Footpath 3138 approach to Mill Hill from the Waterworks Road. Formerly part of the original Mill Hill, although the horse grazing (Frampton's Field) field was ploughed up in the late fifties. This page will include some reports from the Mill Hill Cutting adjacent to the path when it runs west to east. The path itself has always been a "Right of Way". This is on chalk. There are rabbit burrows undermining the path.
Link to the Pixie Path Reports 2008
11
October 2007
The
Long-tailed
Tits were most attractive perched on tiny
branches swaying with their weight and singing under a clear sky on the
Mill
Hill Cutting next to the Pixie Path. A Great
Tit was also spotted and a Blue
Tit.
3 October
2007
A
mixed flock of dozen Long-tailed Tits,
Blue
Tits, at least one Great
Tit and some Greenfinches were
a welcome and attractive sight amongst the small bushes on the Mill
Hill Cutting next to the Pixie Path. There were about thirty birds
seen in a few minutes.
30
September 2007
A
Sparrowhawk
flew and glided at a low level over the northern part of Frampton's
Field, Old Shoreham. A Red Admiral,
a Large White and
a Speckled Wood Butterfly were
seen.
Full
Butterfly List
25
September 2007
The
Pixie Path hosted at least one Red Admiral
andthree
Peacock
Butterflies. A Clouded
Yellow flew over the path from Frampton's
Field and away. The white butterfly seen was not positively identified
and it seemed like a Green-veined White and
the small orange or brown butterfly or moth
flitted away too quickly as well. The Holly
berries were profuse on one small tree
on which a Comma Butterfly
settled.
Full
Butterfly List
12
September 2007
There
were frequent hoverflies on the Ivy by
the Pixie Path in the north-west part: Myathropa
florea and Drone
Flies,
Eristalis,
and at least one small Sphaerophoria,
plus Syrphus and
another few of the smaller ones
which I did not identify.
It
seemed like an exceptionally large Peacock
Butterfly that fluttered around the Ivy
on the Pixie Path followed by a handful of good condition Red
Admirals.
Full
Butterfly List
| 9
September 2007
There were three Red Admirals on the Ivy on the Pixie Path, two of them shown in this photograph. Full Butterfly Report |
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30
July 2007
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The Pixie Path hosted more than a dozen fresh looking Holly Blue Butterflies of both sexes and occasional Gatekeepers. Yellow Wort and Lesser Centaury were frequently in flower.
25
July 2007
I
made an unusual route circling Frampton's Field from the south at the entrance
from The Street, recording a few Holly
Blues and Red
Admirals, a Speckled
Wood in the Butterfly Copse, a few Gatekeepers
and Meadow
Browns
and
one Small Skipper
as the path leads down to the Mill Hill Cutting.
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4
July 2007
A single small mushroom on the path was probably a Dung Roundhead, Stropharia. |
3 July
2007
As
an ominous black cloud loomed in the west, I saw my first Small
Copper Butterfly of the year and my first
of the spectacular hoverflies Volucella
zonaria both at the top of the Pixie
Path. Red Bartsia
was seen flowering on the edge of the path.
Full
Butterfly Report
20
June 2007
Two
Holly
Blue Butterflies, at least two Painted
Ladies, two Red
Admirals, two Large
White Butterflies were all seen
| 5
& 17 June 2007
Common Mouse-ear, Cerastium fontanum This flower was recorded on the Pixie Path. Adur Mouse-ears & Chickweeds A broken
white
bird's egg, about
|
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22
May 2007
Framptons
Field (which was ploughed up in the sixties) is divided up into parcels
of land and it is almost an experimental grazing regime with grasses of
varying lengths. Herbs and wild plants were low in variety but these was
a largish patch of Germander Speedwell
in
the middle of one of the grazing patches.
A
very worn Green-veined White Butterfly
visited and early Bramble
flower at the top of the Pixie Path.
16
May 2007
Occasional
Red
Admiral Butterflies were seen on and around
the Pixie Path.
27
April 2007
The
Pixie
Path produced three Red Admirals,
at least two Holly Blues.
