The Lyons Den

Lichens on twigs

2012-01-25T21:09:00.000Z

I tried something new today after finding some FSC lichen ID sheets that I bought a few years ago and lost in my office. We have a lot of mature Blackthorn at Woods Mill. It's covered in lichens and I can only identify a few of them. After a little staring at the lichens, I started to see patterns that I recognised. I knew a few of them already but there was one new species for me there. This is Physcia tenella as far as I can tell and at Woods Mill it was perhaps the most abundant lichen growing on Blackthorn twigs. It's the first lichen I have added to my list since June 2011 and puts me on 3746 species. It's only my 28th lichen species. I will be going back for more lichens on my lunch breaks in the next few months. I figure that the species growing on Blackthorn are perhaps going to be common species as it's not a rare plant and will be a good place to try and get back in to lichens.

Return to the Valley of the Lost Raptors

2012-01-22T20:28:00.000Z

Stumbled upon this Red Kite today as we arrived at the Burgh. It seemed to be eating a partridge and was very keen to do so, allowing us to walk very close to it. I was searching for the Rough-legged Buzzard today and shortly after the kite I got a distant view of it before losing the damn thing in a maelstrom of Rooks. We also saw a Barn Owl and the usual bombardment of Grey Partridge. The very pale Buzzard was also showing well there.

This is the fourth Rough-legged Buzzard I have seen and my first in Sussex. I self found my first ever bird ten years ago when I was working at Titchwell. I think they are a massive improvement on Buzzards. I have a thing for pied birds and this bird was very obviously pied even at a distance but the dark sides to the belly and white tail were also easy to see.

Snail fail

2012-01-21T17:46:00.000Z

Can't win 'em all. I went searching for a live Helicella itala today but failed. I did find a few more empty shells but found no live snails on the chalk except those under fallen wood. The above photo is a very common and easy to identify snail that I see mostly under logs in woods, it's Discus rotundatus. Here is today's snail list:

Cepaea hortensis
Helix aspera (alive)
Cochlodina laminata (alive)
Discus rotundatus (alive)
Pomatias elegens
Cernuella virgata (one alive)
Helicella itala (only two more shells)
Candidula intersecta (alive)

So I didn't add anything new in the field. The mosses there were pretty boring for a chalk grassland site with Fissidens taxifolius, Bryum capillare and Pseudoscleropodrum purum being very common and just the occasional bit of Homalothecium lutescens. I did however get three retrospective ticks looking through old notebooks. I found my notes from a trip to Abernethy when I was working at the RSPB. I had a day in the field looking at Sphagnum with Andy Amphlett and I saw Sphagnum fuscum, russowi and inundatum. That puts me on 3745.

The laminated book of dreams

2012-01-20T20:54:00.000Z

As a child, every Christmas, I would flick through the Argos catalogue dreaming about which Transformers I would get. As an adult, I flick through natural history books, dreaming about when I will see this species or that. Seriously though, there is a great benefit to this. If you read around the subject and gen up, just sometimes, you will recognise species before you have ever seen them.

I've been looking for this rather large, flattened snail for a while since I acquired the FSC land snail key a few years back. Considering how much time I spend on the chalk, I'm surprised it took this long. Anyway, last night (whilst looking for something completely different) with Michael Blencowe and Mat Davidson, Michael found this shell. I can't tick it, as it was well dead like. It's the Heath Snail Helicella itala. I will be going back soon to look for a live one. Thanks to Michael for the photo and thanks also to Mum for getting me Optimus Prime.

Calling all pan-species listers

2012-01-18T12:39:00.001Z

I am giving a talk on pan-species listing at the next Adastra conference in Sussex and wanted to do some analysis of the pan-species listers themselves. Firstly, I'd like to make a distribution map of where you live so, if you wouldn't mind, could you email me the first part of your postcodes please? Of course, after the presentation, I'll be happy to put this on my blog and leave it in the public domain for all to use. The second bit of information is perhaps a little more sensitive and no worries if you don't want to give it, I'm after your ages! I'd love to do a correlation between age and your list and to show the age frequency distribution. I'd be happy not to show this on my blog if people didn't want it to. I don't need them all but a good representable proportion will probably do. Ha ha, I've just re-read this. As if listing wasn't nerdy enough, I intend to make it so nerdy that it pops right out the back of nerdy into the realm of cool. That's what's I think anyway.

Episode Four is out now!

2012-01-17T21:04:00.000Z

Here it as at last. Our fourth offering and probably our best one yet, you can also hear it on iTunes. Hear what we get up to when we enter the SOS bird race and get up to all sorts of marzipan fuelled antics. Enjoy!

The Spaniard and the Yankee

2012-01-15T19:35:00.001Z

At shortly after 9.00 am this morning I found myself looking OUT of a stranger's house, bare foot and surrounded by even more strangers in matching waterproofs. What was I doing you may ask? Well, I headed to the New Forest today with Oli and my new house mate Simon on a double twitch in search of a Spanish Sparrow and a Dark-eyed Junco.

Firstly to Calshot, a tiny little place where a Spanish Sparrow (species 3740) has taken up residence in, get this, a birder's garden! So, a bucket out of the front door for donations was filling up pretty quickly as the bird was well embedded in a trellised hedge and could only be seen from within the house. It all felt a little too easy and was perhaps the most strange birdwatching baptism that anyone could have. Assuring Simon that that was pretty odd, even for a twitch, we headed into the forest for the junco...

...Crossbills featured heavily throughout the day and were singing readily as I opened the car door. We walked the very short distance to where the junco had been hanging out only to see a stump metres from the path where it had been showing, you guessed it, minutes before we got there. A cold hour went by when we saw nothing but Chaffinches, Reed Buntings and Crossbills. Then I spotted the little bugger lurking in a fallen pine tree. It was just right of the knot in the lower branch in the crown and then it flew into cover. A few minutes later, it flew into a tree right in front of us. Here is the photo but it is pretty awful as ever. Nice bird though, great to hear it call too. My 340th bird and my 3741st species. I fell over, dropped my scope, landed on my cameras and looked like a right plonker in front of loads of birders. I rock.

But that's not it! I wasn't wasting anytime in the forest and we went for a walk. I spotted this amazing bryophyte growing on the sides of a ditch. I wasn't sure at first if it was a liverwort but I had a hunch I new what it was and it paid off. It's the rather smart looking moss Hookeria lucens and my third and final tick of the day leaving me on 3742 species. Also, I just listened to episode four of our podcast and Mat has done an amazing job, watch this space.

Hundred metre twitch

2012-01-11T20:51:00.000Z

OK so it's been a bit quiet recently with moving house and report writing. Today however, things notched up a gear at Woods Mill. Mike Russell rushed into reception after a walk around the reserve and announced the presence of a Woods Mill rarity on the lake. What was it? Only a Coot! I've been at Woods Mill three months shy of four years already and I was yet to add Coot to my Woods Mill list. I may have gripped Mike off with the first records of Merlin, Tree Pipit, Hawfinch and Crossbill in that time, but I needed Coot. Boy, did I need that Coot.

There was a tense few seconds as I waddled the 100 m up to the edge of the lake after a heavy lunch. There it was, resplendent in the afternoon sun. A Coot really is a beautiful bird, with so many colours and patterns that it's sometimes hard to take it all in at once. I must have sat there by the lake for a good three seconds before I returned to my desk. As I was nearing reception I heard the bird's delightful call. It would shame a Nightingale. Who needs all that fancy fluting and warbling when you could listen to the ear-splitting, monosyllabic, 'hammer striking stone' sound of a Coot? Thanks Mike, you've given me a contender for the natural history highlights of 2012 already!

Context collapse

2012-01-08T19:14:00.000Z

Why do people blog? For me, it's for many reasons but two things in particular. To show what I find in the natural world through the written word and the photograph and to have a laugh in the process. But almost as importantly is the need to encourage and help others on their own personal natural history quest. We all want to make a difference in our own way and this is something I have taken a lot of enjoyment from.

I know that people enjoy the blog and have benefited from it, so therefore I have fulfilled both of my major reasons for doing this in the first place. However, is my life richer for it? I think I am spending too much time on line these days, not just with Blogger but also Facebook and Twitter, not to mention all the emails. Have a look at this interesting lecture on Youtube.

The idea of 'context collapse' disturbs me. In the world of Web 2.0, we find ourselves talking to a faceless amalgamation of many different people. For me, these 'entities' are slightly different on Facebook (mostly people I know), Twitter (mostly people I don't know but share a common interest) and Blogger (anyone who cares to look at the blog). But when you talk face to face with someone, you constantly adjust what you say and how you say it for the person or audience you are speaking to. When blogging, who am I talking to? A projection of my own ideas of who is listening? Sometimes my own subconscious? The best of me? I think that spending more time on the Internet may have had a detrimental effect on the rest of my life by changing the way I communicate but I am not sure. As my life passes through different stages, I unexpectedly found my blog was capturing these changes. This was not a direct conscious decision. The feeling of living a very 'public' life has also got to me recently. It's been both good and bad for my reputation but the homogenising of my messages to friends, colleagues and strangers alike, feels wrong somehow.

I think an experiment is in order. I don't want to stop blogging or completely lose my on line presence but I definitely feel a change is needed. Firstly, I don't get many comments but I think this is due to how I write with very much a one way flow of information. I'd like to try and change this and I know that shouldn't be too hard. I intentionally kept it that way so that I didn't spend forever responding to comments. I'll try and keep the balance then by posting a little less frequently and putting more questions, quizzes and interactions into the mix.

The Internet is changing so quickly that the spellchecker in Blogger doesn't even recognise the words blog and blogging, so what chance do we stand to keep up with these changes and remain unchanged and intact?

Taxa return

2012-01-03T22:00:00.000Z

It's that time of year again. So, I didn't get to 4000. Things didn't exactly go to plan this year, hence the blip in August. Without that, the data would have shown a much more 'normal' distribution curve. Anyway, I added 714 species last year (19% of everything I had ever seen was new last year, nearly one in five!) and I am pretty pleased with that.When I get more time I'll, show a break down of the taxa that I have added the most species with and in which month. It must be beetles but what will be the second highest after that be?

Unwanted baggage

2012-01-01T18:40:00.000Z

Anyone who has spent time with me in the field in the last nine years will have seen this bag. I bought it whilst working for the RSPB on Anglesey from a shop in Bangor for about £25 and it's served me well. Very well in fact. The zips have gone, the clips have broken twice but now the draw strings and the lining are coming away so I needed a replacement. I know this is a boring post but I suddenly realised that the cells in my body have almost been completely replaced over the lifetime of this bag. In other words, it's actually been more consistent in my life than I have! It's also the one piece of kit that I use every day but I rarely acknowledge that.

