Adur Insect Links: Bumblebees Hoverflies Butterflies Solitary Bees Adur Bees, Wasps & Sawflies Flies Beetles Ladybirds Moths Dragonflies

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Overview
 
 

The small pond was installed on 15 April 2004	The small pond almost obscured in the overgrown wildlife garden on 7 January 2005

Link to Pond Page 2006

20 November 2005
A Kestrel (probably a female because of its large size) hovered over the railway tracks and Dolphin Road. 

16 November 2005
An adult Fox ran across the road into the front garden of number 20 Corbyn Crescent just before midnight. 

11 October 2005
Some of the weed in the overgrown pond was cleared. The 10-spined Sticklebacks were thriving with six seen immediately, but there were no signs of the Backswimmer Water Boatmen. 

10 October 2005
I arrived home in Corbyn Crescent, Shoreham, just before dusk to find a Speckled Bush Cricket, Leptophyes punctatissima, on my front door, literally.
Adur Grasshoppers

9 October 2005
A half a dozen fresh Shaggy Parasol Mushrooms, Macrolepiota rhacodes, were growing amongst a pile of leaves in the twitten between Corbyn Crescent and Adelaide Square, Shoreham, on the edge of the Middle Road allotments.
Shoreham Fungi 2005

8 October 2005
The pond is overgrown and the garden is wild and untidy. 

22 August 2005
The Water Mint was flowering in my front garden and two of the small pyralid Pyrausta aurata moth were flitting around. 

9 August 2005
A Red Admiral, Large White Butterfly and a Holly Blue greeted me as I opened my front door. The Gypsywort is in flower. 

4 August 2005
A Small White, a Red Admiral and a Gatekeeper Butterfly were seen immediately I opened my front door in the morning in Corbyn Crescent, Shoreham.

31 July 2005
There were adult Common Frogs and Froglets in my very small pond in my front garden in Corbyn Crescent, Shoreham. The froglets could have hatched from about twenty tadpoles introduced in each of the last two years, or they could have migrated from other garden ponds? 
 

Wall Rocket was growing through the pavement in Corbyn Crescent.

16 July 2005
A Marbled White Butterfly in Corbyn Crescent, in the residential area of Shoreham was unprecedented, with a Gatekeeper in the twitten to Middle Road and a Green-veined White as well.

14 July 2005
There was a Meadow Brown Butterfly in my front garden. 

13 July 2005
There was a Green-veined White Butterfly in my front garden. 

28 June 2005
A Red Admiral Butterfly fluttered over the road outside my front garden. 

25 June 2005
The 1.5 metre high Teasel and a slightly smaller one were blown over in a breeze after a heatwave dry spell. A small Frog was seen in the ovegorown pond. 

17 June 2005
 

985 Carnation Tortrix Cacoecimorpha pronubana   ID confirmed by Angus Tyner on UK Moths Yahoo Group	1076 Celypha lacunana  ID confirmed by Angus Tyner on UK Moths Yahoo Group	Myathropa florea Hoverfly

12 June 2005 This dimunitive wild flower was growing from underneath the Privet, but taller plants have been seen in other unkept gardens.  This the Broad-leaved Willowherb, Epilobium montanum.

9 June 2004 This hoverfly Helophilus pendulus buzzes like a blow-fly and could be mistaken for a wasp so I doubt it it is high on the general popularity stakes. It hovered around my garden pond in Corbyn Crescent, Shoreham.

Adur Hoverflies
 

7 June 2005 Sonia found another small (estimated 45 mm long) Common Frog in the back garden that was transfered to the front. One frog tadpole, without legs, and three 10-spined Sticklebacks were seen in the front garden small overgown pond in an overgrown garden.

5 June 2005 There was a small web spinning spider on the road side of the Privet hedge in my front garden in Corbyn Crescent, Shoreham. I assume this is a small and therefore a young Araneus diadematus. Adur Spiders

31 May 2005 Marmalade Hoverflies, Episyrphus balteatus, are too prevalent to make a mention on the Nature Notes, but in this case I caught it landing on a Bulbous Buttercup.  Adur Hoverflies The very small day flying moth Pyrausta aurata is a common species near garden ponds and oner fluttered around the long grasses.

27 May 2005
The most unexpected and surprising discovery of my day was a slightly faded, but intact, Red Admiral Butterfly in the twitten between Adelaide Square and Corbyn Crescent, Shoreham. Both Large White and Small White Butterflies flew over Middle Road Allotments next to the twitten. 
Butterfly & Moth Report

25 May 2005
A Holly Blue Butterfly and a Small White Butterfly were seen in Corbyn Crescent, Shoreham as the sun came out briefly.
Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List 2005

Three different domestic cats have been stalking out my front garden pond.One cat made an unsuccessful ambush on the birds, Starlings and House Sparrows, in the back garden. A Starling is still going in the ventilation flap on the upper floor next door at number 12. 

23 May 2005
 

This is another small garden species of hoverfly that visited the only Bulbous Buttercup in my front garden in a crowded industrial area of Shoreham. 
I think this is one of the prevalent Sphaerophoria species (possibly S. scripta) but I have not double-checked for close species (which is unlikely from a photograph). 

19 May 2005
Unfortunately, the grass has got completely out of hand (for the lack of shears capable of cutting grass) and it has encroached and is choking the plants in the pond. The Common Frog does not seem to mind though and there is still only one. Wallpaper scissors were used to cut the encroaching grass (the idea was a grass overlap rather than an incursion). 