The top of Chanctonbury Drive saw a white
butterfly fluttering around which was thought
to be a Green-veined White.
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 |
 |
The
Common
Milkwort was flowering frequently on the
north edge of Framptons Field between the outer and inner fences but was
absent from the middle of the field or from anywhere inside the fences.
This cluster was all blue, but there was the pink variety on the path.
The
Holly
Blue in the central photograph looks like
a Common Blue,
but its behaviour fluttering around the Ivy and its underside spots when
it settled closed confirmed it 100% to be a Holly
Blue.
The
third insect was seen at the top of the Pixie Path near the demolished
stile and before looking it up it looks like some kind of ichneumon
wasp. It was spotted whilst looking to
photograph a Large Red-tailed Damselfly.
Adur
Wasps
15
April 2007
A
Holly
Blue Butterfly and a Common
Lizard were noted on a passage journey.
Three Speckled Woods
were seen at the top of Chanctonbury Drive (SE of Mill Hill) immediately
south of the small spinney over the daisy-covered lawn.
Butterfly
Report
12
April 2007
An
afternoon passage trip did not register any butterflies,
but I did spot a young Common Lizard skittering
amongst the Dog Violets
on the edge of the path.
2 April
2007
In
a breezy Force 5
gusting to Force 6
and more, it was in the brief periods when the wind died down a bit and
in shelter that most of the butterflies were
seen. The first two were a sparring Peacock
Butterfly with a Small
White Butterfly onthe Pixie
Path (north-west corner), followed by a Small
Tortoiseshell Butterfly at the top by
the house that flew at about 10 mph west to over the Butterfly Copse (next
to the Waterworks Road). The first Dog
Violets were seen in flower on the path
with the worn Sweet Violets still
in flower.
Adur
Wild Flowers
Adur
Violets
28
March 2007
Four
butterflies
were seen on the route, the first one, almost certainly a Peacock
Butterfly and there was a brown species
flying high above the Butterfly Copse which could have been a Comma.
A young Common Lizard slithered
in the grass on the edge of the path and the extreme north-west corner
of Frampton's Field.
Butterfly
Report
27
March 2007
In
the late afternoon the earlier sunshine had brought out the first Common
Lizards, Zootoca vivipara, on lichen-covered
chestnut
fencing on the Pixie Path to Mill Hill
where I also spotted the first local Small
White Butterfly of 2007
nectaring on a Dandelion
flower. I also spotted a strong flying Peacock
Butterfly and an unidentified
brown butterfly (originally thought to be
a Speckled Wood,
later revised to probably a Comma).
There were at least half a dozen young healthy
Rabbits
seen running across the path.
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This bumblebee picture confused me at first. It is just one bee on the Pixie Path to Mill Hill. The Queen had a white tail with slight V-shaped black markings and an orange band near its head. My first choice of species was Bombus vestalis, but it it is at least one month too early (by some reports) for this cuckoo bee. The brownish wings were rather distinctive.
A
Buff-tailed
Bumblebee,
Bombus terrestris,
was
seen ten minutes before the cuckoo bee about two metres from the same location.
My first
Red-tailed Bumblebee
was
seen immediately afterwards.
Adur
Bumblebees 2007
Adur
Bumblebees Checklist
Adur
Lizards
Butterfly
Report
Adur
Butterflies: First Dates
Adur
Butterfly Flight Times (New File)
Adur
New Wild Flowers
19
March 2007
The
Pixie Path had been cleared of vegetation, mainly the Alexanders,
for the whole of its length. Sweet
Violets were in flower on the path. (It
was too windy to visit Mill
Hill.) The
access point from the southern end of Footpath
3138 is under enquiry with West
Sussex County Council 'Rights of Way' as the OS and iMaps
are not clear.
9 March
2007
A
small immigrant alien Harlequin Ladybird,
Harmonia
axyridis, was spotted on an Alexander
leaf on the Pixie Path approach to Mill
Hill from the Waterworks Road. (TQ
210 063)
Adur
Ladybirds
