Reports of marine wildlife from all around the British Isles, with pollution incidents and conservation initiatives as they affect the flora and fauna of the NE Atlantic Ocean.
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4 June 2005. 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Adur World Oceans Day
Venue: Coronation Green, New Shoreham
Adur Festival Event
 

Despite the overcast day and the near gales that battered the marquee, Adur World Oceans Day 2005 was a success with live animal displays of lobsters, crabs, aquarium displays of sandy shore and rocky shore fauna, the simulated rock pool, marine life photographs (all by the British Marine Life Study Society), the dolphin exhibit (Sea Watch Foundation and helpers), the Sussex Coastal Watch Project (Dee Christensen), strandline touch tables (West Sussex County Council Rural Strategy Unit), vegetated shingle of Shoreham Beach and Widewater Lagoon (Dave and Marion Wood) and the table of the Sussex Ornithological Society (Audrey Wende, with the photograph of the Gull-billed Tern in company of a Black-headed Gull, taken by Stanley Allen of the Shoreham & District Ornithological Society.)
 

The attendance was greater than last year as well and there was a continual stream of visitors for six hours. 
Adur World Oceans Day 2005 Picture Portfolio (by Ray Hamblett)
 

Representatives:
British Marine Life Study Society: Len Nevell helped by Marc Abraham (Priory 
Emergency Treatment Service, PETS), Andy Horton, Peter Talbot-Elsden, Ray, Jan and Katherine Hamblett and Hannah Luff.
Sea Watch Foundation: Steve Savage and his daughter Amber, with helpers including Marc Baldwin (independent).
 

WSCC Rural Strategy Unit: John Knight and Kathy Eels.
Administration assistance: Natalie Brahma-Pearl (Adur District Council and Adur Festival), Neil Mitchell (WSCC Rural Strategy Unit), David Steadman (Shoreham Town Partnership).
Adur Nature Notes (June 2005)
 

21 May - 2 June 2005
On the the low spring tide on the Adur estuary running through Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex, the Gull-billed Tern could be easily overlooked or mistaken for a gull as it waddled along the tideline and occasionally on to the mud. With its black head and black legs it had to be distinguished from a Black-headed Gull within a few metres of the tern. At first, the Gull-billed Tern was in the company of a Little Egret and it seemed to be pecking at minute food particles, but after a few minutes it caught a ragworm which tangled around its beak before swallowing it. On another occasion, the worm was taken to the water and rinsed before being gulped down. It paused its quest for food to preen at least once. 
 

Gull Billed Tern catching a ragworm Photograph by  © Garry Bagnell Bagnell's Bird List (Web Site) Surfbirds

The Gull-billed Tern is an annual vagrant to southern England. Its natural distribution is mostly a bird of southern Europe including coastal wetlands such as the Ebro Delta and Coto Donana (Spain) and a small population in France. 

This bird was first seen over the brackish Widewater Lagoon, Lancing, on 21 May 2005.

Adur Nature Notes (May 2005)

5 May 2005
The first Basking Shark, Cetorhinus maximus, of the season is reported by a fisherman half a mile north of Sennen Cove, Cornwall (near Land's End).

30 April 2005 to 3 May 2005
A Bearded Seal, Erignathus barbatus,is seen at Easter Quarff (north of Cunningsburgh), Mainland, Shetland Isles.

NB: Bearded Seals are a non-migratory Arctic species that feed on molluscs including clams. There has now been at least a dozen records from the Shetland Isles and one record of this seal off Ireland and one off Hartlepool in north-east England. 
BMLSS Bearded Seal page
BMLSS Seals

Each month, at least one special marine image will be published from images sent to the BMLSS. This can be of the seashore, undersea world or any aspect of the marine natural world, especially the underwater life, but not restricted to life beneath the waves. Topical inclusions may be included instead of the most meritorious, and images will be limited to the NE Atlantic Ocean and adjoining seas, marine and seashore species and land and seascapes.

The name of the particular coast should be included and the grid reference, if known. Print photographs can be included in Exhibitions and on the BMLSS Web Sites and electronic publications. Electronic images in *.JPG format can also be considered for the web site. They should not exceed 150K in size.
  

The flood plain revealed Glasswort still in a zone before the mud with a salt marsh grass and a plant with small white-mauve five petalled flowers (image on the right, above) which I have identified as the Lesser Sea-spurrey, Spergularia marina. 

Photographers submitting pictures should indicate if they wish them to be considered for inclusion as confirming permission takes work and time and can delay publication of the news bulletins. 

Shore Topography Portfolio
 

Click on the album for more links (On-line link)