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
 

29 June 2017

I was pleased to discover a Rock Sea Lavender flower for the first time on the shingle of Southwick Beach. The single plant was nearly overlooked in the fading light on a cloudy late afternoon. This has not been identified to species. It could be one of a handful of alien Sea Lavender plants?

There was a prostrate Spear-leaved Orache with what looked like "seed pods" on the shingle near the wind turbines. However, these were leaves rolled up by the Orache Gall Aphid Hayhurstia atriplicis.
Adur Orache

26 June 2017

A pleasant sunny day with a Gentle Breeze (Force 1-3) meant a visit to Shoreham Beach around the middle of the day. I was rewarded with my first handful of Small Skippers fluttering around the shingle plants without settling. These were my first of the year and in atypical habitat for this small widespread butterfly. Skippers are easily overlooked or mistaken for a moth. Childing Pink, Petrorhagia  nanteuilii, was flowering by Silver Sands but their were only a handful of flowers and even less clumps of Hare's Foot Clover. 

Widewater Flood Plain hosted my first Six-spotted Burnet Moths of the year, the first seen visited the fading Thrift, and then a newly budding Common Ragwort, but then seven were seen on a single Viper's Bugloss spike. 
Adur Butterfly Report

23 June 2017
With a Strong Breeze (Force 6 gusting to Gale Force 7) conditions for photographing flowers was difficult to near impossible. 

Viper's Bugloss was noted as being prevalent and very common on Shoreham Beach, with Silver Ragwort plentiful in flower and small amounts of Yellow-horned Poppy, Cat's Ear and Field Bindweed. The edge of the cyclepath by Widewater, Lancing, had notable amounts of a Mayweed (Sea or Scentless?) and the inevitable Smooth Sow Thistle. Occasional Tree Mallow swayed in the breeze west of Lancing Sailing Club. The Widewater Flood Plain was covered in flowering Sea Heath with small patches of Ivy-leaved Toadflax and English Stonewort had just started flowering. 
Yarrow was seen on the road verges in Shoreham. 
Adur Daisies

21 June 2017
The highest air temperature of the year was attained at 27.5 ° Cat 4:00 pm.
Met Office Shoreham
Shoreham Weather 2017

19 June 2017
Marbled White Butterflies (22+) were out on Mill Hill on the warmest day of the year. I discovered some Knapweed Broomrape amongst the Greater Knapweed. Bird's Foot Trefoil was abundant in swathes and the upright Yellow Wort had open flowers in the morning.
Adur Butterfly Report

18 June 2017
Pyramidal Orchids were out in force on the verges of the Downs Link Cyclepath where I saw my first two Ringlet Butterflies of the year. Self-heal and Tufted Vetch were seen in flower for the first time this year on a warm sunny morning. 

13, 14 & 15 June 2017

14 June 2017

Two first of the year butterflies, the medium-sized Marbled White and our smallest butterfly, the Small Blue were seen on the southern bank of Buckingham Cutting on a humid sunny afternoon.
Adur Butterfly Report

13 June 2017
At last the breeze was gentle (Force 3) on a sunny humid day. The white flowers of Elderflower, Privet and  Bramble were dominant in the landscape. There were merely frequent butterflies of eight species on a brief visit to Mill Hill and approaches. I disturbed about seven Cinnabar Moths which was an unprecedented number in a hour.
Adur Butterfly Report

Privet threatened to overrun the lower slopes of Mill Hill and certainly blotted out many of the Dropwort flowers. In the bare patches Yellow Wort opened its flowers in the morning. On the southern side of Mill Hill Cutting there were over a hundred Common Spotted Orchids with a handful of both Southern Marsh Orchids and Pyramidal Orchids.
Wild Flower Report
Adur Orchids

11 June 2017
With the ninth successive day of windsurfer weather the summer flowers were blown about in the Fresh Breeze (Force 5).  Common Spotted Orchids were commonly in flower with frequent Pyramidal Orchids on the verges of the cyclepath between Erringham Gap and the Cement Works.
Wild Flower Report

10 June 2017
Still breezy (Force 4) and I noted just a few Red Admirals fluttering around, two Wall Brown Butterflies over the towpath between the  Toll Bridge and Cuckoo's Corner, and a Meadow Brown in the field of Yellow Flag Iris next to Ladywell's Stream visited yesterday. Azure Damselflies, Coenagrion puella, were out in the Waterworks Road, Old Shoreham, and Blue-tailed Damselflies, Ischnura elegans in the same field of Yellow Flag Iris, Hedge Woundwort, various grasses and Stinging Nettles, next to Ladywell's Stream & the Scout Hut (just north of Cuckoo's Corner). 

9 June 2017
A whole week of persistently breezy weather continued with a steady Fresh Breeze (Force 5). In a field of Yellow Flag Iris and Stinging Nettles, next to Ladywell's Stream (just north of Cuckoo's Corner) I disturbed a Meadow Brown Butterfly and a Brown Argus. They were the only butterflies seen in the afternoon and both first of the year finds for me.
Adur Butterfly List 2017

7 June 2017
A Fox yapped/barked (alarm call) repeatedly just after midnight, heard from Corbyn Crescent in Shoreham.

3 June 2017

Summer plants recently noted in flower on Shoreham Beach included the ground hugging Bird's Foot Trefoil, Seaside Daisy and Kidney Vetch, the more upright Common Mallow, Viper's Bugloss, Cat's Ear, Slender Thistle and one clump of Broom. Windsurfer weather (Strong Breeze Force 6) impaired close-up photography.

Abundant Red Valerian stretched for hundreds of metres on the shingle above the high tide mark with patches of Silver Ragwort (only one clump seen in flower), clumps of Tree Mallow, flowering Oxford Ragwort, widespread clumps of Thrift, ground hugging Sea Campion and the omnipresent Sea Kale. Common Poppies flowered on Adur Recreation Ground and the often overlooked Nipplewort and Wall Rocket on the cracks of the pavements and twittens in and around Shoreham town.

Adur Ragworts
 
 
 

June 2016 Reports

Shoreham Weather 2017

EasyTide (Shoreham)

Shoreham Beach Weather Station
 

Adur Nature Notes 2013