Sussex Scrapbook
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Nature walks throughout the year
Saturday 26th August 2006
Pulborough Brooks
As it had been raining all week we thought we would go and see if the water
level at Pulborough Brooks had been raised at all. Also a very rare butterfly, a
Camberwell Beauty, had been seen there all week so we couldn't pass up the
slight chance of seeing it.
It turns out that the water level had not changed that much, the place is very
dry and short on wading birds still. We also didn't get to see the butterfly. We
did however see 2 Common Lizards, a Hummingbird Hawkmoth and an
Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar. Butterflies that did show themselves included; Red
Admirals, Small Tortoiseshells and Painted Ladies. So the day was not a total
washout, even though we were dodging rain showers all day.
When we came out of the reserve to get back on the bike we found that we had a
flat rear tyre. A piece of flint had gone right in and wrecked the tyre. We had
to call the RAC to get us and the bike taken home.
One of the 2 common lizards (Lacerta vivipara) we
saw today. They were quite small so we think they were juveniles that were born
this summer.
The Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar (dielephilia elpenor).
There were quite a few people during the day that were
hoping to see the Camberwell Beauty.
Just one of the showers we had to dodge.
A bit of a fuzzy picture of the Hummingbird Hawkmoth (Macroglossum
stellatarum).