I asked Mum for a new bag for Christmas and guess what I got? Exactly the same bag! It's not that I don't like change but if it ain't broke, don't fix it! It has a few new improvements, like a built in water proof cover that folds out of the top of the bag which is gonna come in really handy.

The last year has been incredible. I have seen so many new species and places. It's also been incredibly testing at times. So, what's in store for 2012 I hear you say? Well I am going to carry on with the listing, blogging and podcasting but it's all going to be a little less targeted and a lot more opportunistic so I can free up some more time for writing my novel and other such unnatural history activities. I'm also going to be going abroad and out of county more often so there will be some 'exotic' coverage too.

I made some peace with the past too this Christmas break and spent a lot of time on my old patch, San's Brook. Not birding like I would of when I was a kid but running. I was pleased to complete a five mile run this morning but even better were the birds I heard and saw. Goosander, Kingfisher, drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker, Redpoll, Siskin and Crossbill. I did go for a walk there too with my family and realised that I have not been back there for many years to take photos. I didn't however see/hear the Willow Tits that used to be so frequent there. Anyway, I'm about to move house (where I will have a garden again!) and I'm rather looking forward to making the most of 2012, posts are likely to be a little thin on the ground for a while though. Happy new year to you!

Thor's Kin

2011-12-30T11:53:00.000Z

I went to see my good friend and tattooist Gerry Carnelly in Derby and we went out to Thor's Cave in the Manifold Valley, Staffordshire. This is one of the most striking places I have ever been too and I am always captivated by the sheer scale of this cave entrance. I took the high powered torch in the hope of finding some moths and spiders. However, progress was impeded by me stopping to look at every moss on the limestone walls. They were indeed a varied bunch with a lot of overlap with mosses that I see on the Downs. The striking moss I found at Woods Mill (Anomodon viticulosus) was plentiful as were Ctenidium mollusconum and the liverwort Plagiochila porelloides. I spotted this rather broad-leaved acrocarp with a glaucous tint to it and managed to get it to species. It's Encalypta streptocarpa and has the rather stupid English name of Spiral Extinguisher-moss that is about as useless at helping me with the ID as the Latin name is!

The Manifold Valley is over-shadowed by the more popular Dovedale but nothing at Dovedale compares to Thor's Cave AND I reckon there are SEVERAL order's of magnitude more people at Dovedale. I have found you have to queue there to cross the stepping stones. Not my idea of fun. I was a bit gutted that I only heard a Dipper very briefly but I did get to grips with this moss that was growing all along the Manifold. It's Cinclidotus fontinaloides and is perhaps my last new species of the year. I doubt I will get any further than 3735 now.

Anyway, enough mosses. The cave is where all the fun is. After a steep climb you finally come to the vast house-sized entrance of the cave. You have to clamber up a rather slippy limestone entrance to find a huge entrance chamber. If you know where to go and you have a decent torch you can go quite far in and that's where all the fun stuff is. I spotted the rather awesome cave spider Meta menardi deep in the cave. This is a big creepy spider and if we had found this on the podcast (like I had hoped) Blencowe would have been quaking in his boots.

We also found five Tissues (fortunately they were unused) hibernating in the back of the cave but no Heralds.

It was a great day and I was grateful to have the high-powered torch with me. I'll leave you with this monstrosity. It looks like one of the dead facehuggers from Alien but it was actually quite a large fungus (20cm long) that had started to decompose. It was totally out of the light where it was growing.

Although this part of Staffordshire is a world away from where I grew up, it's a magical place that I do not think of as Staffordshire as I walk around it. It is a beautiful county really if you can get over the cold, the lack of species and the lack of coastline. Watch out Sussex I'm coming home!

Riddles in the Dark

2011-12-26T13:36:00.000Z

What did you get for Christmas? I struck gold. Goblin Gold in fact. I have been more than a little obsessed with the moss Schistostega pennata ever since I realised it has the colloquial name of Goblin Gold (and also Luminous Moss). When I also discovered that it reflected light back at you I just had to see it. Using some grid references I found by looking into a crystal ball (NBN Gateway) I headed to the Forest of Doom (Cannock Chase) with my trusty elven sidekick (my niece Jessica) on a quest for treasure. Milford Common is part way between Rugeley and Stafford, and as well as being the place I once saw Belted Kingfisher, it is also a place that triggers many fond memories. Armed with nothing more than an enchanted amulet (GPS) and a magical spyglass (hand lens), I parked the Pegasus (P-reg Fiesta) on the stony plateau (pay and display carpark) and headed into the forest...

...Firstly I found a liverwort new to me growing on a sandy outcrop. It was Calypogeia arguta with distinct little divergent teeth on the leaves but sadly the photos did not come out well. I also saw a bunch of Fairies mug a Goldcrest for a winter gnat. What is the world coming too? One of these sentences is true, you chose.

I found this pretty little micro moth in a cave but it's a common one I have seen before. Agonopterix ocellana.

Sadly, the small patch of Goblin Gold I did find was looking a bit tired and old (2nd photo) and was not reflecting the light in the exciting way I had hoped. It is not surprising that there is Goblin Gold about in these parts as in Rugeley on Christmas Eve, I also saw a number of Goblins (chavs) but I didn't approach them as they had a Cave Troll (a massive chav). I put Sting back in its scabbard (CD case) and returned home with two new notches on my belt (pan-species list) whilst listening to the Pixies (Pixies). Anyway, I will have to go and find some more Goblin Gold in some more substantial caves further north. I think a trip to the Peak District is on the cards...

(I don't actually like Sting by the way but I needed to put that in to make the joke)

My top ten natural history moments of 2011

2011-12-22T19:36:00.000Z

10). Finishing the South Downs arable bird survey single-handed

So it took nine months, I walked nearly 600 miles and I saw some great things including: Honey Buzzard, Quail, Black Kite, Hawfinch, Waxwing, Hen Harrier, Striped Lychnis, Night-flowering Catchfly (photo), Blue Pimpernel, White Horehound and Narrow-fruited Cornsalad. It was a privilege to complete the contract so a big thank you to Natural England, everyone who helped and all the farmers.

9). Five new birds for me and all of them in Sussex!

It's great when you don't have to go that far to twitch. Quail I found myself out working (I'll cover that on its own below), Little Crake at Arundel, White-winged Black Tern at Chichester, Pallid Harrier at Burpham and Isabelline Wheatear (photo) that turned up within a few miles of me for just one day near Beachy Head were all welcome additions to my list. I think the harrier was the best bird of the year.

8). My first trip to the New Forest

If only we could turn back time and do things a little differently. I saw some great things but learnt a valuable lesson about how far obsession can go. Here is a rather smart longhorn that I saw quite a few of in the forest, Stictoleptura scutellata.

7). Time in the field with Howard Matcham

I spent some great days out with Howard this year and made a great new friend. We went to Ebernoe, Wakehurst Place even Ladies Winkins! Howard added perhaps 40-50 species to my list but this photo was my favourite, Dark Honey Fungus.

6). Seeing three Quail in one day

I can't remember the last time I found a lifer (a bird lifer). I think it was perhaps Glossy Ibis at Dunge in 2001. So, to find my first Quail was a real treat and then one month later to see three in one day was ludicrous. Here is the worst photo of a pair of Quail in flight that has ever been taken.

5). My encounter with Shelob

There are few things that make me jump (other than E.T.) but this did. When I coaxed this spider out of a wall in Chichester it just kept coming. What an absolute beast. It might be an alien but it made my day! It's Segestria florentina and if you have the balls for it I would go and have a look.

4). Cowdray invertebrates

Hollow trees, golf balls and a number of species new to Sussex. The first Wood Crickets in the county. An RDB saproxylic micro moth called Dystebenna stephensii new to Sussex. This rather handsome click beetle Ampedus cardinalis. However, one day in the field with Mark Telfer I heard him say something I have never heard him say. "What the *@#£ is that!?" in reference to a strange looking beetle that I had just found. It was only the RDB1 Laemophloeus monilis. A huge thank you to Mark for being such a help with everything natural history and giving me the beetle bug.

3). Finding a Black Kite during a farm survey

Perhaps the bird I expected to see least on a farm survey was Black Kite. Especially as it was fighting one of those common or garden Red Kites. I was a little excited.

2). The Podcast

The most fun three men can have with a microphone and some wildlife. I'm happy that people like it but I wouldn't mind if they didn't as I have so much fun recording with with Michael and Mat that anything else is a bonus. I love our theme tune that much it's my ringtone on my phone!

1). Crimson Speckled

It was a great autumn for moths and we might have seen more Flame Brocades than anyone in over a hundred years but that was nothing compared to my strange encounter with a Crimson Speckled. So, I have added 710 species so far this year. I might add a few more but not many. I'm winding down and next year will be much slower. 19% of everything I have ever seen, I have seen this year for the first time! That is crazy. Anyway, the next thousand is going to be much more chilled out.

I got some photos in British Wildlife

2011-12-19T20:40:00.000Z

I was pleased to see my Silver-studded Blue butterfly photo in the excellent journal British Wildlife today. Robin Crane has written an article on the South Downs National Park which I will be reading right about now. It's great that the Sussex Wildlife Trust reserves are getting a big mention and that lots of other friends have photos in there too!

Check out this freaky aphid!

2011-12-15T17:42:00.000Z

I went back to the area of Field Maples and willows where I found some interesting mosses yesterday. It's great having a new 'patch' I can work within a hundred yards of my office. I was trying to figure out if I had found another new liverwort or just a different form of something more familiar when I spotted these little weirdos shuffling around in a crack in some willow bark. They are Large Willow Aphids Tuberolachnus salignus and I have never heard of them before. Easy enough to identify online, read more about them on this page. What is strange about them is that they overwinter as adults. They are meant to be quite common on willow bark and are one of the biggest aphids in the UK, they were certainly pretty visible today. What may look like a male and female is most likely just a winged and an unwinged female as the males have not been recorded in the UK. In the background you can see just how small Fairy Beads are. The liverwort I originally spotted turned out to be just a small green form of Frulania dilatata but it lead me to something completely unexpected. Awesome.

Alkaline Trio

2011-12-14T18:05:00.001Z

I had a rather dull walk around Woods Mill this lunch time with my highlight being a fly over Cormorant (wahoo!). On a whim I decided to have a closer look at some mature Field Maples that I walk past most days. I was instantly confronted by a large moss that I didn't recognise. I thought it might of been Mnium hornum but I soon realised it was a pleurocarp and all the stem branches were running downwards, it's called Anomodon viticulosus. It was growing in discrete, bright-green patches that shrivel up really quickly when you leave them on your desk! It was growing beneath large areas of this moss, Neckera complanata.

Growing on the same tree I also noticed this little bryophyte. I was perplexed until I saw a dried up one. It's only Prince of Wales Feather-moss Leptodon smithii. I went all the way to Goodwood to look for this just a few weeks ago and all along it was growing right under my nose. The base-rich nature of the bark clearly results in a distinct community of mosses. I will be giving this area a good going over over the next few lunch breaks.

