kidney Vetch was beginning to flower nearby (caterpillar plant of the Small Blues) with a spiky display of Common Spotted Orchids and a first glimpse of the yellow flowers of Yellow Rattle. 
Adur Butterflies: First Dates
Adur Butterfly List 2014
Adur Orchids

1 June 2014
My first Swift of the year was flying to and from above Ham Road, Shoreham, at the western end over the town. 

Flowers on Shoreham Beach were blossoming in the sunshine for the annual Friends of Shoreham Beach Wild Flower Walk. The Starry Clover, Trifolium stellatum, was in flower and with its dark red calyx.
A pair of Ringed Plovers seem to be nesting or attempting to protect eggs laid on the shingle beach to the west of Shoreham Fort. On the southern carnot wall  of Shoreham Fort, two adult Wall Lizards, Podarcis muralis, skittered rapidly into large holes. There were another three adults and a brown juvenile on the walls of gardens backing on to the shingle beach.
 
 

June 2013 Reports

Shoreham Weather 2014

EasyTide (Shoreham)

Shoreham Beach Weather Station
 

Adur Nature Notes 2013