Song to the Siren

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Sunday, 6 April 2025 07:49

I just had a quick break on the Isle of Wight before my field season started and it's amazing how much things have changed for me in just two short years. For a start, I planned the entire trip to coincide with the big low spring tides. I could not pull myself away from the coast. I barely did any terrestrial recording and my hands were barely out of the water. Two years ago though, my back was so bad, I could not have coped with turning that many rocks day-after-day, or netted that much sea weed. That's all in the past now.

I have felt my attention being pulled away from the land to the sea over the course of the last year, writing the book played a part in this but the main culprit is the unrelenting lure of the nudibranchs! On this trip I found two more species for my list, bringing me up to 14 species for the British Isles. We spent a lot of time with Mark Telfer and family in the rock pools, and probably spent more time at Bembridge Ledges than anywhere else. I absolutely loved that site, so many turnable rocks! First up was Palio nothus, a a really small green nudibranch that I only found by sweeping Wireweed and then sorting through the contents in a tray. Close-focus binoculars really help here as these things are tiny.

You really can see how small this is next to a Pheasant Shell above. 

The other cracker was Amphorina farrani which I saw at Bembridge and Freshwater Bay, again by sweeping Wireweed and sorting through the material.


At Freshwater Bay, using the same method, I also found St. John's Jellyfish Calvadosia cruxmelitensis! This is only the second time I have seen a stalked jellyfish that I have got to species.


There's always so much going on in rock pools that I just don't have a clue about, I dismissed this thing as a barnacle scar but Mark looked at it under the hand lens and it's clearly alive. I needed some help on this one from the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society, as I would never have realised this was actually a bryozoan! Plagioecia patina.


And I figured this might have been some kind of a coral, but I was really surprised to find out that this is a young Deadman's Fingers Alcyonium digitatum! Look what this becomes (the second photo is from over a decade ago during a SxIFCA fish survey).


And I found this on the first night. A stoloniferan, a type of cnidarian. Amazingly just as I found this the marine biologist Roger Herbert appeared out of nowhere and helped me confirm this as Sarcodityon catenatum.

On the way back to the shore, we found a rock pool that was full of Aeolidiella alderi, there was five under one rock! This is the 3rd nudibranch of the trip.

And in the same rockpool was an adult Aeolidia philomenae. This was huge! Four or five times bigger than all the other ones I have seen. The fourth nudi of the trip.

Here is Bembridge Ledges itself at dawn...

Then for something really exciting; an entirely new habitat for me. Eel-grass or see-grass beds! We went to Seaview and met up with local expert Theo Vickers. I found a couple of new fish for me, Painted Goby and this Straight-nosed Pipefish, putting me at top fish lister on the PSL site! This green pipefish is a real eel-grass specialist. It's about 11 years since I was briefly joint top fish lister last — PSL is all about the long game.

Also there were these Peacock Fanworms Sabella pavonina, another lifer! Really common there.

And a few really large Hairy Hermit Crabs Pagurus cuanensis.

This absolute unit of a Sea Hare!

Loads of these King Scallops.

And the fifth nudibranch of the week, Acanthodoris pilosa. Found floating upside down in the incoming tide.

Look at this incredibly strange habitat! I absolutely loved it there.

And just because I can, here is some Tim Buckley. 

Don't panic though, although I am about to buy a wetsuit and get into snorkelling, I have not forsaken dry land and grown gills just yet. Just yesterday, I found a super rare spider at Graffham Common and a beetle new to Sussex but that is a story for another day...

Posted in , , , , , , , , , , , | 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Nature Blog Network