Episode Three of our podcast is out now!

2011-12-13T19:01:00.000Z

Here is The Natural History of Sussex Episode Three: "I love the dark, I hate nature". I hope you enjoy it, I think it's our best one yet.

A rose by any other name

2011-12-11T18:07:00.001Z

I went in search of Rose-moss Rhodobryum roseum today at Heyshott Down, I failed. I did however, have just enough time to get up to Midhurst Cemetery and find it there (thanks Howard). It's a lovely acrocarp (would you believe those two words could occur in the same sentence?) with 'huge' green rosettes. I spotted this Scapania aspera at Heyshott which is a nice liverwort that I have seen one tiny bit of at Ditchling. Both sites are great for bryophytes. Chalk-grassland bryophytes are awesome and they are a varied bunch with a lot of diversity.

Little green job

2011-12-09T18:12:00.001Z

I called in at Ditchling Beacon yesterday and boy was it bleak. Driving rain and a wind so strong it actually blew my camera case right off of my camera. I struggle with the tiny acrocarps but have often seen this one at Ditchling and decided it was time to figure it out. Under the microscope, you can clearly see the ID feature that separates it from others in the genus, the slightly projecting midrib. It's Trichostomum brachydontium.

UPDATE 10/12/2011: The above identification is wrong. Howard suggested that this species often gets confused with Barbula unguiculata. Told you I struggle with these! My moss is actually way too small to be Trichostomum and is in fact Barbula unguiculata.

I also saw Harebell in flower, a Lesser Bloody-nosed Beetle but best of all a Black Redstart. This is the first time I have seen one on a Trust reserve. I end the day on 3727. I have finally found a new house to live and will be moving over the next month. I am really excited about having access to a garden again after so many years. Now, the one good thing about Christmas is that once a year my work colleagues actually socialise, in a real pub with real booze. Tonight is that night, so don't be expecting any posts tomorrow!

Knowing your limits

2011-12-06T20:04:00.000Z

Not been feeling too great for the last few days but was keen to get back to work.I had arranged to take a group of students from Plumpton College to talk about conservation grazing at Malling Down and I didn't want to let them down. My back eased up over the morning so I went ahead. We had a good walk around the site and I spotted these black fungi growing out of the grass in the area known as Green Pits. They are earthtongues but of what species? I found a good online key but I couldn't get very far without a high-powered microscope. I am pretty confident it's in the genus Trichoglossum but I don't want to go any further than that as there are a number of species in the genus and microscope features are required to identify them. Still, I have learnt something new today and that's always a good thing.

The Descent

2011-12-04T20:45:00.000Z

We recorded the rest of Episode 3 of our podcast 'The Natural History of Sussex' with special guest Tony Hutson today. We went to a series of undisclosed locations and I saw at least four species new to me. Best of all was my first ever Brown Long-eared Bat! Not the rarest of bats but certainly one I have managed to miss for many years. Other highlights included this strange cave dwelling fly called Scoliocentra villosa.

These cave dwelling spiders were quite common but I have seen them before in other caves. It's a male Metellina merianae.

Outside we saw these smart fungi growing on the root plates of fallen trees. I am pretty sure these are called Brick Tufts. A great day out and I can't wait to hear Mat's magical editing once more!

Axil Rose

2011-12-03T17:36:00.000Z

I have finished my courses for the year and today was a good one. I enjoy giving Habitat Management for Invertebrates as it's easy to see people's minds open up to new ideas. Whilst describing ecotones and showing the sort of Blackthorn that Brown Hairstreaks are fond of laying their eggs on I tried an experiment. I sent the 10 attendees into the edge of the scrub to look for eggs and without really knowing what they were looking for except for a verbal description from me (and where to look - the axils of the twigs), someone found one within two minutes. Pretty little things under the hand lens but the photo didn't really pick it up.

1st December - Pan-species list update

2011-12-01T20:44:00.001Z

October and November have been really good months, I've added 39 and 51 species respectively and of these 58 were lower plants, particularly fungi (of which I have now seen 200 species). Pan-species listing is slowly taking off with 16 people now having submitted their lists. I have been thinking recently about how good this is. As I have said many times before, the number that represents the list is a meaningless way of quantifying a lifetimes achievement in natural history but what it represents is profound. Are we witnessing the beginnings of a renaissance of the all-round naturalist? I think so and I think Mark Telfer has done a great thing here by encouraging this behaviour. So between the 1st October and the end of November 2011 I have added 90 species and I end on 3718 species.

The mushroom above is Agaricus macrocarpus and I stumbled upon it shortly after some idiot had carried out some rural graffiti. I was trying to demonstrate how yellow this amazing fungus went when scratched (a bit like writing your name in the snow). We found these at The Mens in mid November and I first thought it was going to be a Yellow Stainer but I was struck by how intense a smell of marzipan there was. I sent some specimens to Vivien Hodge and she confirmed it as A. macrocarpus. This is only the second record for West Sussex and the third for Sussex. A white mushroom that turns yellow when you scratch the surface and smells of marzipan. I think it should be called the Christmas Cake Mushroom.

Anyway, here is the list.

Vascular plants	1149 (+2)
Moths	834 (+5)
Beetles	392 (+5)
Birds	338 (+2)
Fungi	200 (+46)
Mosses	118 (+7)
Arachnids	85 (+6)
True flies	84 (+1)
True bugs	79
Molluscs	63 (+2)
Aculeates	57 (+1)
Butterflies	53
Mammals	40 (+1)
Fish	37
Dragonflies	32
Liverworts	32 (+5)
Lichens	27
Crustaceans	26 (+2)
Crickets & grasshoppers	19
Seaweeds & algae	7 (+1)
Amphibians	6
Reptiles	6
Anemones & jellyfish	5
Mites	5
Lacewings & allies	4
Cockroaches	3
Millipedes	3
Leeches	3 (+1)
Caddisflies	2
Centipedes	2
Slime Mould	2 (+2)
Lice	1
Silverfish	1
Earwigs	1
Mayfly	1 (+1)

Which is already out of date as I added a new liverwort from Leconfield today, the rather smart Scapania nemorea. Species 3719, you can see it covered in little brown gemmae. Oh and the next podcast is about to go into production.

The Dark Knight Rises

2011-11-30T18:00:00.000Z

One last identification from Howard from Sunday was this Tricholoma sciodes, one of the knights. This one has bluish-black scales. Howard informs there are a trio of closely related species but this one is separated by distinctive dark hyphae on the gill edges.

Woods Mill suffered a power cut today and as a result I actually went on three walks around the reserve waiting for the power to come back on. It never did but I did find these Velvet Toughshanks growing out of a Crack Willow. Yet another new species and I end the day (and the month) on 3717 species.

Honey Monsters

2011-11-29T08:35:00.000Z

Well, I'll never look at a conifer plantation quite the same way again, at least not a Norway Spruce plantation. Howard showed me around a section of woodland strangely known as Ladies Winkins (?!). First up and my favourite photo of the day, actually the best shot I've taken for a while I think was this Dark Honey Fungus, itself a specialist of spruce. On the edge of the wood we spotted some nice brown agarics that turned bright red upon cutting them and Howard confirmed the species as Blushing Wood Mushroom.

I got a little over-excited at the prospect of finding one of the rarer tooth fungi but in hindsight it was just a big old Terracotta Hedgehog, an impressive beast all the same.

Nice but not a new one for me. Howard showed me Dead Moll's Fingers but the photo didn't come out well. The whole wood is full of this tiny Ramaria flaccida.

We refound these distinctive Dusky Puffballs, yet another tick for me.

And these Wood Mushrooms were an impressive sight too. I end the day on 3715 but there is still one species yet to be identified. A huge thank you to Howard for all his help with the identifications.

A Noble Wall

2011-11-28T07:35:00.000Z

After showing me his Wrinkled Peach, Howard took me to a fantastic wall on the Goodwood estate with some rather fantastic mosses. It was one of those moments where you see a new community for the first time and nearly everything is different and new. First off was the species I coveted the most, Prince of Wales Feather-moss Leptodon smithii.

And here is the exact same moss when it is dry and curled up.

Growing with the above was this moss (quite nice for an acrocarp) and also very distinctive. Howard found this soon after getting into mosses in the 1980s and it is still one of the most easterly sites for this species in the UK. It's Tortella nitida.

On the top of the same wall, I was also shown this moss which looked quite like the much commoner Homalothecium sericeum at first but was quite different on closer inspection. It's Leucodon sciuroides.

And here is Howard holding up a column, Howard is the one on the right.

I was then shown a are moss growing on the exposed roots of a Beech tree and was pleasantly surprised to find the two bryophytes growing adjacent to this moss were also ticks. So, in the order that they were revealed to me we have Cirriphyllum crassinervium.

The rather crisped up liverwort Porella platyphylla.

And the rare one, Scorpiurium circinatum.

And finally. growing on flints on the ground. The tiny and scarce moss Lophocolea fragrans.

Wrinkled Peach

2011-11-27T17:30:00.001Z

I have had an awesome day today with the international man of mosses, Howard Matcham. I asked for a site for Prince of Wales Feather-moss and actually got 21 new species! That does not include the few that Howard is going to check, perhaps the best of all today's findings will come from that lot. We went to several places within Howard's patch, and I took well over 130 photos so I am going to split today's efforts into three posts.

First off was a narrow pathway known as Stane Street. Howard had recently come across some Wrinkled Peach fungi growing on their host, elm. In fact, within an area of about one square metre, I think I added four new species to my list.

Perhaps the least spectacular but by far the scarcest was this fungus, Jumillera cinerea. Howard found this and it is the only known site for this species...in Europe!

Next to that was fungus called Firerug Inkcap, yet another new species.

And finally another tiny little fungus called Creopus gelatinosus. I am currently on 3713, I have been edging ever closer to 3700 for weeks now, I have completely trounced it today. I will be writing the next instalment tomorrow about a particularly impressive moss covered wall and the day after that I will be telling how I'll never look at a conifer plantation in the same way again...

Could pass for Crassula

2011-11-24T21:44:00.000Z

At Filsham today I stumbled across a pond with a nice muddy margin. I almost immediately groaned as I saw it was covered in (what i thought was) New Zealand Pygmyweed. A closer inspection showed it to be a water starwort and upon looking more closely at it, I realised it was Intermediate Water-starwort. This species looks to be the second commonest water-starwort after common, still it's a new one for me. The pond was also full of Fine-leaved Water-dropwort. I end the day on 3692 species.

