WILDLIFE
REPORTS
29
September 2009
A
Little
Egret and Redshank
on the River Adur at low tide,
photographed from the Toll
Bridge in Old Shoreham. |
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27
September 2009
I
visited the lower slopes of Mill Hill in
the afternoon on a sunny day. Butterflies
were widespread and scattered on the downs and the approaches with
eleven species recorded. Meadow
Brown
Butterflies
were
the most prevalent with 27 noted.
Full
Butterfly Report
24
September 2009
Under
a blue sky with fair
weather cumulus clouds, Common Darters
(a
dragonfly)
were frequently seen everywhere over the Adur Levels
and outskirts of Old Shoreham.
Butterflies
were represented by eight species
including a Clouded Yellow
over Anchor Bottom and a Wall
Brown on the cyclepath north of Old Shoreham.
Full
Butterfly Report
24
September 2009
Five
Clouded
Yellow Butterflies were seen on another
nearly warm (>18.9 °C)
day, all in the first 30 minutes and although the butterflies settled very
briefly (> 5 seconds) on yellow flowers, their stay was much too brief
for a clear photograph.
Full
Butterfly Report
22 September
2009
At
the early morning 0.5 metre equinoctial low spring tide
at Kingston Beach (entrance to Shoreham
Harbour) there was a patrolling Little
Egret, a Grey
Heron feeding as the tide came in around
the Chart Datum mark, and two Cormorants,
at first fanning their wings and then actively searching for fish and prawns.
An Eel, Anguilla anguilla,
was discovered under a rock and in the mid-tidal pools under the wooden
groyne, I netted one 5-Bearded Rockling,
Ciliata
mustela.
Rockpooling
Report
BMLSS
Rockpooling
20
September 2009
On
an energy sapping humid morning, both hoverflies
and butterflies were active around one large
clump of Ivy on the Pixie Path (near the NW
corner of Frampton's Field) and it was a flash of orange I saw first which
I thought was a Comma,
but it turned out to be one of five pristine Painted
Ladies and a Red
Admiral seen immediately followed by a
Comma
Butterfly seen in less than a minute.
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Painted
Lady
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Small
Copper
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Red
Admiral
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Twelve
species of butterfly were seen in an hour of looking on Mill Hill and its
approaches, including two Wall
Browns, three male Adonis
Blues, a Clouded
Yellow and a Small
Copper. Southern
Hawker and Common
Darter dragonflies
were seen as expected at this time of the year.
Full
Butterfly Report
10
September 2009
An
early morning low tide visit to Kingston
Beach, Shoreham with Tiger
Aspect Productions Ltd, to film the Blenny
sequence for a TV four programme series called
The
Seasons with Alan Titchmarsh,
recorded the expected Blennies,
Lipophrys
pholis, a large Rock
Goby, Gobius paganellus,
half a dozen large Edible Prawns, Palaemon
serratus, and a notable young green
Ballan
Wrasse, Labrus bergylta.
Adur
Coastal 2009
This
brightly coloured caterpillar was spotted crawling across the tarmaced
approach to Tarmount Public Hard
in Shoreham. It is the larva
of the Sycamore Moth Acronicta
aceris. The moth varies in colour
from pale grey to dark sooty-grey. The caterpillar
feeds
on the leaves of Sycamore or Horse Chestnut.
What's
this Caterpillar?
9 September
2009
Scores
of Swallows
flew over the Adur Riverside Industrial Estate north of Ropetackle on the
western edge of Shoreham. All the signs of the end of summer were apparent
with a few of the Greater Black-backed
Gulls on the mud flats at low tide
on the Adur estuary
opposite the Airport and a Wheatear flying
over Mill Hill. Dragonflies,
a Southern Hawker
and three Common Darters
were noted over the Waterworks Road,
Old Shoreham, and the Pixie Path respectively.
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Speckled
Wood
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Adonis
Blue
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Butterflies
had now declined to under fifty of nine species,
the upper part of Mill Hill almost devoid of them. There were still plenty
of Honey Bees
and hoverflies visiting the Ivy.
Full
Butterfly Report
6 September
2009
In
the Butterfly Copse next to the Waterworks
Road, an impressive
Volucella zonaria hoverfly
settled on the wooden railings for a few seconds.
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Volucella
zonaria
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Autumn
Gentian
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Amongst
the Ivy on the verges of the cyclepath south of the Toll
Bridge in Old Shoreham, the hoverflies
and bees would not give the butterflies
any rest and three pristine Red Admirals
and three faded Painted Ladies
were disturbed. The Garden Orb Spiders,
Araneus
diadematus,
were
beginning to cast their webs. On the lower slopes of Mill
Hill the 13 Adonis
Blues
were
looking a bit tatty and the Meadow
Browns
had
reduced in number to about 15. Grasshoppers
were very noticeable at this time of the year. A Dor
Beetle lay dying on the chalk path, south
of the reservoir on the southern part of Mill Hill.
Full
Butterfly Report
Adur
Spiders
Adur
Dor Beetles
Sussex
Butterfly Reports (Butterfly Conservation Society)
UK
Butterflies: Sightings
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