Lancing
Beach 2005Lancing
Beach 2005Ostensibly
a sand and shingle beach, but the sea bed uncovered by the low spring tides
in places has a hard bedrock and loose rocks. Surprisingly, some of the
less common crabs have been discovered between the tides and two species
of sea anemones reach their eastern limit up the English Channel at Lancing.
One other small species of sea anemone Diadumene
cincta is recorded here and only a few
other places around Britain. Offshore it is a breeding area of the small
orange fish known as Montagu's Sea Snail,
Liparis
montagui.
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Link to Lancing Beach Reports 2006
9
September 2005
The
sunset (7:15 pm)
on a exceptionally low equinoctial spring tide on Lancing Green beach,
was a thin ribbon of red sky that outlined Worthing
Pier three miles to the west. Black-headed
Gulls were hovering and decending to dip
their beaks into very shallow water, but their prey was a mystery. A single
Little
Egret and sub-adult
Herring
Gulls were feeding on the exposed rocks
and seaweed with at least two Carrion Crows.
The Black-headed Gulls
were the noisy ones.
Rockpooling List
Common Name Scientific Name Frequency Comments FISH Small-headed Clingfish Apletodon dentatus Probably many more amongst the weed and on the underside of rocks Rock Goby Gobius paganellus Very small and pale, probably frequent Corkwing Wrasse Symphodus melops First year juveniles amongst weed and easy to miss. CRUSTACEANS Prawn Palaemon serratus More of them shrimp Athanas nitescens Very small and hard to spot. Long-clawed Porcelain Crab Pisidia longicornis Underside of rocks Left-clawed Hermit Crab Diogenes pugilator Shallow sea over sand Squat Lobster Galathea squamifera Mostly small, but some were full size Hairy Crab Pilumnus hirtellus Crab Long-legged Spider Crab Macropodia sp Well camouflaged Short-legged Spider Crab Eurynome aspera Very well camouflaged Shore Crab Carcinus maenas Tiny SEA ANEMONES Snakelocks Anemone Anemonia viridis Sea Anemone Sagartia troglodytes MOLLUSCS European Oyster Ostrea Just the one observed attached to a rock. Grey Topshell Gibbula cineraria Widespread and numerous, if patchy.
| Bleached
seaweeds
decorated the strandline.
I think a lot of these included the bleached white seaweeds are Gigartina stellata. |
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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.
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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.
There
were a handful of gulls
and a small tern,
not diving in but repeatedly pecking at some prey just beneath the surface.
A Ringed Plover
landed amongst the rocks and weed.
13
June 2005
Hundreds
of cuttlebones of the Common Cuttlefish,
Sepia
officinalis,
are washed up on the
strandline along the shore
as is normal in June when the adults die after spawning. In the shallow
sea on a neap low tide, the push-net off Lancing Beach (off Golden Sands
Caravan Park) failed to locate a single shrimp
in over thirty minutes. The sand flats were barren except for an adult
Weever,
Echiichthys
vipera, a soft recently moulted Spiny
Spider Crab,
Maja
squinado, and one Vernal
Crab, Liocarcinus
vernalis.
Adur
Intertidal
BMLSS
Crabs of the Seashore and Shallow Seas
28
May 2005
It
was blowing a Gale Force
7 and the fauna was very limited on the
shore by the Half Brick, east Worthing. A very
long worm in a chalk rock was noticed when
it would have overlooked if the marine life had been more prevalent. Five
Butterfish,
Pholis
gunnellus, hid under the few
rocks available for turning.
BMLSS
Rockpooling
25
May 2005
Shrimping
(push-net in the shallows in the sea off Widewater)
continued the poor results with so much weed, after the two days of strong
breezes, that shrimping was severely hampered. Not a single Brown
Shrimp, Crangon, was caught. A small
Brill,
Scophthalmus
rhombus, was discovered floundering amongst the
weed and an small Sand Sole, Pegusa
lascaris that escaped the net, with
a dozen of the South-clawed Hermit Crab,
Diogenes pugilator,
and one of the swimming crabs, the Vernal
Crab, Liocarcinus
vernalis. There were a pair of large
mating green Shore Crabs, Carcinus
maenas, caught as well, but these
very common crabs were not measured. The male was about 65 mm in carapace
breadth.
BMLSS
Crabs
| 4
May 2005
The sea defence works involve pumping gravel or water in from offshore and recontouring Lancing beach (south of Lancing Beach Green) |
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25
April 2005
The
sea defence work had closed off access to
the best beach by Lancing Beach Green. The low spring tide
by the Half Brick uncovered Sea
Squirt covered rocks but very little of interest.
Snakelocks
Anemones,
Anemonia
viridis, were very frequently seen (over 50) and one Squat
Lobster,
Galathea
squamifera, plus a few common species like a damaged Hairy
Crab Pilumnus hirtellus, and
the sea anemone Sagartia
troglodytes. A small flock of less than half a dozen Sanderlings
whizzed just over the surface of the sea and shore. Generally, extremely
disappointing.
Half
Brick Beach 2004
21
March 2005
A
Common Dolphin,
Delphinus
delphis, was stranded on Lancing Beach. The dolphin, which was attended
by British Divers
Marine Life Rescue, was still alive when washed ashore. I received
a report from Trevor Weeks
reporting on the outcome.
The
dolphin was female about two metres in length and about 80% of its teeth
were missing. The dolphin appeared badly emaciated and its breathing rate
was 8 to 10 breaths a minute. Following advice from the vet, the decision
was made that the dolphin was suffering and that an attempt to return it
to the sea was not an option and euthanasia was the best course of action.
23
February 2004
Twenty
Cormorants
were counted standing on the groynes on east Worthing beach (near Brooklands).
These numbers never seem to change much over the years, the most I have
counted was 23 a few years ago. The tide was in.
At least one of the Cormorants
had a pronounced grey breast and under wings. I did not have my binoculars
with me at the time of observation, so I could not see the details, but
this grey was very clear at a distance. This bird was on a subsidiary groyne
perch and may have been an immature bird?
Link
to Lancing Beach 2004 Reports
Half
Brick Beach 2004
Link
to Lancing Beach 2003
Lancing Beach (by Ray Hamblett)
EMail
Address for sending in wildlife reports from the lower Adur valley
Only
a selection will be included and only reports with the name of the reporter
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