Look who's dropped a massive log in The Mens

2011-11-18T08:46:00.000Z

You know a tree is going to be impressive when it has a name. This is the Idehurst Oak at the Mens and it's one of the biggest we have on our nature reserves. I have seen some pretty interesting things on and from this tree including the rare Lymexylon navale and even a Polecat in broad daylight. Last week we were told by a tree surgeon that the impossibly huge limb on this tree had a huge crack in it. We went to check it out yesterday but it had already come down. I was quite glad really that we didn't have to do any work on it. It has fallen in such a way that it has taken out a number of other trees, mostly Holly and Beech. It has created its own rather large canopy gap and also exposed the trunk to direct sunlight. I will be going back over the next few years to look for saproxylic beetles and fungi.

Nearby we found what I thought was going to be the Yellow Stainer but I am not so sure now as it smelt very strongly of almonds, marzipan even. Yellow Stainer is unlikely as it is meant to smell unpleasantly of ink. We are going to get hold of a specimen and get some identification on it. Vivien Hodge has kindly pointed out that it is likely to be something interesting and will do the identification for us, watch this space.

At Ebernoe I spotted another one of these mushrooms that we saw also at Woods Mill this week. Another almond scented Agaricus known as the Lilac Mushroom (and a new species for me).

I also spotted this rather awesome liverwort in Ebernoe, Plagiochila porelloides.

Minute Pantswort

2011-11-15T17:25:00.000Z

OK it's not really called that but during the course I was running today I did stumble across a load of Minute Pouncewort Cololejeunea minutissima but the attendees misheard me and thought I said pantswort. Anyway, it's very similar to Fairy Beads but this species has tiny five-sided, star-shaped perianths. That was a new species for me and one I was on the look out for after reading about Fairy Beads last night.

Due to the presence of a good mycologist on the course, I also added two fungi to the list. The first being this species known as the Goblet.

And finally but perhaps one of the strangest life forms I have ever seen was this Glue Fungus Hymenochaete corrugata. the dark fruiting bodies literally glue dead branches to living branches (particularly of Hazel).

Fairy Beads and Goblin Gold

2011-11-15T06:19:00.001Z

Today I am running a new course at Woods Mill being: 'An Introduction to Woodland Bryophytes'. I am quite looking forward to it and yesterday I went out into Hoe Wood to look for additional species to show the attendees, I wasn't expecting to get three ticks out of it. Firstly though, I found some of one of my favourite liverworts. Not all that scarce down here but a smart little thing, ridiculously little in fact. It's English name is Fairy Beads Microlejeunea ulicina. The leaves are a fraction of a millimetre across. It looks like green dust to the naked eye. This is not a new species for me but it illustrates a point. This is perhaps the only English name of a bryophyte that I use and know (apart from the rare Goblin Gold that I am yet to see but is more of a western species I'm told). They are generally poor and uninspired, with a very taxonomic approach that fails to leave anything to the imagination.

The fungi in Hoe Wood are doing very well now with masses of Clouded Agaric including this 8 m ring. Also present were Aniseed Funnel, these Tawny Funnels, Buttercaps and plenty of Wood Blewits.

I then stumbled across a load of epiphytes in the centre of the wood including this strange thallose liverwort. It looked a little like the very common Metzgeria furcata but the branches were thinner, sticking out and were covered in gemmae at their tips. This species is Metzgeria fruticulosa and was new to me.

On the same branch was this orthotricale which due to the shape of the capsules had to be Ulota bruchii. That leaves me on 3682 species.

Fungal stowaway

2011-11-12T14:45:00.000Z

Whilst putting some photos together for a course I am running next week (An Introduction to Bryophytes) I found a photo of a fungus that is not on my list, it's Phleogena faginea and the photo was hiding away amongst a load of moss pictures. I don't add many old records to the list these days. Anyway, back to the Power Point...

Lunar corona

2011-11-10T19:39:00.000Z

When I should have been setting the cups up for last night's Sussex Moth Group meeting, I was in fact taking photos of the most amazing lunar corona I have ever seen, and Jupiter's presence added to the effect. When we came out of the meeting, the moon was showing another optical phenomena, a 22 degree halo, just like the one you see with sundogs.

Being so mild we put the trap out despite the bright moon. The highlight was this pretty little tortrix that Alice spotted on the wall. It's the Nb Acleris logiana, a recent arrival to the south that used to be restricted to Scotland. Thanks to Tony Davis for confirming the ID based upon the loose scales on the costa. That puts me on 3678 species!

House of Waxcaps

2011-11-10T18:21:00.000Z

I've been at Ebernoe the last few days and have spent my lunch breaks on the cricket pitch trying to get to grips with waxcaps. I downloaded Peter Russell's key and headed out into the field, literally. There were a few species there that I already new like Snowy Waxcap and Parrot Waxcap. By far the two most abundant species there are red ones and yellow ones. The bright scarlet ones with dryish caps keyed out to Scarlet Waxcaps.

The orange/yellow ones keyed out to Golden Waxcap. This also seems right as the cap and stem are both very slimy, quite different to the other species.

Back to the reserve and a quick look over the wall of the churchyard showed these Meadow Waxcaps. A big waxcap with an apricot cap and a white stipe. Three new waxcaps in one day (they are all common) but the best fungus I saw was this attractive little things called an Earthy Powdercap. If you like brightly coloured fungus in large numbers, go and have a look at the cricket pitch!

And finally, whilst attaching a data logger to a Beech tree deep under the understroey of Holly, I spotted this strange thing. I thought it was Lepidoptera at first but I now realise it's Diptera (it had no legs when I lifted it up and looked under its skirt - how rude). Is this the larvae of some kind of hoverfly? It was about 1 cm long. Would love to know if anyone knows what species or genus this in, never seen anything like it. Like a stegosaurus crossed with a slug.

Red-headed Stepchild

2011-11-09T23:44:00.000Z

This is a Red-headed Chestnut and it's a really rare migrant moth. Caught several days ago in Bracklesham Bay, this moth was shown tonight in the exhibits section of the Sussex Moth Group meeting. I love seeing new species but I refuse to add a species in a pot to my list. If we start counting species behind plastic on our pan-species lists, then why not go to a zoo and start ticking off tigers and monkeys? Where do you draw the line? I think if you are on the same survey as someone and they put a specimen in a container to show you to stop it flying off, then that is OK. I won't be ticking this moth but I thought it made an interesting story. Where do other listers stand on this?

Pie-eyed

2011-11-07T18:02:00.001Z

I went a quick walk around Woods Mill at lunch today and saw half a dozen or more of these little mayflies on the bridge by the stream restoration. They were looking like they had very recently emerged and I thought it odd that they were six months too late (or too early). Basically as far away from May as you can get. It wasn't until I looked a little closer that I realised it had something really strange going on with its head. Are these the eyes? Bob Edgar told me that some male mayflies can have their eyes extended upwards and this is known as being 'turbinate'. It seems so strange as they don't seem to look like a typical compound eye. Here is a close up. I can't get it to species but it has highlighted a blind spot for me. With only around 50 species in the UK, this is surely not a difficult group. It looks like I'll be ordering the FBA key.

08/11/2011 UPDATE: Patrick Roper thinks it's the Pond Olive Cloeon dipterum (also one of the three species Bob suggested and the one I thought looked most likely from a Google search). However, I prefer the Turbinator.

Episode 2 of our podcast out now!

2011-11-07T07:07:00.000Z

Episode 2 of the The Natural History of Sussex is out now. 'Some Things in their Natural State Have the Most Vivid Colours'. It's also on iTunes now too. This month we are focusing on fungi at Ebernoe Common and are accompanied by Howard Matcham. The target species is the rare Lion's Mane...

Steppe family

2011-11-06T19:30:00.000Z

I've just got back from a great weekend in Staffordshire with the family indulging in all things Staffordshire. We kicked the weekend off with a double bill of Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine movies (they're both from within 10 miles of where I grew up) being Dead Man's Shoes and A Room for Romeo Brass. Both great films and in my opinion superior to This Is England. This has been the soundtrack of the weekend, thanks Jess! I know these guys are a bit mainstream now but you know, I quite like them. So there.

I managed to get some natural history in too. In fact, I even managed to convince my sister and niece to come twitching with me. Just down the road (well 29 miles) in Shropshire there has been a Steppe Grey Shrike for the last week or so and I was glad to see it was still there. A nice bird, it seemed to spend a lot of time low down on the ground and even landed in a stubble field on one occasion. You can see the pale bill and lores, huge white wing panel and slightly sandy underparts. From this photo though, I don't think Max and Jess were finding standing in a field with a bunch of strangers staring at a bird quite as exciting as I was.

Back to Staffordshire and I find Mum picking Liberty Caps on the lawn. She didn't intend to eat them, I think more to stop my little one year old nephew Rowan eating them and tripping his nuts off. On Mum's front lawn I also saw these Snowy Waxcaps which were pretty cool. I even saw Peregrine, Red Kite and Barn Owl on the journey back to Sussex.

The Magus

2011-11-02T20:40:00.000Z

This is one of my favourite mosses and it grows in abundance in Leconfield Glade at Ebernoe. It's Dicranum majus and it's much bigger, with longer more curved leaves, than the much commoner Dicranum scoparium featured below. I did add one new fungi to my list today being Lumpy Bracket but the photos didn't come out. That was species 3670.

The Money Pit

2011-11-01T20:50:00.000Z

You know it's getting hard to find new species when you decide to have a go at a few money spiders. I found a couple of different mature males on a gate post today and tried to identify them both. One I failed completely with, the second was easy enough. I looked down the microscope to see the strangest looking palps, with spines all over the place. I was fairly confident that it was Erigone dentipalpis, a common spider. A new one for my list though (3668) but more importantly, I've made money spiders just a little more accessible today. They are not something I am going to be able to ignore forever making up a very large proportion of UK's spiders.

666, The Number of the Beech Jellydisc

2011-10-30T20:04:00.000Z

Had a nice walk around Ebernoe today and five new fungi and a slime mould. This Lemon Disco was a new one for me, not rare at all but one I have some how overlooked. Very poor light meant I was struggling to get good shots today but I did manage this shot of Beech Jellydisc, another new species for my list and my 3666 species. Significant in that I made it to two thirds of the way to 4000.

Me and Ray

2011-10-28T20:56:00.001+01:00

Sounds so much better than Ray and I. It's already on ITV Player. The wildlife and the Downs were looking great and I was pleased to see the specimen of the strange spider Gibbaranea gibbosa that I found that day on TV too.

I'm on Wild Britain with Ray Mears tonight at 8.00 pm on ITV

2011-10-28T17:17:00.000+01:00

I'm gonna be on Wild Britain with Ray Mears tonight at 8.00pm on ITV. We are looking at chalk-grassland, the Downs and Adonis Blues. I have not seen the show yet so I have no idea what to suspect, I can hardly remember filming it it was so long ago, way back in May. All I remember is it was very, very windy, wet and cold for May, hence the matching anoraks and grimaces. Strangely, during a break in filming, Ray showed me a cure for flatulence.

