EVENTS
WILDLIFE
REPORTS
20
September 2012
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A
Bar-tailed
Godwit* made a sudden
landing in the shallow margins of Widewater
Lagoon. It
promptly started actively searching for food, wading in a few inches of
saline/brackish
water, poking its beak in the soft mud rapidly (about twenty times a minute?)
and repeatedly for a period of ten minutes or more without a break. Its
long beak was pink but half black nearest the tip.
(*Three
birders identified it as a Black-tailed Godwit.
I and one other thought it was a Bar-tailed Godwit..)
SOS
Report
Adur
Coastal Reports |
Black-tailed Godwit
18
September 2012
An
Osprey
was mobbed by gulls
and Jackdaws
next to the A27
where it crosses the River
Adur near Shoreham
Airport.
15
September 2012
A
large green caterpillar of the species Eyed Hawk-moth, Smerinthus
ocellata, was brought in by a domestic
cat in Lancing.
Adur
Moths
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15
September 2012
On
a sunny day, a large Ivy bush in the
Butterfly
Copse next to the Waterworks Road
was covered in flying insects frequent
hoverflies,
and about thirty butterflies
of which an estimated 25 were Red Admirals
and five Comma Butterflies
were counted.
Ivy
at the Butterfly Copse
including
the impressive hoverfly Volucella zonaria
A Speckled
Wood was seen in the nearby Waterworks
Road, Old Shoreham.
Full
Butterfly & Moth Report
11
September 2012
On
an overcast breezy day, butterflies
were common on Mill
Hill. Meadow
Brown
Butterflies
were
the most prevalent with an estimated 150+ in the
transect
acre. Adonis
Blues
were
also common with over a hundred seen.
Adonis
Blues
on
Carline Thistle
 The
males
were very tatty and all were damaged to some extent. The females
fared better with 20% of them in fine condtion and most of them crawling
in amongst the leaves of Horseshoe Vetch, Hippocrepis
comosa. Four other species of butterfly
were seen on my downs trip in the middle of the day before it suddenly
became cooler.
Aerial insect predators were around with a Common
Darter and a Southern
Hawker dragonfly
and my first Hornet Robber Fly
of the year over Mill Hill.
Full
Butterfly & Moth Report
Adur
Flies
10
September 2012
The
identifying white rump of a Wheatear was
spotted on the edge of the mud flats at low
tide
just south of the Toll Bridge, Old
Shoreham.
9 September
2012
A
new plant was added to my personal
local tally: Blue Water Speedwell Veronica
anagallis-aquatica was identified
from a stream next to the Cyclepath
north of Old Shoreham.
Image
Flora
of Shoreham-by-Sea
6 September
2012
Lancing
Ring Dewpond
with
Purple
Loosestrife
| 5
September 2012
A
Helophilus
pendulus from the front angle, a
view not normally seen in photographs
of this species of hoverfly.
It was seen on Buckingham Cutting (south).
This hoverfly was frequently
seen, much more prevalent than in previous years, with at least one sighting
every day and usually more in the first week of September.
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4 September
2012
About
thirty Red Admiral Butterflies
congregated around a single Buddleia
bush
by the buffer stop (north of the Riverbank Industrial Estate) west Shoreham.
Butterfly
& Moth List 2012
 3
September 2012
When
the sun came out in the early afternoon,
the lower slopes of Mill Hill were alive
with butterflies.
Adonis
Blues
were
present in unprecedented numbers with the count of 205 in the transect
acre though to be under recorded because of
cloudy conditions at first. This count equates to an estimate of 800+ on
Mill Hill. At one point on my return journey, a spot just above the path
it was difficult to avoid treading on the brown female Adonis
Blues amongst the Horseshoe
Vetch leaves.
Meadow
Brown
Butterflies
were
also common with over 150 in the
transect
acre.
Nine species
of butterfly and three species of large moth
were noted in the humid sunshine.
Full
Butterfly & Moth Report
September
2011 Reports
Adur
Nature Notes 2011
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