ADUR NATURE NOTES 2016
Lower Adur Valley, West Sussex
 
 
 

June 2016

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Reports by Andy Horton from personal observation unless otherwise indicated
Clicking on the new thumbnail-style images will reveal a larger photograph

2016  Regional


Adur Coastal & Marine
Adur Estuary & Levels
Mill Hill & the Downs
Urban Reports
Click on the image to find the location on a map via flickr
Click on the image to find the location on a map via flickr
Click on the image to find the location on a map via geograph
Click on the image to find the location on a map via flickr

Click on the images above to find the location on a map via flickr or geograph 



EVENTS

11 June 2016 
Adur World Oceans Day
World Oceans Day was first declared as 8th June at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Events occurred all around the world on and around this day.

Adur was one of the UK leaders in presenting the seventeenth environmental exhibition of World Oceans Day on Coronation Green, Shoreham-by-Sea. The British Marine Life Study Society presented the usual exhibition of the seashore aquarium and the 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 Man and the Sea exhibition with a video microscope. Exhibitors were available to find the time to answer questions about marine life. World of Widewater exhibited a display and information about the brackish water lagoon and local nature reserve.
Other participants included Southwick Camera Club with an exhibition of seascapes and marine life.

World Oceans Day on facebook
Adur World Oceans Day on facebook
United Nations: World Oceans Day


WILDLIFE REPORTS
 

24 June 2016
An impromptu to Mill Hill was rewarded by the first Marbled White Butterflies of the year. I disturbed over 25 but rarely would they settle in view for more than a few seconds. The colourful Cinnabar Moths were even quicker to hide and were only out in the open for a second or two. The intermittently cloudy day meant that most butterflies were in hiding, although I managed to spot frequent (12+) Meadow Browns, at least half a dozen tattered Adonis Blues (they were so tattered they could have been Common Blues) , a handful of Small Heath Butterflies, frequent (15+) Silver Y Moths, a few smaller moths, two sightings of a Red Admiral (it may have been the same butterfly?) and one Small Tortoiseshell all over the lower slopes on a humid afternoon. 

Marbled White

A Kestrel hovered in the breeze over the upper part of Mill Hill. It has been a month since I last visited Mill Hill and of particular notice were the new flowering plants for this year, notably, the miniature Eyebright, the first Dropwort, Yellow Wort, ground-hugging Self-heal and  Wild Thyme, the invasive Privet shrub, the common Rough Hawkbit, Perforate St. John's Wort, and others. 
Mill Hill Report

23 June 2016
Between the thunderstorms, an immigrant Silver Y Moth, Autographa gamma, landed in front of me in my garden amongst the Buttercup leaves. 
Adur Moths

22 June 2016
Still cloudy and wet from the over night rain, but still worth a detour to the Slonk Hill Cutting (south bank) where the hundreds Spotted Orchids were not so abundant as usual years and were already joined by a few budding Pyramidal Orchids. The languid fluttering of my first Ringlet Butterfly of the year was soon followed by a more energetic first and fresh male Meadow Brown. A flash of blue was identified as a Holly Blue Butterfly.

Holly Blue Butterfly

Spiders had spun at least thirty large webs over the ground vegetation including the Cotoneaster. There were two species of yellow Dandelion/Hawbit-type (Cichorioid Daisies) flower amongst the orchids, grasses, Lady's Mantle and Salad Burnet. These yellow flowers were thoughts to be Rough Hawkbit and one of the Hawkweeds.

The linear copse path to Buckingham Cutting (south) was overgrown and just about passable. There were more orchids on this small patch of roadside verge with Red Clovers, Yellow Rattle, Ox-eye Daisies, Greater Bird's Foot Trefoil, Kidney Vetch, Hedge Bedstraw etc. A tiny Small Blue Butterfly was disturbed in the varied ground vegetation. 

20 June 2016
The longest day of the year was greeted by torrential rain for all of the morning and most of the afternoon. However, the summer season shows many new flowers appearing. 

Outskirts of Shoreham
Hardhead (=Lesser Knapweed), Bladder Campion, Hedge Woundwort
Lady's Mantle, Rosebay Willowherb, Viper's Bugloss, Musk Mallow

6 June 2016

Sepiola
Little Cuttle
Shallow seas off Widewater

A large Eel was spotted under a boulder on Kingston Beach

5 June 2016
More butterflies appeared in the sunshine, a Peacock Butterfly on the Car Boot Sale pasture north of the Flyover (south of Old Erringham). a few Common Blues at the Old Shoreham end (south of the Flyover) of the Steyning Line Cyclepath, where my first possible Small Skipper of the year appeared as an orange flash and was gone, and fleeting but definite view of my first Wall Brown of the year, with Large Whites and Small Whites and other unidentified brownish butterflies blown about too rapidly on the breeze. A Speckled Wood was also spotted in flight. 
NB: The Small Skipper is too early and not expected to be seen until July

Hemlock Water Dropworts were flowering by the River Adur at Old Shoreham.

4 June 2016
On breezy humid afternoon, I spotted my first Painted Lady Butterfly of the year on Shoreham Beach 20 metres west of the carnot wall of Shoreham Fort. This immigrant butterfly was very restless and settled for a second at most. Viper's Bugloss was spotted in flower for the first time this year on the shingle. 

Painted Lady

As an afterthought I looked out the meadow-like road verge at Buckingham Cutting (south) where the first Common Spotted Orchids were budding and showing their first flowers. After a little bit of exploring my eyes keyed into my first Small Blue Butterflies of the year. This small garden-sized area also hosted my first Yellow Rattle in flower and two species of small green beetles: the common Thick-legged Flower Beetle, Oedemera nobilis, and the equally common Cryptocephalus, as well as a Common Blue Damselfly.
Adur Butterfly List 2016

Small Blue Butterfly

In Shoreham town the tiny blue flowers of Brooklime appeared as well as those of Wild Strawberry

Common Blue Damselfly

3 June 2016

Southwick Beach

Adur Wild Flowers 2016




June 2015 Reports

Adur Wild Flowers 2016
Shoreham Weather 2016

EasyTide (Shoreham)

Shoreham Beach Weather Station
 

Adur Nature Notes 2013


Adur Butterfly List 2016
Adur Butterfly Flight Times
Flora of Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham and District Ornithological Society
Sussex Ornithological Society News
Lancing Village
 
 
 
 

MultiMap Aerial Photograph of the Adur Levels and Downs
 

Urban Wildlife Webring


Adur Nature Notes 2015
Link to the Adur 2012 Nature Notes pagesLink to the Adur Nature Notes 2011 web pagesLink to the Adur 2010 Nature Notes pages
Link to the Adur Nature Notes 2009 web pagesLink to the Adur Nature Notes 2008 web pagesLink to the Adur Nature Notes 2007 web pages
Link to the Adur Nature Notes 2006 web pagesLink to Adur Nature Notes 2005  Index pageLink to the Adur Nature Notes 2004 Index page
Link to Adur Valley Nature Notes 2003Latest Nature Notes and Index page 2002
Mill Hill, north of Shoreham

     

    The Shoreham-by-Sea web site started on 1 January 1997.
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