Walkabout

2011-10-25T18:05:00.000+01:00

I have a week off to write up the farm surveys and also to get my life back in order after a difficult summer. It's going very well but it does mean I'm not getting out much. I have started thinking that it's about time I went on another adventure as it's been over two years since I went to Australia. I wished I had been blogging back then as it was a pretty intense time with lots to show and tell! My trip was more like Mad Max or the Proposition than Crocodile Dundee though. I did see about 230 birds I hadn't seen before, I did about 6500 km in a rented Nissan Micra but I did feel like I was about to die on two occasions, something I had never experienced before and do not want to ever again. Here is some more atmospheric music from Nick Cave and John Hillcoat's outstanding film the Proposition.

So what on Earth happened? Picture the scene. It's a very hot day in Melbourne, 7th February 2009 to be precise. So hot that the thermometer exploded when we put it outside. I wanted to go into the ranges to look for Superb Liarbird, only about 15 miles or so out of the city centre. Although I was staying with friends who lived in the city, none of us had heard the warnings about going out into the bush that day.

It was so hot that it hurt to breathe and when the breeze blew, it actually made it worse, like opening an oven door. It was the hottest day on record at 46.7 degrees. Half way round a long circular walk, ignorant to the danger we were in and where the only birds we had seen were Kookaburras in the car park and a Satin Flycatcher, we heard an air-raid siren. I cannot begin to describe how terrifying this was as it stayed on continuously for the hour it took to run back what was mostly an up hill slog. Then the wind came and trees started coming down around us. Then I saw the horizon was brown and I new this meant smoke, so the fire was not far away. For that hour, nothing but the thought of being overcome with flames passed through my mind, sheer terror.

But we got out OK and drove back down a road that two hours ago had been clear, to see it strewn with debris from the incredibly strong winds that were pushing the fires. We were amazed to drive past fires at the sides of the road and then within 30 minutes were back in Melbourne. It wasn't until we turned on the news that I realised how lucky we had been and how big this was, being Australia's highest ever loss of life from bush-fires, 173 people died that day and I had stupidly put myself and Joe right in the middle of it. It was a very sobering way to start such a trip and I will always think of the poor people who died that day. We didn't see liarbirds that day but I did stumble across them a few days later on the edge of Sydney.

I then went on to have a great time with Gee, Kirsty and Katherine in Sydney before heading out into the desert where I got more than I bargained for with some locals and I'm not talking about this Red Kangaroo but that will have to wait for another day...

The Pillars of the Earth

2011-10-24T18:03:00.000+01:00

I went a quick walk up to Wolstonbury Hill this afternoon to look for a Large-leaved Lime I knew was there. I managed to scupper myself by leaving the grid reference at home but fortunately I did find the tree. I took this shot looking up between the two main stems of the stool. This is a new species for me.

There was quite a bit of Wych Elm nearby too.

I found the shell of a snail that I hadn't seen before. The distinctive Large Chrysalis Snail Abida secale but I can't tick that because it was already dead. Looking at the atlas the snail is restricted to chalk in the south and some limestone in the north.

I've got Nail Fungus!

2011-10-21T19:45:00.001+01:00

But fortunately for you and me, it's not on my body but it's on my list. I was Googling Nail Fungus to show it to a colleague and got a nasty surprise, hence the title of the post. It did make me laugh...at first, then it made me feel sick. Anyway, Nail Fungus is a rare species that grows out of horse dung and is known from Old Lodge. There wasn't much there but we did see three little patches, last year it was abundant but it has been very dry this autumn. I went on a fungal recording day today followed by a walk around the site to discuss grazing and management. Ray Tantrum lead the field trip and she was a wealth of knowledge. I added nine species to my list leaving me on 3658 species.

Species I didn't manage to get good shots of and that were new to me were: Poisonpie, Snowy Waxcap, Orange Mosscap, Pleated Inkcap and Yellow Fieldcap. The main reason for this is that mycologists have a frustratting skill of picking fungi for identification before I can get a chance to photograph them in situ!

This Russula was a new one for me being identifiable in the field by the exposed gills around the edge. It is known as Bare-toothed Brittlegill. I saw in Roger Phillips that it also has another name, the Flirt!

I then spotted two of these little guys, the rather infamous Liberty Cap but that was not a tick for me but I don't see them that often.

After a long walk around the site we bumped into the recording group again and Ray showed us another interesting fungus on a burn site. It's Pine Firefungus. I thought they looked like some kind of dessert, perhaps profiteroles or that stuff you poor on ice cream that solidifies into chocolate. Everyone else thought they just looked like dog muck. Now I'm looking at the photos I have to say that perhaps I was just hungry at the time.

East Hastings

2011-10-19T17:57:00.002+01:00

OK, firstly what might seem like a dull and uninspired title, as ever has a double meaning on this blog. It is in fact the name of the track by Godspeed You! Black Emperor that featured on that scene in 28 Days Later when Cillian Murphy wakes up from hospital to find everyone has disappeared...or worse. Beautifully-rich, menacing, desolate and empowering. Everything you could ask from a piece of music! Well, me perhaps. I've included a link to it below. Indulge me and hit play whilst you read the post!

It is also where I have been today in a physical sense.

I took a day flexi and met up with Andy Phillips. Andy showed me a great spot for Ivy Bees, a bee I have been looking for this autumn but have so far failed to find. There were lots in a fairly central location in Hastings. What struck me first though, and this was very evident, was not the size or the markings but the sound. So distinctive that I later identified one in flight at a different location.

Also, look how crisp these macro shots are with the old Coolpix! No cropping, no editing, straight onto my computer an then straight onto the blog. I have missed this!

And here is where they are nesting, in the earth between the sandstone rocks.

We then went onto Hasting Country Park. I was embarrassed to admit to Andy I had not been there before. Disgraceful. We headed to an area Andy calls the 'Legendary Valley' in the hope of seeing Sickle-bearing Bush-cricket and other scarce invertebrates.

What struck me the most from the top of the hill was the view. Ten years ago I would have been down there to the east at Dungeness looking up at this hill but I have never seen the view from the other direction. You can even see the cliffs of Dover, Beachy Head and the coast of France too. Through a telescope on a clear day you can even see cars in France! Quite impressive. We didn't see the Sickle-bearers or the scarce spiders but Andy did catch this male Zygiella atrica which was a new one to me. It has huge long palps and is quite different to Zygiella x-notata which is common in the kitchen at Woods Mill.

We went closer to the sea to the location of this RDB3 beetle. It's a rare weevil called Cathormiocerus myrmecophilus and Andy found it in between rosettes of Buckshorn Plantain. The beetle is tiny and exactly the same colour as the sand but if you look carefully you can see the flattish, hair-like scales on the elytra. I end the day on 3649 species.

I was quite taken with Hastings CP. The view back to the west is incredible. It really reminds me of the Mediterranean cost and has a surprisingly wild feel for the Sussex coast line. I can't wait to see more of it next summer.

Look who's back on the scene!

2011-10-18T10:55:00.000+01:00

A big thank you to Mark Telfer for selling me his old Coolpix. Since the start of July I have felt a little like part of me has been missing. My Coolpix began making a rather ungodly sound as I pointed it at an ovipositing Hornet Beetle nearly four months ago now. It might only have 4 megapixels but it is perfect for my blog. I look forward to taking more macro shots with it. Stuck at home today with a fever though, so it's not going to be today.

2.5mm

2011-10-17T20:36:00.000+01:00

I had a quick walk around Woods Mill at lunch time and did a bit of sweeping. There was very little about but I did get two new species. The first being a smart little spider called Zilla diodia. the other was this tiny little beetle (c2.5mm) that I couldn't identify at first. Eventually, after much perserverance, I stumbled across it on the website Kerbtier and then went back to Joy and the checklist. It's Psammoecus bipunctatus and is associated with sedge litter acording to Joy and that is exactly where I found it. Nice to see that I can still find new things in mid October on my lunch break but I fear it will not last much longer with the weather that is predicted. I end the day on 3644 species.

Back straight, chest out

2011-10-15T16:55:00.004+01:00

The top image was kindly emailed to me from Andy Swash of WorldWildlifeImages.com and shows many of the crucial ID features. Andy was also one of the people who found the bird so I am doubly thankful. Check out the website for truly stunning nature photography! Anyway, how did I get to be looking at this bird today?...

...I went to Beachy Head in the hope of finding some migrants. It was pretty dull and I had walked from Birling Gap to Shooter's Bottom and all I had seen were two Wheatears and a dung beetle in my dreads. Says a lot for what my head looks like to a flying dung beetle. I was feeling pretty despondent, when I got a text from Jake saying 'Isabelline Wheatear at Crowlink'. Just around the corner from where I was but a frustrating fifteen minute walk back to the car!

I legged it back and hardly took anything in on the return journey. I looked down to see what I thought was going to be a Bloody-nosed Beetle on its back. I flipped it over and I realised it was a small, smooth dor beetle, a species I knew would be of note and also new to me. Although I thought it keyed out to Trypocopris vernalis, the Spring Dumble Dor, Peter Hodge says it looks more like the Heath Dumble Dor Trypocopris pyrenaeus but Mark Telfer agrees with me. Watch this space for the definitive ID.

Anyway, I got to Crowlink and the bird was showing well. I managed some record shots through Bob's telescope (thanks Bob) but I hope someone will email me a nicer one to use on my blog. A nice bird, long legs, good posture, big black beak. Very pale, thick black tail band, strikingly pale underwings but most importantly a new species for me! So, with that and the beetle I am on 3642 and this is the first triple blog day I have had in a long time! Now, I think that deserves a drink...

Avian themed fungal ticks

2011-10-15T11:16:00.000+01:00

Went to Ebernoe yesterday to look at the Dormice boxes there too but I don't think we encountered a single small mammal. I was keeping my eyes peeled for fungi but there were very few about. I did spot this Shaggy Inkcap but that's certainly not new for me. Pleased with the shot though.

On the way from West Dean Mark told me had seen some Parrot Waxcaps in the churchyard at Ebernoe and I new these would be a tick for me if they were still there, which they were. Not quite as bright as I was expecting but you can see the pink, green and yellow.

Just around the corner Mark had also found some birds nest fungi and I was pleased to realise when I got home they were also a tick for me being Fluted Birdsnest Fungi. Strange little things indeed. Thanks Mark, I owe you two!

Finally, I found a small male spider with the strangest palp (one was missing). It also had relatively huge chelicerae under the hand lens and it was quite clearly another news species for me. It's a common species but one I would easily recognise again being Pachygnatha degeeri. I ended the 14th October 2011 on 3640 species and amazingly have had over 7500 page views in October alone!

