2019

Latest 2019 Reports (Link)

29 March 2019

Blackthorn was in flower and Hawthorn was in leaf at Cuckoo's Corner on the Coombes Road.

28 March 2019

Blackthorn was simultaneously in flower near the Waterworks Road, Old Shoreham.
The sepals are reflexed (like in the Bulbous Buttercup) in Cherry Plum.
Blackthorn and Cherry Plum (differences)

15 February 2019

15 November 2018

28 September 2018

A Speckled Wood Butterfly fluttered amongst the row of Elms just above where the high tide laps against the A27 main road between the Norfolk Bridge and the small bridge to the tidal pool known as the Flood Arches. Some of the Elm leaves curled up with brown edges because of disease rather than the salt in the air. .

9 September 2018

6 September 2018

17 May 2018

16 May 2018
Despite the dull and breezy weather, the Hawthorn bordering the Downs Link Cyclepath between Old Shoreham and Upper Beeding was blossoming spectacularly as it was on Mill Hill and in the roadside hedges and field boundaries of the patchwork landscape.

11 May 2018

Hawthorn was making itself dominant in the landscape north of Shoreham. The bright white flowers were everywhere in the hedges of the Downs Link Cyclepath from Old Shoreham to Erringham and obviously further afield. About half the trees/shrubs seemed to be flowering, others budding and some yet to bud. There were more flowers higher up the tree out of camera reach for close-ups.
 

7 May 2018
Hawthorn was starting to flower in the hedges. There were no remaining Blackthorn flowers.

25 April 2018

23 April 2018
Hawthorn was budding in the hedgerows often intertwined with the flowering Blackthorn on the borders of the Downs Link Path at Old Shoreham (south of the Flyover). Both bushes were in leaf.

Blackthorn flowers appear before the leaves and the Hawthorn leaves appear before the flowers.
On a breezy afternoon,  Wayfaring Tree was flowering

13 April 2018

Blackthorn was flowering at the southern end of the Waterworks Road as Cherry Plum had shed all of its flowers.

6 April 2018
Blackthorn was beginning to flower at the southern end of the Waterworks Road as Cherry Plum had shed most of its flowers.

5 April 2018
A Cherry Plum had shed most of its flowers on Mill Hill but the Blackthorn had not even started to flower .

28 March 2018

27 March 2018

I went back to the Waterworks Road, to confirm the bush of the previous day was Cherry Plum, but also noted the first flowers of Blackthorn had appeared on one bush opposite on the southern side of the road by the gate.

26 March 2018

This picture of the only flowering Prunus bush on the Waterworks Road, Old Shoreham (after the snow) is a little bit of a puzzle to me as the leaves and green shoots appear at the same time as the flowers (they usually appear afterwards). The answer is likely to be a Cherry Plum which is confirmed by the new green glabrous growths.
Blackthorn Winter

The sepals are reflexed (like in the Bulbous Buttercup) in Cherry Plum.
Blackthorn and Cherry Plum (differences)

15 March 2018

My first confirmed hoverfly of the year was a Drone Fly, Eristalis, visiting Cherry Plum tree flowers on a tree on the verge of Mill Hill Road at the southern end of the bridge over the A27.

15 February 2018

Hazel, Corylus avellana,  is a deciduous broadleaf tree native to the British Isles.
Catkin: a downy, hanging flowering spike of trees such as Willow and Hazel, pollinated by the wind.
 

2017
 
 

19 December 2017

16 November 2017

31 August 2017

Waiting at Spring Head Shaw, Rifle Range, on the downs west Steyning, for a Brown Hairstreak to come down from the trees was forlorn and unsuccessful. Waiting is not my norrnal observation method.

28 August 2017

6 July 2017

My first of the year Silver-washed Fritillary was seen at Tottington Wood, near Small Dole.
Adur Butterfly List 2017

10 June 2017

May 2017

10 May 2017

5 May 2017

4 May 2017

3 May 2017

20 April 2017

18 April 2017

Breezy and cloudy, I cycled the downs route against a Force 4 passing Mill Hill and north of Beeding Hill down the narrow bridleway to Tottington Wood. The bridlepath was a difficult passage for cycling, but rewarded with a dozen Speckled Wood Butterflies, a Green-veined White and a Comma.  In Tottington Wood, I spotted a handful of my first Early Purple Orchids of the year with flowering Wood Anemones and Primroses amongst the Bluebells. A damaged Red Admiral landed in the shade of the trees.
Magic Map of Tottington Wood
Tottington Wood Reports

30 March 2017

Buckingham Park Chestnut Trees Update

15 February 2017

A measured 732 metres due north (one minute flying time) of where the Waxwings were spotted, five Wood Pigeons occupied the tree of red berries in the fading light of the late afternoon..

2016

2 October 2016
 

28 April 2016

10 April 2016

Sucker growths of English Elm were in leaf by Frampton's Field (SE) and at the top of The Street in Old Shoreham.

8 April 2016

Blackthorn was in full flower at Cuckoo's Corner where Hawthorn was in substantial leaf and the leaves of Blackthorn had appeared. Blackthorn flowers appear before the leaves and the Hawthorn leaves appear before the flowers.

5 April 2016

11 & 13 March 2016

2015

26 May 2015

13 April 2015

8 April 2015
Blackthorn (foreground) was in full flower at Cuckoo's Corner where the first Hawthorn (rear) appeared in leaf.
 

19  September 2014

21 January 2013

October 2009
 

White Poplar Adur Recreation Ground	Holly Mill Hill Cutting/Pixie Path	Yew Mill Lane Cemetery, Shoreham

8 October 2009

 

		Yew
Wayfaring Tree	Holly	Hawthorn

Shrubs were covered in the red berries of Hawthorn, Holly, Wayfaring Tree, Yew and Cotoneaster, and black berries of Bramble, Elderflower and Privet on the borders of the Pixie Path to the west on the now wooded old part of Mill Hill and to the north which is the Mill Hill Cutting.
 
 

April 2009
 

Link to the Chestnut Trees in Buckingham Park

26 September 2008