SUSSEX LINKS

Findon Village

Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

Sussex Archaeology &  Folklore

Lancing (RH)

Adur Butterfly Page

Looking down the bridleway from Stonechat Junction (midway between Southwick Hill and Mossy Bottom Barn) (TQ 225 078) towards Slonk Hill

 
LINK TO THE SOUTHWICK NATURE REPORTS 2007
 

12 December 2006
There was a Great Northern Diver and three Red-breasted Mergansers in Shoreham Harbour in the canal at the eastern end by the fish merchants and Hove Lagoon. 

Report by June Brown

9 December 2006
A Great Northern Diver was photographed in Shoreham Harbour canal at Southwick.
Link to the image by Ian Barnard (Birds of Sussex) 
 

There were a handful of dead Pouting floating on the surface near the lock gates and a dead Cod on Southwick beach. A lump of Tertiary Lignite (sea coal) was also washed up. This sulphorous compound is more like petrified wood than coal. There are plentiful deposits with the Tertiary clays in Sussex. 

November 2006

                Silver Ragwort

7 November 2006
Two of the "smallest Oystercatchers I have ever seen" were seen on Southwick beach foraging on the strandline at high tide. They were slightly larger than Turnstones. 

Report by Peter Talbot-Elsden

1 July 2006
Swimming amongst large numbers of Moon Jellyfish just inside the lock gates at Shoreham Harbour, was an impressive large 150 cm (5 ft) Conger Eel that seemed quite keen to reach the open sea.

Report by Richard Fairbank on the Sussex Birds Yahoo Group

18 June 2006 The dead flowerhead twitched and moved, and it turned out to be a large moth, the Eyed Hawk-moth, Smerinthus ocellata, discovered in a Southwick garden.  Report by Sharon Penfold on flickr  British Insects & Other Arthropods & British Wildlife Gardens Adur Moths

16 June 2006
The four pint shrimp haul included a Little Cuttle, Sepiola, and a 5-Bearded Rockling, Ciliata mustela.

Report by Peter Talbot-Elsden

1 June 2006
Peter Talbot-Elsden caught three pints of Brown Shrimps in three hours shrimping amongst lots of weed, but without any crabs or fish in the two metre push-net. 
I spotted a small spider on the strandline amongst the pebbles which seemed to have a light blue abdomen (but not when photographed), and it was probably a  Pardosa hunting spider, on pebbles that would be washed with the sea in winter. 
Adur Spiders
Pardosa Species Comment

24 May 2006
A Peregrine Falcon hung in the Strong Breeze veering on Gales (Force 6 to 7) before making a short glide to disappear behind the Power Station chimney by the nest box on the southern side and out of view. 

9 May 2006
A single Wild Turnip, Brassica rapa, plant was growing in gaps in the concrete where it adjoins the slope from the lock gates up to the tarmac of the Southwick promenade. This may be a wild arable crop.

28 April 2006
An extremely interesting report of three Sea Horses, Hippocampus hippocampus* reported by Southwick fishermen. The fishermen say they are the first caught for several years and other fishermen are reporting them in their fixed nets several miles offshore. The identity of these fish has not been verified personally, but Sea Horses are known to be rarely captured from the Sussex coast.
(*The species, one of two, is not known.)

Hearsay Report by Peter Talbot-Elsden

BMLSS Seahorses

I disturbed a group of five Turnstones getting very close to them on the syenite rock sea defences. And then even closer (to within three metres) before a lone remaining bird flew off from behind a rock and over the sea. It was low tide with just the very small mussels exposed. 

26 April 2006
Solenettes, Buglossidium luteum, (small flatfish) were included amongst the shrimp haul in choppy conditions on Southwick beach at low tide. These are called Slipper Soles by the fishermen. 

Report by Peter Talbot-Elsden

17 April 2006
Two large adult venomous Lesser Weever, Echiichthys vipera, fish were captured in the shrimp net on Southwick beach at low tide, with a 5- Bearded Rockling, Ciliata mustela, (this latter fish have been caught plentifully by anglers recently). 

Report by Peter Talbot-Elsden

15 April 2006
At 6:00 am, the Peregrine Falcon was making a tremendous racket (a sound once heard and never forgotten) on the Shoreham Harbour Power Station chimney whilst I was shrimping. In the swell, I caught a pint of Shrimps. 

Report by Peter Talbot-Elsden

5 March 2006
A shrimping expedition (push-net) to the sandy shallows of Southwick beach produced four small Sand-eels, Ammodytes tobianus, but these were so small that most of these elongate fish would have escaped through the netting. Small fish fry (probably Rockling) were caught in the net as well. 
On the Shoreham Harbour Power Station there were two Peregrine Falcons one which appeared smaller than the other. The smaller one would have been the male. At least one of the falcons were seen every day this month. 

Report by Peter Talbot-Elsden

22 February 2006
In the early morning, a male Black Redstart was seen by the fenced enclosure on Southwick Beach.

Report by Richard Fairbank on the Sussex Birds (Yahoo Group)

9 January 2006
Two Peregrine Falcons were seen on Shoreham Harbour Power Station one on some green square bits sticking out from the brickwork and another on the north facing side and another on a north facing ledge on the chimney at 7:45 am.

Report by Peter Talbot-Elsden

 

LINK TO THE SOUTHWICK NATURE REPORTS 2005
 

 
Adur Valley
Adur Butterfly Page
Adur Nature Notes 2006
Adur Valley Wildlife
Chalk Rivers Biodiversity (JNCC)
Cornwall (Geomorphology, Eclipse etc.)
Dungeness, Kent, England
Findon Village
Lancing & Sompting
Orford Ness:  Coastal Ecology of a Shingle Bank (excellent references)
Ralph Hollins Nature Pages  (Chichester Harbour area)
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve
Rockpooling Page
Seashore Page
Shingle Coast  (Coastal Fringe of Shoreham Beach)
Shoreham-by-Sea Wildlife Page
South Downs Way (by Allen Pollard)
Southwick
Sussex Archaeology & Folklore