Moths Return

2011-10-15T07:17:00.001+01:00

Here is the link to the news item that Michael Blencowe, Tony Davis and I did on Thursday night with Yvette Austin, Environment Correspondent for BBC South East Today.

I was quite pleased with it actually, thought they got the message across really well and of course, great that we actually caught a number of the target species!

Furry ginger thing with a spine

2011-10-14T18:42:00.000+01:00

I'm not really that up on mammals so it will not come as a surprise to know that I saw my first ever Dormice at West Dean Woods today! I went out with Mark Monk-Terry and the volunteers (who all have Dormice handling licences I should add) to monitor the population there. There are 50 boxes that are checked and any small mammals are sexed and weighed, the animal above weighed only 12g. We saw I think 13 Dormice in all, and this was the only one that was in a torpor, perhaps because it was alone within a small nest. Here is a better example of a Dormouse nest.

We found a male and female in one box that were huge, much bigger than the others, and the female, one of the biggest they had ever seen, was thought possibly to be pregnant. At 35g she was nearly three times the size of the one above. It's nearly as big as Mark's hand. We left a flyer for Weight Watchers.

I don't really get cute things but I have to say they are quite cute. Compared to the hectic nature of the Yellow-necked Mouse below, that run around inside the bag like a whirlwind and don't really give the impression that they would be easy to handle, the Dormice do seem quite appealing. They are very docile, they don't bite often and even fall asleep in the bags when you are weighing them. They also look considerably less like rats and much more like tiny monkeys with their rather silly feet (look at the second photo above). So, I can see why people go all gooey eyed at them.

You can see the complete yellow band across the neck on the Yellow-necked Mouse above. Compare to the Wood Mouse below. It was a great day and it has made me realise I would like to do more with small mamals. For part two of todays adventures you will have to wait until tomorrow as Mark showed me two species of fungi new to me at Ebenoe right near the car park!

Filming moths with BBC South East Today

2011-10-13T21:19:00.000+01:00

So the last few weeks have been rather full on with all the media attention the Flame Brocades got. Tonight, Michael, Tony Davis and I filmed the moths with BBC South East Today with Yvette Austin. It looks like it will be on tomorrow at lunch time and on the evening news if all goes to plan!

Big up da Lewes Downs massif

2011-10-12T21:22:00.000+01:00

I went a walk up to Hollingbury Hill Fort today and have never really noticed what a great view of the Lewes Downs massif you can see from there if you look to the north east. You can clearly see it's a separate portion of the Downs with the very noticeable Mount Caburn (146m) on the right. Behind the quarry in the centre of the massif is Southerham and on the left behind the almost invisible football stadium is Malling Down, you can see clearly right up the Coombe. Lewes itself on the other hand, is concealed from view.

From pretty much the same vantage point you can see Truleigh Hill looking to the west, only about 5 miles away from Brighton as the crow flies but it is great to know that one of the farms I surveyed there had 50 Skylark territories, over 20 Corn Bunting territories and three singing Quail. Not only that but some really great arable plants. It's nice to know that some of the closest parts of the Downs to me are so great. It all feels so much smaller from the top of the fort.

Palps

2011-10-10T19:43:00.000+01:00

OK, so I thought I would show some male palps (of a spider) down the microscope. I saw this spider in the toilets at work today and was surprised at how big the palps were. I thought it was going to be Steatoda nobilis but I am pretty sure (and I'm sure Andy Phillips will tell me if I'm right!) this is Steatoda bipunctata. This is actually a new species for me and although there are a number of species in the genus it was very clear which species this was. Strange to think this is watching me in the toilets all the time. It should watch out though, I have seen the rather pathetic looking Pholcus phalangioides make short work of a Tegeneria several times its size.

Epigynes

2011-10-08T15:00:00.000+01:00

Alice presented me with this little crab spider last week. She found it in her hair upon returning from a day's work at Filsham Reedbed so I thought I would have a go at identifying it. I recognised it as being in the genus Xysticus but there are twelve species and need to be seperated by their genitalia. With spiders, this is all on the outside but the female's genitalia, the epigyne, is (for me at any rate) far harder to distinguish than the male's genitalia, the palps. I think this is because the palps are more complex and it is easier to observe variation between more complex structures than simple ones.

I have only ever seen one species, Xysticus cristatus and I identified that from a male specimen. Knowing that this was from a wetland and reading that there was a swamp specialist in the genus (ulmi), I gave it a go. Here is the epigyne, I think it is just the common species cristatus but this just goes to show how hard I find them. I am not confident enough to put it to species. Xysticus sp. it is then. No ticks for me and from now on I will concentrate on the males.

We've only gone and started our own podcast!

2011-10-07T18:19:00.000+01:00

Some of you may know that Michael Blencowe and I and our new pal, Mat Davidson have been up to something of late. Here it is: our new monthly podcast, 'The Natural History of Sussex: Episode One - Fairwell and Adieu'. I'm not going to write much else other than to urge you to have a listen! Enjoy.

Like moths to a flame

2011-10-07T16:22:00.003+01:00

Wow! Whatever next. Our discovery of the largest number of Flame Brocades seen in 130 years that may indicate an established population has made the national press (along with the arrival of loads of other migrant moths here and elsewhere in the country). The first I new of it this morning was that migrant moths were mentioned on both BBC Radio 4 and Radio 5. I got a call from Michael about 10.00 am saying it was in pretty much ALL the papers. I grabbed a Guardian and indeed there was the article with a nice picture of a Death's-head Hawk-moth. Here is a Vestal that Penny and I caught at Woods Mill last night, yet another migrant.

Now, I get back home and it appears the story has been run in all these publications too:

BBC News Online/Interactive

Scottish Daily Express - Online

West Sussex County Times Series - Online

The Independent - Online

There are at least another 15 to add to this list. Pretty amazing stuff really. It is frightening how fast the media moves.

Since writing this it appears the moth might also be on the ITV local news between 6.00pm and 6.30pm tonight AND apparently it is going to be on Autumnwatch too!!!

Recent moth antics attract media attention...

2011-10-06T19:02:00.000+01:00

Recent migrant moth trapping I was involved with over the last week is beginning to stir up a mini media storm, the first article I am aware of is this one in the Littlehampton Gazette. It's looking like the best migrant moth year since 2006. Whatever next!? You'll soon find out...

Crimson Speckled!!!

2011-10-04T21:20:00.001+01:00

I was not expecting to see this moth this morning. Michael and I went moth trapping near Beachy Head last night looking for rare migrant moths. We didn't see much last night but went to sort the traps this morning. A few nice things were in the grass around the first trap including a Convolvulus Hawk-moth and my first ever Palpita vitrealis. We put it in a pot for a photograph later. There were perhaps six Vestals present too. We went on to the next trap and had two Scarce Bordered Straws, this nice looking Ni Moth and another Convolvulus.

So rather an impressive haul. What happened next verged on the farcical. I attempted to get a photo of vitrealis. I went for a record shot first as it was a lively individual. Here it is. Pretty little thing but who likes photos of moths in pots? Not me. So, I attempted to get it onto a dark background and it flew off very quickly into a hedge!

I dashed round to the hedge and was tapping the hedge with my net hoping to dislodge it again. However, what actually happened was that I found myself staring at a Crimson Speckled! What an amazing looking moth and something that I thought I would never see. The photo is of the moth at rest where I found it. What I love about this though is there is a very good chance we would never have seen it if I hadn't let the vitrealis go! It just goes to show that it's OK to make mistakes. I won't be so hard on my self in the future. I end the day on 3633 species and this is surely my natural history highlight of the year.

Flame on!

2011-10-02T11:41:00.003+01:00

Wow! Last night was a rather good moth night. I went to Michael Blencowe's with Mat Davidson for a spot of mothing. The weather was looking good, with a warm night predicted and gentle southerly winds. I was hoping for scarce migrants and given Michael had a Flame Brocade a few days ago, I thought we were in with a good chance. We set up two traps and pretty much the first moth we saw was this Scarce Bordered Straw (below). I have seen this moth once before in my garden in Rugeley when I was a kid probably 18 years ago. There was a steady trickle of Dark Sword-grass and Silver-Y but not much else so we decided to go and do some torching on the coast...

...we saw a few Bricks and a Green-brindled Crescent but it seemed quiet, then Michael caught a Flame Brocade (top photo). Then I caught one, then another and another. Flame Brocade was by far the commonest moth, reaching double figures! A new species for me, it was incredible to be witnessing this, whether it be a recent colonisation or a mass migration.

Back to the traps in the morning, Dusky Thorns, Feathered Brindles and Feathered Ranunculus were all nice to see but this Ni Moth (above) was yet another rare migrant new to both myself and Michael. Other migrants included the Delicate, L-album Wainscot and Diamond-back Moth. We also recorded the monstrous Western Conifer Seed Bug. Two new macro moths in one night, that leaves me on 3630. We also had Redpoll, Siskin, Tree Pipit and Crossbill flying over head in the morning.

1st October - pan-species list update

2011-10-01T14:09:00.000+01:00

Here is my 1st October pan-species list update, two months since my last one. Partly due to time of year, partly due to exhaustion and partly due to unforeseen circumstances, I have really slowed down in the last two months. I have only added 27 species since my last update two months ago leaving me on 3628 at the end of September. Highlights out of this lot have to be Pallid Harrier, Marsh Gentian, Rootless Duckweed and Dog Stinkhorn.

Vascular plants	1147 (+3)
Moths	829 (+1)
Beetles	387 (+6)
Birds	336 (+1)
Fungi	154 (+4)
Mosses	111
True flies	83 (+1)
True bugs	79 (+3)
Arachnids	79 (+5)
Molluscs	61 (+1)
Aculeates	56
Butterflies	53
Mammals	39 (+1)
Fish	37
Dragonflies	32
Liverworts	28
Lichens	27
Crustaceans	24
Crickets & grasshoppers	19
Amphibians	6
Reptiles	6
Seaweeds & algae	6
Anemones & jellyfish	5
Mites	5
Cockroaches	3
Lacewings & allies	4
Millipedes	3
Caddiesflies	2
Centipedes	2
Leeches	2
Earwigs	1
Lice	1
Silverfish	1 (+1)

Facehugger

2011-09-29T22:35:00.000+01:00

NEWT: 'My mommy always said there were no monsters - no real ones - but there are'

Man, I'm a bit gutted that I am missing a screening of 'Aliens' at the Duke of York's tonight (I can't stay up until 2.00 am on a school night!). So, here is the next best thing. I had my first encounter with the very rare Fen Raft Spider Dolomedes plantarius in East Sussex today. It might only be a youngster but it was still pretty impressive.

