Slonk Hill Cutting:  A27 Embankment

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Slonk Hill The footpath runs parallel with the main road through the spinney (linear wood) on the southern side, immediately north of Slonk Hill Farm Road. There are several access points, notably at the top of The Drive (in the west) and by the bridge over the road to Slonk Hill Farm (in the east).  There are no practical access points to the steep northern bank.

Slonk Hill Cutting 2009

1 August 2008
With rain showers and mostly overcast as well as a breeze blowing, it was unsuitable conditions for watching butterflies. I did a brief test ride along the Slonk Hill Cutting to fossick apples and blackberries and in this area and outskirts of Shoreham town and recorded the seven butterfly species of Large Whites, Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns, Speckled Woods and Common Blues, Holly Blues and Small Whites. There were also two Six-Spot Burnet Moths on Buckingham Cutting south.
 

Small White on Fleabane	Six-spot Burnet Moth on Greater Knapweed	Speckled Wood

27 July 2008
 

An unprecedented 22 species of butterfly were seen (four more than the previous largest day tally in the last eight years of 18). Twenty were seen in two hours in the morning on Mill Hill and its approaches. The large total was due in part for two pleasing additions from Slonk Hill with a Small Blue sparring with a Common Blue and a faded Ringlet that was confirmed with a photograph, all before the sun came out in earnest.
Full Butterfly Report

23 July 2008

Female Gatekeeper and a male Meadow Brown visiting Ragwort on the southern bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting.

I searched for Ringlet Butterflies but none could be seen, all possibles turned out to be male Meadow Browns. There were just a few Small Skippers.

15, 13 & 14 July 2008
 

13 July 2008
On rather dull day, the expected smattering of butterflies put in appearance on the southern meadow bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting with frequent Gatekeepers, occasional Ringlets, Meadow Browns and Small Skippers, plus a few Large White Butterflies and at least one Burnet Moth.
Full Butterfly Report

17 June 2008
On the southern bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting covered in hundreds of Common Spotted Orchids and frequent Pyramidal Orchids, my first Common Darter (dragonfly) of the year rested on a herb, followed by a strong-flying female Broad-bodied Chaser, Libellula depressa, over the scrub hedgerow area on both sides of the path to the west of the spinney. A dirty white butterfly was seen in the distance and this could have been the first Marbled White of the year, but this was not confirmed.
Adur Butterfly List 2008

4 June 2008
With a brief glimpse of the sun, one Red Admiral, frequent Small Blue Butterflies, and one male Common Blue were seen on passage on the Buckingham Cutting, southern bank. Later on the southern bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting on an west to east journey along the path that runs parallel with the A27, I spotted one Large Red Damselfly, Pyrrhosoma nymphula, a Speckled Wood Butterfly, and more spectacularly a strong flying male Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly.
Alfalfa or Lucerne, Medicago sativa, was noted in an overgrown shaded part of the path that runs along the southern part of the Slonk Hill Cutting. There were also the first sign of a few flowering Pyramidal Orchids on the open bank of the same cutting.

21 May 2008
The first definite pair of Common Blue Butterflies of 2008 were seen on the northern Horseshoe Vetch, Hippocrepis comosa, covered bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting, with a pair of Adonis Blues, a Brown Argus and a Large White. There were no Small Blues seen.
 

My first confirmed Mother Shipton Moth of the year was seen on a clearing on the southern side where a handful of Holly Blue Butterflies fluttered around and two Speckled Woods were seen in the wooded parts, with two more Large Whites and a Small White.
The first Yellow Rattle flower of the year was seen on the northern bank, with the first Purple Toadflax of 2008 in the central reservation of the A27 dual carriageway. Mouse-eared Hawkweed was prevalent in places and common over the north bank.
Adur Butterfly List 2008
Adur Moths

16 May 2008
On a day too cool (12.3 °C) for butterflies, a Common Carpet Moth and a Yellow Shell Moth were disturbed on the northern bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting. Plants seen in flower for the first time this year were Eyebright, Mouse-eared Hawkweed, Yellow Wort, Salsify, all seen on the northern bank, the beginnings of a flowering Spotted Orchid on the south side.
Adur Moths
 
 

20 April 2008 This small bee was discovered on a Dandelion in a clearing of the linear spinney on the south side of the Slonk Hill Cutting. This could be a Nomada species.   A male Nomada goodeniana. ID by Stuart Roberts

Slonk Hill Cutting Reports 2007
 

Link to the Slonk Hill Cutting 2006 Reports

Shoreham Town & Gardens
Dovecote Bank including the Mill Hill Cutting

Link to Slonk Hill Reports for 2004

Adur Nature Notes 2006