15 July 2008
Mill Hill Copse
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Hawkweed Ox-tongue, Picris hieracioides
6 May 2008
| 6
April 2008
By mid-afternoon much of the 100+ mm daylight morning snow had already melted and in the copse only the north-facing trunks had the remnants. |
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Hawkweed Ox-tongue, Picris hieracioides
6 May 2008
| 6
April 2008
By mid-afternoon much of the 100+ mm daylight morning snow had already melted and in the copse only the north-facing trunks had the remnants. |
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| 24
January 2007
South-east England woke after an overnight flurry of snow and the upper slopes of Mill Hill were covered in a layer averaging about 50 mm. |
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| 15
June 2006
This was the Smooth Sow-thistle, Sonchus oleraceus. Nipplewort, Lapsana communis has much smaller flowerheads. ID
by Malcolm Storey on UK
Botany (Yahoo Group)
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Two
Red
Admiral Butterflies and a Speckled
Wood Butterfly were seen when passing.
Full
Butterfly Report
3 July
2005
A
magnificent dragonfly settled on a pine tree
on the southern edge of the copse on the
top of Mill Hill. It was a female Southern
Hawker looking
very fresh and dangerous to other insects. My impression was that this
was possibly a different dragonfly species to the one seen on 1
July because it was not quite so active
on its patrols and this one appeared slightly smaller with less of a green
thorax. However, these differences could be explained by my failure to
get a good look at the first one. I now think it is most likely the same
species.
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Migrant
Hawker, (originally
misidentified as a Southern Hawker)
This
dragonfly was well camouflaged two and half metres up in a pine tree
When this dragonfly flew off a Red Admiral Butterfly and a Common Blue Damselfly showed.
Adur
Dragonflies
Adur
Dragonfly Flight Times
Butterfly
List for the Day
1
May 2005
An
Andrena
bee was noted on a Dandelion
in the copse at the top of Mill Hill.
White
Campion was starting to flower.
27
April 2005
In
the copse at the summit, a surprise Red
Admiral was seen, old but not battered,
and a male
Green-veined White Butterfly.
Adur
Butterfly and Larger Moth List 2005
| 1 April 2005 | 27 April 2005 | 27 April 2005 |
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16
November 2004
Copper
Beech at the entrance to the Copse.
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2 August
2004
Another
photograph was possible of the mushroom
which looked edible when it was fresh:
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In the scrub in the north-west a ChiffChaff was seen in an Elderberry Bush.
24
July 2004
The
offensive dog owner who lets their dog defecate right slap back in the
middle of the trail and fails to clear it up is still visiting the special
track on Mill Hill. This time it was clearly a Common
Blue Butterfly that landed on it.
19
July 2004
A
Holly
Blue Butterfly in the copse had the distinction
of being the first butterfly seen alighting on a dog's turd slap right
in the middle of the new path as it ran through the copse. The very presence
of a Holly Blue
in the copse is incongruous, but there was no doubt about the identification
as it landed on the turd and immediately closed its wings revealing the
black dots only.
Butterfly
List (Database)
Adur
Butterflies
21
June - 15 July 2004
Common
Poppies are growing in the cleared patches
in the copse with other ruderal colonising plants.
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16
February 2004
Tree
felling has opened up a glade to sunlight with an area to the north cleared
next to the fence adjoining the arable field, which is Erringham Hill,
(see the notes for 9 February 2004).
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(February 2004) |
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Sussex Woody Species Identification Guide
9
February 2004
The
South
Downs Conservation Board conservation
workers (including Andy
Gattiker and Jenny) were chopping down
pine trees in the copse to clear a glade and to allow native trees to grow.
The new glade will be immediately behind the entrance as the new trail
enters the copse (as shown in the photographs further
down this page).
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A very
early immigrant Painted Lady Butterfly
flew around the copse and settled on the Beech
leaves still on the tree and landed several times on the grass.
Butterfly
Report
Adur
Butterflies
Adur
Butterfly Flight Times
29
January 2004
A
team of hard hat workers had chopped down a dozen or more Corsican Pine
and Italian Alder
trees to clear a glade in the northern part of the copse.
7 January
2004
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In the copse at the top of Mill Hill, the workmen had sawn down some of the pine trees and made a small fire. I think these were the Corsican Pines, Pinus nigra var. maritima. A Kestrel was very noticable as it soared around the copse. The Kestrel is usually to be found flying over the edge of the ridge waiting to swoop down on to the lower slopes.
15
December 2003
The
tallest trees in the copse appear to be the Italian Alder, Alnus
cordata.
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With
the leaves having been blown off of most of the broad-leaved trees, the
photograph of the Mill Hill copse above can be contrasted with the October
photograph below and compared to the March image.
Broad-leaved
Trees include Norway
Maple, Copper
Beech, Italian
Alder, Hawthorn
and
other trees I do not recognise.
The
tall evergreens are Corsican Pines.
24 October 2003
I went
up the hill to capture the autumn colours of the planted copse
at
the top of Mill Hill, just north of the upper car park.
A
selection of three commoner leaves are illustrated above.
British
Trees
UK
Botany (Yahoo Group)
15 June 2003
It looks like a bumblebee,
but its identification does not fit the common species, and it is half
the size of a queen. A queen of another bumblebee was present and this
was the Three-banded White-tailed Bumblebee, Bombus
hortorum.
However,
the restless insect in the photograph above, discovered in the shade almost
in the copse (TQ 211 075)
and near a Foxglove
plant at the top of Mill Hill, was the species that attracted my interest.
The white tail was most distinctive. It could also halt in mid-flight in
a manner typical of hoverflies and not seen in bumblebees. So it was a
mimic and not quite good enough to fool me: it is the hoverfly,
Volucella
bombylans var. plumata.
Hoverflies
of Adur
UK
Hoverflies Discussion Group
More
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