The Genus Stenus

2011-09-28T18:53:00.000+01:00

Whilst sampling aquatic invertebrates yesterday at Woods Mill I spotted a small rove beetle in the tray and thought I would attempt to identify it. There are more species of rove beetles in the UK than there are macro moths, over a thousand! This is around a quarter of all beetles so I can't ignore them forever. I bought the key to Staphylinidae by Derek Lott and Roy Anderson in the summer but have not really used it much. The beetle I found yesterday is clearly in the genus Stenus, of which there are 74 species!

It did key out quite easily though and I managed to get it to species, Stenus solutus. I read a little more into the natural history of the genus and discovered something quite remarkable. As these species live by water, they have an adaptation for getting back into emergent vegetation. They land on the surface tension of the water and secrete a strong detergent. This reduces the surface tension at one end of the beetle, producing a net force in the direction they wish to travel. How cool is that?!

Pond dipping for grown ups

2011-09-27T18:52:00.000+01:00

OK so I hadn't quite finished my field work. I have wanted to initiate some standardised aquatic invertebrate monitoring on the lake at Woods Mill for some time. This is to gauge the effectiveness of any future management.. Ideally three visits are needed in spring, summer and autumn. I started by defining the mesohabitats and these were: floating broad-leaved aquatics, fine-leaved submerged aquatics, leaf litter under alder and willow carr, reed dominated margins and sedge dominated margins. Three minutes of sampling was divided up between the five mesohabitats. Three of these needed a boat to get to due to the size of the lake.

Invertebrates were sorted in the field and stored in alcohol for later identification. Unsurprisingly there wasn't a lot of invertebrates to be seen, plenty of room for improvement. A big thank you to Alex Collins for helping out today and to Fran Southgate for taking the photos. I certainly miss being out on a boat. What a coincidence, I seem to have found myself out of the office for the next three days and the weather forecast looks rather good...

Lipstick of the woods

2011-09-25T17:15:00.000+01:00

Oli and I went to search for Dog Stinkhorn today at Ebernoe Common. The first fungus we saw were the Ballerinas or Pink Waxcaps that are pretty much guaranteed at this time of year in Ebernoe Churchyard. We also met two mycologists in the churchyard, Nigel Reeve and Richard Bullock. I mentioned our quest for the little stinker and they told us that they could show us a spot where they saw them last year. We got there and there were none to be seen. I was pretty much about to give up and look elsewhere when Richard spotted this one, a big thanks Richard. Man alive, what a strange and disgusting looking thing it is. I had a good sniff off it at close range, although subtle compared to the regular Stinkhorn, it did smell a little less like a rotting corpse and a bit more like a dog poo. Unsurprisingly, wretching ensued once more. I have a far too sensitive nose for such antics.

I also saw my first Chanterelle, I am not sure how I have managed to miss this species for so long. Other notable finds included Grey Club and this Elfin Saddle. I end the day on 3621 species.

Dark Star

2011-09-24T13:37:00.004+01:00

DOOLITTLE: "What is your one purpose in life?"

BOMB: "To explode, of course"

During a rare trip into town to buy some new walking boots for work, I called in at the Dumb Waiter on Sydney Street for some lunch. I had a call from Tony a few weeks ago saying he had some earthstars growing in the garden but this is the first chance I have had to take a look. I am sure they are Collared Earthstars, the only earthstar I have ever seen but then only twice. Both in conifer plantations at The Lodge and closer to home at Graffham Common. These are growing under a kiwi tree in Brighton's North Laine where it is very dark due to the dense canopy of leaves, a place I often retreat to in the heat of summer. I am fairly sure this is the first time they have appeared there. The photo was taken with my camera phone and I am really pleased with the shot considering the poor light. As ever the food was great! Om nom nom.

Actually, I think it reminds me a little of the Planet Defender Ion Cannon from The Empire Strikes Back...

Pantilius

2011-09-23T19:47:00.000+01:00

I found a bug that I had not seen before today on the side of the class room at work. I think that may be the first Het that I have added to my list for a couple of months. It's the late flying and ridiculously named Pantilius tunicatus. Today is also significant as I have finished all my field work for another year. I am both pleased that it's all finished and saddened in equal measures. I must now prepare myself for a winter in the office. I think if I didn't have to do this each year I would go completely nuts.

The UK's smallest vascular plant

2011-09-21T17:07:00.000+01:00

I called in briefly at Lewes Railways Lands yesterday to see the country's smallest vascular plant, Rootless Duckweed Wolffia arrhiza. Michael Blencowe informed me of its presence there a few weeks back and took me to the exact spot. It looks like algae from a distance and feels quite odd to the touch, a little like couscous or Hundreds and Thousands. Dwarfed even by Least Duckweed, this really is an odd plant. I've always wanted to see this species and it brings my pan-species list up to 3615. It did however not feel like a plant tick, more like alien baby food. I think I look quite at home in a ditch!

Valley of the Lost Raptors

2011-09-20T21:07:00.000+01:00

I woke up early this morning and read through emails stating that the problem harrier at Burpham had been confirmed as a juvenile Pallid Harrier. I was just thinking that I should have gone at the weekend when I got a text from Jake Everitt saying he had just seen it. Before I new it I was on the A27. I figured I would have about 1 hr and 45 mins before it would make me late for work.

It had not shown for about three hours and I was starting to get that dipping feeling. I really wanted to avoid that feeling but we were getting a relentless display of raptors. In addition, more Grey Partridge than I have seen or heard all year. The classy male Hen Harrier that landed in front of us to eat a vole (in rather large chunks) that we had just seen it catch, was beginning to feel like a booby prize. A welcome booby prize but still a booby prize.

I had ten minutes to go and I spotted a brown harrier heading towards us from over the horizon and as it came closer (being mobbed by a Merlin) it was clear that this was the Pallid Harrier! It then came close, landing in the field in front of us, then quartering along the hedge and showing off all its ID features. This really is a stunning bird, made all the more exciting by how surprised I was by this. I have seen juvenile Montagu's Harrier before but it wasn't quite as vibrant and contrasting as this bird is. I asked Matt Eade if he would mind if I showed some of his pictures off on my blog and he was kind enough to forward them to me. Have a look at Matt's blog, Seaford Birding, for more of his wildlife photography. Thanks Matt! Now, after that, the twitch is definitely back on. I've already been to look at Britain's smallest vascular plant this evening but that will have to wait for tomorrow...

Can you see the invisible spider?

2011-09-19T18:53:00.000+01:00

This is the Invisible Spider Drapetisca socialis, it's quite a common spider on tree trunks. I tend to see it on trees with smoother bark like this Ash or Beech. I was at Ditchling Beacon today repeating some fixed-point photography. I did get one tick, the unremarkable snail known as the Lesser Bulin Ena obscura which was also at rest on a tree trunk.

Perhaps the most surprising thing though was a very late and very tatty Silver-spotted Skipper nectaring on Devil's-bit Scabious.

Short and sweet

2011-09-16T17:56:00.000+01:00

Finished the NVC at Waltham faster than I was expecting and I'm half way through digitising already. Got a plant tick (Small Sweet-grass) thanks to a tip off. It's got short, tapering, slightly glaucous leaves and is loads smaller than all the other Glycerias. Couple of Blackwits on the lake. This post title works on so many levels.

How to NVC map a nature reserve - part 1

2011-09-14T20:08:00.000+01:00

I'm not doing as much natural history this year as this time last year so I thought I would concentrate on something different and offer up some fiel work mapping experience. I thought it was about time we had a detailed, accurate and updated NVC map for Waltham Brooks. August was the month I planned to do the mapping but that has drifted into September now. That's not a problem though as wetlands are quite easy to map and the vegetation persists at this time of year. So how do you go about doing it? Recent aerial photographs are vital for this procedure in order to maintain accuracy. If you have them in a GIS package all the better. Make the photograph transparent so that you can draw on a print out easily with pencil but still see detail in the photo. Once you have series of maps at a suitable scale, chuck them in your Weatherwriter and head out into the field. Even with a Weatherwrite though, this becomes near impossible to do in rain.

When I start a new NVC, even if I am familiar with the site I always start by a walk around the site. I use this time to deside what communties are present and if I cannot instantly asign an NVC community to a patch of vegetation, then at least I can define it at this time. Once I've done this I start the mapping which can be quite labour intensive. As you need to cover the whole site, it means you need to cover it in a level of detail that you are unlikely to replicate during any other task. It's this reason why it's a great way to monitor a site, particularly where stands of plants tend to be species poor and quadrats become fairly meaningless. In this shot you can see the communities MG9, MG10 and W1. In addition, look carefully and you can see, the world's smallest rainbow!

Once I have finished the mapping I can start the second phase, digitising! Once the communities are mapped and stored on the computer, they can be used as a back drop to any other map and the total size of the communities present can be calculated, a really valuable resource as both a baseline and a tool for guiding management. I'll show the final 'product' in the exciting second part to this article later in the year...

The natural history of...trolls!?

2011-09-12T18:57:00.000+01:00

Warning, this post contains spoilers! Do you know your Ringlefinches from your Mountain Kings? Probably not because as far as I know there are no trolls in Sussex (but I guess if there were they would be somewhere in Ebernoe). The Troll Hunter was one of the most engaging and original films I have seen in years, difficult even to pin to a genera as it is so much more than either a monster movie or a comedy. But the reason I am writing about it on this blog is the level of detail that went into thinking about the natural history in this film, albeit completely fantastical. As a naturalist I found this really exciting and it added to the dry, understated humour of the film. The recording proforma that I am so familiar with was used in this film, even if it was to record the slaying of a troll! And who knew that pylons were just giant electric fences to keep the trolls out?!

It is the Troll Hunter himself though who steals the show. He is an impressive character, always remaining calm (except for one moment when he yells 'TRRRRRRROLL!!!') against some pretty colossal opponents and he appears capable throughout. His respect for his quarry is evident and he is clearly a reluctant hunter, openly showing the toll his troll hunting post for the TSS has had upon him over the years. Apparently there is such a thing as too much field work!

I would whole heartedly recommend seeing this film, especially at the cinema. If you don't like the fantastical then I guess this is not for you but it doesn't take itself too seriously. That said it plays it pretty straight and dead pan too at times. I'm not sure this film could have been made in the UK because it is this unlikely balance that produces a simple honesty which harks back to an age lost here. This seems to be thriving in Scandinavian cinema, I think we are just too cynical. That said, the Americans are working on a remake - I'll be sticking to the original thanks. Oh and the only bird I heard in the whole film was a Cuckoo, I was hoping for some owls. Go and see it!

Cage fighting

2011-09-09T16:26:00.000+01:00

A visit to Levin Down today to discuss the site's management. It's looking great this year due to all Mark's and the volunteers' efforts. The grassland is richer in nectar sources and structure and large areas of low growing woody vegetation seem to be under control. It really feels like we are turning a corner. I saw Eyebright sp. growing at a density greater than I have ever seen before.

