The Lyons Share

Finally, I'm back in Sussex! The snail course was awesome. I have added 17 new species of which 14 are molluscs and I am confident I could identify most of the aquatic snails now (but not the bivalves - we didn't cover them). Anyway, first of all, here is a little Flounder we saw in a stream with a brackish element to it. You can tell it's a Flounder by the 40 rays in the anal fin, the other species of flat fish that come this far inland have many more (Dab and Plaice for example). We also found these tiny Jenkin's Spire Snails Potamopyrgus antipodarum.

I also spotted a few of these tiny Leach's Bithynias Bithynia leachii which is a local species and apparently indicates a rich aquatic mollusc fauna. Like yesterday's Common Bithynia but with a more rounded operculum. I think I will practice on the ponds at Woods Mill in my lunch breaks. Now, I am looking forward to two days off. I am a little miffed to find I was a few miles from an Isabelline Wheatear today and didn't realise it...