An Alternative Natural History of Sussex.
This blog shows the highlights of my day to day findings as a naturalist and ecologist living and working in Sussex. Delivered with a pinch of nihilism, a dash of sarcasm and absolutely no tweeness, here is my attempt to show natural history as it really is: Brutal, beautiful, uncompromising and fascinating...and occasionally ridiculous.
I have been studying natural history for some thirty years, nineteen in a professional capacity. I currently work in Sussex as a freelance entomologist, ecologist and botanist and specialise in nature reserve and rewilding management advice based on the interpretation of the surveys I carry out. I also run a number of identification courses. An advocate of the pan-species listing approach. My main areas of interest are birds, plants and invertebrates and a lot of my spare time is spent in the field. I am the county recorder for spiders and bugs.
Here is a bit of fun. I have taken a lot of photos over the 15 years this blog has been running, some of which I am pleased with. I have also taken plenty of awful photos, some of which are exquisitely bad. I present here a selection of them! In reverse order then...
6). Above is a Glanville Fritillary that was sitting perfectly still on my finger until I took the image.
5). The day I saw my first Quail, I had my camera on, ready to take the shot as I knew I was likely to flush them on this particular farm. When they did fly up, I turned my camera OFF and missed them, even though they were right in front of me. This is all I got (you can just about see them in the bottom right)...
4). On Jersey last year I was taking a sequence of shots of the amazing shrimp Periclcimenes sagittifer that lives among Snakelocks Anemones, the light was perfect! Shame I had it on the wrong setting!!! The problem with taking photos under water is you can't see what you are doing.
3). You know how it is, on a sunny March day you go for a walk around a site you've worked on for a decade when a Large Tortoiseshell flies by! This was the shot I got as it zoomed past me.
2). When you twitch the Beluga on the Thames.
And finally, the winner is...
1). And finally, that time a gorgeous adult Honey-buzzard glided low over head. Surely this would have made a brilliant photo. WRONG! There's always a bloody pylon in the way!
In 2026, I am going to use our fantastic website to 'pan-species year list', with the aim of reaching 6,000 species over the course of 2026. Now you might think that sounds utterly unachievable but looking at my 'blind year listing' efforts in 2023, 2024 and so far this year, it might just be achievable.
There's still lots that I see that I don't record every year, plants and marine groups especially. But even with this in mind, I recorded some 4,419 species in 2023 (and 2024 wasn't that different). Here's my PSL life list, my 2023 year list and a rough suggested target list for 2026 to get me to exactly 6,000 species. My 2025 list is on about 3,300 species, with just over 40,000 records entered this year (last year was over 60,000 records).
Now, I am a bit apprehensive about PSL year listing being a big thing (PSL is really a life long quest to see as much wildlife as you can over the course of your life). Regular year-listing could potentially detract from that - my blind year listing has been a good way of doing this for me. That is, I only know what my total is when everything has been identified at the end of the following financial year. However, I hadn't realised how annoying this must be for people year listing as they go. So, I am going to have one big blow out in 2026 and get it out of my system.
It's also a nice thing to do in the year that my book comes out (should be end of January 2026) as it will no doubt generate lots of stories. I am also going to be fundraising during this time for Sussex Wildlife Trust and there is a Just Giving page here. A target of £6000 seems as bonkers as the challenge itself.
The rules are going to follow the typical PSL approach to natural history. The challenge will not be finished on the 31st December 2026 though, but closer to the end of March 2027 (or whenever I finish all of the specimens I collect over 2026 - which for work alone is a lot of work that takes me all winter to complete). No more specimens will be collected after 31st December 2026 though. One rule that I will stick to is that every species must be recorded in my database. I will stick a new tab on my by blog which will track my progress. I will be itching to get out on the 1st January, so I hope we have good weather. I am so excited to attempt this!
Finally, a few side quests...
In addition to the above, I would like to try to achieve the following (although I might leave some of these 'blind' until the end of the challenge).
5,000 of the 6,000 species found and identified by me. I am happy to add things like fungi and other groups that I am going to struggle with but I want the bulk of the list to be of things I have found and identified myself, which reflects my pan-species list.
4,000 of the 6,000 species to be in Sussex.
I am on 9,701 species as I write this, just 299 species away from the mythical 10,000 species mark, so I expect to get there at some point in the second half of 2026.
Visit Scotland at least once. It will have been 19 years by then!
Could this get any more AuDHD?! I will be having a very quiet year in 2027. Well the last nine months of it.
Last Thursday to Saturday was an utterly unforgettable rock-pooling experience down at Falmouth in Cornwall. In fact 10 of the above 15 species were lifers for me, one of which was new to Cornwall! On the Saturday, there was a 'Rockpool Project' event being run at Castle Beach and given we had already seen the targets on Thursday and again on Friday, I couldn't really take seeing Babakina and Sprurilla three days in a row - it would have blown my tiny mind. Finley suggested going to Helford Passage after I was talking about a similar site on the Isle of Wight (Seaview - both are eel-grass on sand). So we did just that and it was utterly amazing!
With pond nets, waders and trays in hand, Finley and I set off. It didn't take long to find something I hadn't seen before. My 5th new mollusc of the trip - Calyptraea chinensis. A limpet-like species.
I haven't seen a Solenette for years! The fish were were great here. Sand Gobies, Fifteen-spined Sticklebacks and a whole loud of pipefish. I'll come to them later.
I found this brittlestar and it look different straight away to the ones I see in rock pools. A proportionally bigger disc and a texture and pattern of an animal that looked adapted to living on sand. It's Ophiura ophiura and another lifer.