18 May 2005
A Holly Blue Butterfly fluttered around the Privet. 

4 May 2005
Marsh Marigolds were flowering for the first time on the pond shallows. In the bog garden the  leaves were larger and they had not shown any signs of flowering.
 

27 April 2005
 

Grasses are spreading into the pond. They could threaten to swamp the shallows of the pond entirely. Water Mint is growing from the deeper sections, not in the shallow ends where it was originally planted.  NB: the shears are not sharp enough to cut the grass.

The first butterfly of the year recorded in the garden was a flighty Small White in breezy conditions. 
Adur Butterfly List 2005

13 April 2005
A couple of Great Black-backed Gulls perched on top of the warehouse immediately south of Adelaide Crescent and east of Corbyn Crescent. 

12 April 2005
A young healthy Fox in the Middle Road allotments (next to the twitten between Corbyn Crescent and Adelaide Square, Shoreham) at 8:30 pm is hardly a newsworthy news item. 

A superbly colourful Redstart landed on the rotary clothes line in the back garden of 14 Corbyn Crescent (TQ 224 055), Shoreham town, where there is a bird table and flocks of House Sparrows. Redstarts are summer immigrants. This is my first record of this bird in the town. The photograph (on the left) shot through a murky window at long distance is poor and for ID purposes only. 

11 April 2005
A "Woolly Bear" Tiger Moth caterpillar was in my garden. 

6 April 2005
Another larva of the a Lesser Yellow Underwing Moth, Noctua, was discovered underneath the watering can in my front garden in Corbyn Crescent (TQ 224 055). 
Adur Butterflies & Moths 2005

1 April 2005
The lonely red coloured Common Frog was still basking on top of the pond shallows and weed that covered so much of the surface that the Water Soldier plant that sinks in winter will not have any open water to rise to. The leaves of the Marsh Marigolds were large. Planted in late spring last year, they have not flowered in this pond yet, and some plants were growing in the damp margins, with the leaves of Teasel.

28 March 2005
The Frog spawn has disintegrated and the water has gone very slightly milky. There is no sign yet of the miniature tadpoles. There is vegetation and larger leaves appearing from the deeper water. 

18 March 2005
One and a half litres of new Frog spawn is introduced to the deep clear surface water area of the small pond. This spawn had just risen to the surface so the estimated hatch of hatching is though to be about 28 March 2005. (This spawn was introduced because it was surplus in a pond with fish and because it was not expected that the solitary frog would attract mates this year.) 
The spawn quickly attracted the attention of predatory Backswimmer Water Boatmen and at least one 10-spined Stickleback.

15-18 March 2005
A small brown Common Frog is spotted in the pond after dark. It submerged when disturbed. It appeared only half the size of an adult. I did not have a proper chance to measure it, but it was about 60 mm long. How fast do frogs grow? It could be a frog born last year, but possibly a frog that had lived through two winters? Frogs become sexually mature in their third year.
There is a lot of grass that has spread and appears to be growing in the small pond shallows. Vegetation growing in the pond covered most of the water surface. The only tiny areas of open water were in the deeper central area. 
 

The Common Frog portrait was taken at night using flash. It seems a reddish-brown which is not a colour distortion by the flash gun. A few other frogs have been seen to be on the reddish side, but not quite as much as this male croaker.  The frog was sitting on top of the weeds, but would submerge underwater if poked.

Just before the midnight, the solitary frog, (which now seemed to be almost adult size: I had underestimated its size before) started croaking. The croak emitted seemed loud for the size of the amphibian. This is the mating call of the male frog to attract the females. The females arrive after the males at the spawning grounds. (NB: This pond is a new one and was not constructed until after the mating period for 2004.)

12 March 2005
A Magpie was on top of the roof next door, at number 16. 

3 March 2005
No sign of snow in Shoreham town but looking out of my window, there was a thin layer of snow on the downs above Shoreham. This snow was only on the high ground north of the A27 By-pass, and the pastures from Slonk Hill westwards to Mill Hill were green.  The ice in my garden pond was 3 mm thick with just a small amount of open water at the edges of the pond. 

27 February 2005
Snow!  Although it appeared more like horizontal sleet at first from the east, it actually begins to lay first on the pavements and roads and then on the grass. Although, only a thin layer, this is the first proper snow of the winter. The water in my small garden pond was not frozen, although the surface seemed it was only a fraction above the melting point of water. I measured it a 4.4 ºC.
 

The pond with the thin sprinkling of snow, which because of the garden's north facing position was greater than anywhere else in Shoreham.

11:00 am
Air Temperature  2.3 ºC
Dew Point  -2.1 ºC
Wind Direction NNE
Wind Speed  Force 6 (Strong Breeze)
By midday the wind had reduced and it was more like snow than sleet. Unfortunately, a look at the downs from out of my window and no snow seems to have settled.

25 February 2005
A thin layer of ice floated on the surface of my garden pond in Corbyn Crescent (TQ 224 055) for the first time ever as the air temperature fell below freezing for the first time this winter, recorded at -0.2 ºC just before 7:00 am. The ice thinned during the day, and had disappeared by the following day. 

7 January 2005
 

I think the plant is one of the Water Starworts, Callitriche. It has only reached the surface of the pond with its rosette on the water surface in the late autumn for the winter greenery.These plants in the central area of the pond are probably of local provenance.

cf: 9 November 2004  &  25 August 2004
 

This looks like a different species of pond plant on the surface of the pond.The rosette looks similar to the Water Starwort above but the leaves are less pointed. This plant was in shallower water. 

The Garden Pond 2004
 

Adur Nature Notes 2005:   Index Page