EVENTS
27
October 2012
Friends
of
Lancing Ring
Coffee
Morning
Venue:
The Holy Family Catholic Church Hall at Monks Farmhouse in North Road,
Lancing
Time:
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Lancing
Ring Slide Show (by Ray Hamblett)
WILDLIFE
REPORTS
25
October 2012
A
beautifully marked first winter male Desert
Wheatear delighted birders at Worthing
Splash Point (east of Worthing
Pier). Virtually tame, it was flitting
around the rocks and actively feeding - and not at all bothered by people
or cameras. The little beauty was confident enough to make eye contact
with his many fans.
The
Desert
Wheatear, Oenanthe
deserti, is a very rare visitor to
Britain. If an Eastern race bird does land here, it has been blown off
course quite a bit as it would have been on its way from its breeding grounds
in central Asia to its wintering grounds in Pakistan and north-east Africa.
Sussex
Ornithological Society First Report
10
October 2012
The
Lapwings
are back for Winter: I saw two trotting the River
Adur estuary
tideline
on the low neaps around midday.
There was an unprecedented was a school of 16 young Redshanks
on
the edge of the mud on the river opposite
Shoreham
Airport. The yellow legs
of the juvenile bird identified them through my binoculars. The red-legged
adults are solitary and noisily territorial. As I watched them probing
the mud a flock of about 40 of the much smaller Ringed
Plovers landed in unison. Butterflies
of six species
were
still fluttering around but mostly Red
Admirals prior to hibernation.
Full
Butterfly Report
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Carline
Thistle
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Autumn
Gentian
|
Unidentified
Mushroom
(without
a volva)
|
Mill
Hill
I had
no intention to visit Mill
Hill when I left but a brief spell of
sunshine and I made a detour. A Buzzard
soared over the southern part of Mill Hill Nature
Reserve and drifted over the New Erringham pasture to the east.
A cloud obscured the warm rays of the sun when
I descended to the lower slopes from the southern end. After the rain of
the previous few days, I was not surprised to see both the algae Nostoc
Commune and the White
Dapperling mushroom
on the lower slopes.
Adur
Fungi Report
9 October
2012
A
most unusual visit was made by half a dozen European
Spoonbills, Platalea
leucorodia, to the River
Adur estuary about 2:00 pm,
at low tide, opposite the Airport.
Spoonbills
are a Very
Scarce Passage Migrant in Sussex, occasionally recorded in ones or
twos, very rarely four or five, and six together is unprecedented.
SOS
Bird List (Spreadsheet)
7
October 2012
I
cycled the muddy western towpath of the River
Adur for
the first time this year and surprised a very large bird
of prey leaving a pasture at Botolphs.
I believe this to be my first ever brief sighting of an Osprey.
The brown on white bird flew leisurely over the pasture, mobbed aggressively
by a Crow
which look very small in comparison to the large raptor. Alas, I only saw
the Osprey flying
for twenty seconds before its leisurely gull-like flight took the raptor
quickly over another pasture and away before I could get my binoculars
out. The Osprey
was seen was about 1:57 pm
and it was a middle neap tide (3.9
metres at Shoreham Harbour). The
Osprey
is classified as a scarce Passage Migrant by the Sussex
Ornithological Society.
Report
on SOS Sightings (Link)
Later
in the afternoon, the Osprey
was seen between the Toll Bridge and
Norfolk Bridge.
 4
October 2012
On
the fourth day of the month the rain had stopped and it was worthwhile
taking the camera out. There were still frequent
butterflies
of four species blown about in the breeze
with the leaves, mostly Large Whites
frequently seen on the outskirts of town and over a dozen Red
Admirals visited the Ivy on the
Pixie
Path to
Mill Hill.
Full
Butterfly Report
October
2011 Reports
Adur
Nature Notes 2011
Comma
Butterfly on Mill Hill
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