Finley took this shot of an Antony Gormley statue that's called 'The Lone Pan-species Lister'. There was a chill wind blowing along that passage, with some rather violent shivering employed by both parties.
Visibility wasn't great, but Finley did spot and photograph this awesome Common WelkBuccinum undatum! By the time I blundered into range, I clouded it up so much a photo wasn't possible. Look at those spots on the mantle!
Finley had mentioned there being some impressive Spiny Cockles here, although I had seen many shells, I only noticed one live adult. I hoyed it out for a series of photos. Yet when I got home and had a look, it didn't look right. I soon discovered there was a species that fit for what I had here, and Simon Taylor confirmed it. This is another mollusc on the move and is new to Cornwall! It's Acanthocardia paucicostata. The shape of the ridges is quite distinct. The cross section of the shell looks more like a series of old tents side by side (rather than say the 'battlements of a castle' that are seen in more typical cockles). The spines are different too, being rather spoon-shaped. Size is key, this being a fairly small cockle. My size estimate from memory was way off, fortunately we were able to estimate the size more accurately from my my fingers in the photo!
Then things started getting exciting! I netted my first ever Deep-snouted Pipefish! My 102nd fish - I've seen all six pipefish in the UK now! I was proper stoked!
What a gorgeous fish.
Look how compressed the snout is when seen from above!
We found at least five, Finley took this shot of what was perhaps the largest one.
I also found this baby Common Cuttlefish!
Finley pulled out a couple more pipefish. This is only the second time I have seen Straight-snouted Pipefish.
And this small animal that by a process of elimination we are thinking is Nillson's Pipefish. I'd be interested in what others think of this. It has been a long time since I saw one of these either way.
Then something really unexpected. I only went and found yet another Spurilla neapolitana! That makes three days in a row in which I have seen this recent arrival to our shores, but this time from a totally different habitat! Bonkers. I found it just as Ben Rumsby and a contingent of other students turned up, so they were very happy to see all these wonders.
Here are my records for this species. Three records of four individuals, all likely adults. From three 2 km squares and two diagonally adjacent hectads. Considering it wasn't even on the British list in August that is mad, imagine how many more of them are out there.
And to conclude, here's my favourite shot from the weekend, the Rainbow Sea SlugBabakina anadoni that was found by Rachel Edworthy on Friday at Gylly Reef. What an incredible three days that was!
Oh just one last thing. Following a few last-minute tweaks (including the very last page), my book should be going to print next week! Exciting times.
With an even bigger and brighter Rainbow Sea Slug Babakina anadoni! Today we went to Gylly Beach and this was spotted by one of the rock poolers. It was so much brighter and bluer than yesterday's animal. What a wonder!
Finley found four swirls of eggs under a large rock before it was found nearby under a much smaller rock.
Then it started munching on Candelabrum cocksii, the weird worm-like hydroid that is feeds on.
I found another Limacia clavigera under the second rock I turned and finally found another three! Noy scarce bit this shot was much better than the one I took yesterday.
As the tide was coming in, I saw a gully with a flow of water. I said to Ty that you often get nudis where there is some flow and turned a large rock to find two adult Spurilla neapolitana and their eggs!!! The 19th and 20th record in the UK I think. The first one had really orange rhinophores. Just magic. So glad that Ty, Sally and everyone else got to see these again we mopped up yesterday.
Well that was worth setting my alarm for 3.30 am for! I have just had FOUR nudibranch lifers at Silver Steps, Falmouth in Cornwall. I'll start with the species I have wanted to see more than any other since I first clapped eyes on it. The Rainbow Sea Slug Babakina anadoni! It was almost dream like seeing this today. In fact, I really wasn't expecting to pick this up today (I was aiming for it tomorrow) so when I turned a rock and found a pair together as the tide was coming in, I was pretty stoked. It was also a lifer for Finley and Louis! I said, "anyone who finds it has to shout BABAKINA!!! as load as they can!" Which I took great enjoyment in doing.
Here are a few more shots. The first one is my first shot shorty after I saw it for the first time, I almost forgot to breathe today.
They were bigger than I was expecting. Finley took this pic of me looking rather pleased.
Well, it's gonna be hard to top that. Or is it? This is the Hair-curler Sea SlugSpurilla neapolitana. Seemingly only the 18th record for Britain after Charlotte Cumming found the first here only two months ago. This was one of the largest sea slugs I have seen that wasn't a dorid. Check this utter beauty out! Sad to see it had lost a rhinophore.
I am pretty sure these are the eggs, which I found high up the beach after about 10 minutes of getting there.
EDIT: This could well be a much commoner species I had not considered, thanks to Charlotte Cumming for the suggestion.
Check this video out! It reminds me of that bonkers alien 'Calvin' from the sci-fi movie Life.
I took this over to show some girls I was chatting to in the car park and bumped into another rockpooler called Vicky Barlow. She just so happened to be looking for Spurilla so was very pleased. She's also the person who found the first Babakina (other than divers) so gave me some great tips on where to look that totally paid off.
I found my first (very overdue) Limacia clavigera. Finley found another one. It's really not that scarce but one I have failed to see until now.
Then Louis found this, which is Facelina annulicornis, identified by Vicky and my 4th nudibranch lifer of the day! That's me on 35 species of nudibranch, all this year.
I found this which I think is a St John's Jellyfish Calvadosia cruxmelitensis, only the second time I have seen one. Thanks to Finley for the photo. I was too furiously searching for Babakina at this point to stop to take a photo of this.
And I had one more lifer. A Black Brittlestar Ophiocomina nigra! I thought these were deep water species, so was glad to spot one. Finley showed me the smooth black disc of the animal is the clincher! Result.
Is there such a thing as too many sea slugs? Hell no! Send more nudis!
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