Juniper regeneration remains a problem but an attempt by Plantlife to produce seedlings using cages next to viable female Juniper plants has been successful! I only looked at one cage but there were five seedlings that I could see within one quadrant of the cage, great news!

We spotted this Clouded Yellow too, the first one I have seen this year. Other than that, a few Yellow Wagtails were the only other migrants.

Primary hobby meets secondary hobby

2011-09-07T07:52:00.000+01:00

It's interesting how many references there are to broken marriages, failed careers and therapists in this trailer. I just saw someone else blog about this film and I'm afraid I simply had to just rip them off. It's not often my primary hobby (natural history) collides head long with my secondary hobby (movies) in any other way than my page on bird song in films (oh I added Goldrest the other day in 'The Skin I live In'). I have to say, if it wasn't for the fact that this film is based on a book by a birder and is therefore about birds and listing, it would probably fall into a category of films I would avoid. I'm not really a fan of American comedy (my worst nightmare is watching an episode of 'Friends'). However, I will certainly give it a watch but I think I'll perhaps wait until it comes out on DVD as I don't know anyone who would want to come and see it with me! The Big Year comes out over here on the 11th November. How long until they make a film about pan-species listers? Now that could be interesting, as long as either David Fincher or Christopher Nolan direct and I'm played by Gary Oldman...

Back and blue

2011-09-06T16:41:00.000+01:00

After eight months, my slipped disk has reared its ugly head, hence the dearth of posts over the last week. Today was my first day back at work since Thursday. Steve, Alex and I went to look at a small area that we manage to discuss the future of the site. The site is fairly small and simple with M25, W16 and some dense stands of Bracken. Within the area of M25, small numbers of Marsh Gentian can be found and Steve found one today. I was pleased to see this scarce plant still present on the site (and it was also a new species for me!). I was surprised at how big the flower was, quite a stunner. It's not yet fully opened and I have to say the camera hasn't really picked up the deep blue of the petals. My updated list stands at 3610.

Swamp things

2011-08-29T18:11:00.000+01:00

I've been NVCing Waltham Brooks today and came across loads of these spiders, Araneus quadratus. They are really big and come in quite different colours. Not all that scarce, I have seen them before at Ebernoe and Amberley but I have not photographed them before. There were also lots of Great Green Bush-crickets around and I did manage to find one of the elusive (but noisy) buggers!

I managed to get about half of the site mapped today which I was really pleased with and this NVC community was a new one for me, OV30. The main two species here being Triffid Bur-marigold and Water-pepper. Many of the plants in this community are annuals that grow on bare mud that is seasonally inundated. There is a lot of it growing there and occasionally there is Fine-leaved Water-dropwort, Water Chickweed and in the ditches Flowering-rush.

Texting cows

2011-08-29T08:32:00.001+01:00

It surprised me yesterday that I had not yet written a blog about this Trust project so here goes. I went to Ebernoe yesterday where we are grazing the common this year with a small number of British White Cattle. As we are keen to find out where they are going within the grazing area, we are using GPS technology to track the animals. The difference to the collars we have been using for the past 2.5 years though is that they include SIM cards that text the data. They text the data directly to Germany of course where the manufacturers of the collars then email to a separate email account on my work desktop the raw data. I can then pull out the xy co-ordinates and plot them in a GIS package. So, it doesn't happen in real time, there are delays in the data coming through, partly due to the strength of the mobile phone signal (which at Ebernoe is poor). The neat thing with the collars though is that they store up the data and transmit it when the animals enter into an area of coverage. This particular collar that we use at Ebernoe is on pay as you go Vodafone as it was the best deal we could get in that area.

We have three of these collars that we can deploy on up to three herds at any one time (we only need to put one collar on one animals within a herd as they mostly stay close together). The large unit at the bottom of the collar is the battery pack and the smaller unit at the top houses the GPS and SIM card while the antenna is concealed within the collar itself. I tend to check the data first thing on a Monday morning. I'll try and get some of the maps produced by the data, it is remarkable how similar the maps look in different years even when using different individuals. Here is a link to small video of it I did for the BBC two years ago.

Finally, Dennis's Croft (a small meadow within Ebernoe) is looking great with lots of Devil's-bit Scabious, an important late summer nectar source in this habitat.

Long Pigs

2011-08-27T18:52:00.000+01:00

I went a walk up Windover Hill with Michael Blencowe this afternoon. In amongst discussions of being decapitated by remote controlled gliders and pondering about which animal we would least like to be eaten alive by, we did manage some natural history and I did get one tick. Michael showed me the pyralid moth Mecyna flavalis. Not the best specimen or the best photo as they kept blowing away in the wind and this was the best I could do. This species is pRDB2.

I also saw my first Sussex Graylings, I haven't seen one of these butterflies for well over three years.

Also, I am glad that I realised that this wasn't an aberration Silver-spotted Skipper and actually its wings were just folded around the wrong way. I would have looked like a right lemon claiming some strange asymmetrical mutant but I liked the photo anyway. It's so obvious now I'm looking at the photo but it was quite exciting for a few minutes.

The Mist

2011-08-23T18:36:00.000+01:00

Southerham was very damp and bleak today, with cloying low cloud and damp still airs that carried sound clearly for miles. The low cloud had grounded quite a few migrants and we saw two Whinchats and a Redstart as well as a number of Wheatears and Yellow Wagtails.

The sward was looking in good in many places but a real surprise were two Autumn Lady's-tresses just outside a quadrat on one of the arable reversion fields.

Invertebrate-wise though there was very little happening and I wasn't expecting to see anything new. As we were walking towards the car I spotted this amazing spider hanging beneath an Upright Hedge-parsley umbel and thought I recognised it from the book as one I had not seen. I like this spider as it is easily identifiable in the field and is the only one in the genus being Neoscona adianta.

Creamy beige

2011-08-19T15:55:00.001+01:00

Do you like Baileys? Well you'll like this Baileys-coloured Meadow Brown I saw at Southerham this week, all creamy beige! OK, Mighty Boosh references aside now. It looked quite odd in flight and took me a little while to figure out what it was. It was quite tatty but it's definitely not just ware and tear making it look like this. I would guess at leucistic. Interestingly, the paler orange centres to the wings of a typical Meadow Brown were in fact darker than the surrounding wing area in this specimen. It would seem the orange pigments were not so strongly affected by the genetic abnormality as the darker browns were.

23/08/2011 UPDATE: I've been informed that this is in fact not a leucistic individual but a rare aberration called cinerea. Thanks Piers!

Also, Southerham is the only place I have ever seen Greater Duckweed growing in the cattle troughs! A species I usually associate with the better end of ditch quality on sites with good ditch flora.

I think Old Gregg might actually be living in there. Watcha doin' in my waters?

The Blackening

2011-08-19T09:22:00.000+01:00

I changed the interception traps at Cowdray yesterday for the penultimate time. I was surprised at how many beetles there were so late in the season, more than there have been earlier in the season. With some of the biggest hollow trees being present on the golf course, a funny thing occurred there yesterday when I hid inside a hollow tree to wait out a heavy rain shower. The complete surprise on a passing golfer's face as I jumped out of the tree afterwards was priceless! My explanation of what I was doing in there only seemed to confuse them even more!

I did manage one new species walking between the trees. The fungus Blackening Waxcap. I have really slowed down with the listing now, adding only two species since the start of August! I hope I can get some more fungi and lower plants this Autumn...

Shepherd's Delight

2011-08-17T08:28:00.000+01:00

I've not been up all night making a new rural based dessert, rather continuing with the annual bat monitoring at Ebernoe organised by BCT. Equipment again worked well and bats were recorded for more detailed analysis of their sonograms at a later date. However, with minutes before we were about to start the transect, we were confronted by this incredible view of Furnace Pond shortly after sunset. I have not in any way enhanced this photo, a moment that just could not be wasted. Sublime. Somewhere in there there are also a couple of bats but I can't pick them out at all.

Net gain

2011-08-15T18:04:00.000+01:00

I walked into the kitchen at Woods Mill today and looked up to see this little beauty. In fact, it's even a tick for me! Platycis minutus one of the net-winged beetles. A rather smart little beetle (Nb) that I had hoped to bump into at some point but I had not thought it would be above the tea and coffee making facilities at work. Anyway, it was a good omen and it reminded me that you never know what's around the corner...

To call each thing by its right name

2011-08-10T15:06:00.000+01:00

I've taken a break recently to do some soul searching and travel back to my home county of Staffordshire for the first time in 18 months. Due to last year's slipped disk and this year's perceived work commitments, I feel I have rather become a little 'lost in the wild' and have not spent enough time with my family and loved ones. Although it's too late for Jo and I, this weekend was good for our family and it was great to see so many of my family and friends. Meeting my new (now 10 month old) nephew Rowan Sorbus aucuparia for the first time was pretty rad (he's got a healthy dose of the ginger gene too!) and I also enjoyed getting to know my new brother-in-law Mark. A highlight of our walk was nearly tripping over this sausage-sized Emperor Moth caterpillar. I called it Palpatine.

And I was surprised how many Antler Moths I saw nectaring during the day time.

We went a walk on Cannock Chase a couple of times and was impressed by the flowering Heather (it's mostly NVC community H1 up there rather than the H2 we get down here) and the great swathes of U2 grassland. The only thing you need to know about the NVC community U2 is it's way cooler than the band. The Sherbrook Valley is by far the wildest part of the Chase and I had forgotten just how beautiful it looks at this time of year.

Finally, I went to Brocton Coppice to see two ancient oak trees that hold great significance for me and took the opportunity to try and make some peace with an old ghost. As ever, I failed.

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society where none intrudes,

By the deep sea and the music in its roar;

I love not man the less, but Nature more"

Lord Byron

Enough being pensive and ripping off 'Into the Wild' (see that film if you haven't already). Normal service will resume within the next few days when the bad puns will be coming faster than you can roll your eyes and I'll be ticking off obscure invertebrates faster than you can read their Latin names!

1st August - Pan-species list update

2011-08-01T16:50:00.000+01:00

It's been two months since I last showed how my list has changed. Back then, on the 31st May I was on 3397, by the 31st July I was on 3601 species! So I have added 204 species in two months. I might have stopped trying to get to 4000 species but I am heading there anyway without any real effort beyond going to work and identifying things I see whilst I'm surveying.

I have added a few really nice species recently that for one reason or another didn't make it into a blog post. The rarest is perhaps a beetle that I caught at Parham last Monday (25th July). Whilst moth trapping I did a bit of torching on oak trunks and netted a tenebrionid in flight. I new it was one I had not seen and suspected it was Prionychus ater. By the time I got round to identifying it I realised it was the RDB2 Prionychus melanarius! A great find.

Another surprise came when I suddenly realised that the huge spiders with tubercles on their abdomens that I saw at Friston on the 30th June when moth trapping were not Gibbaranea gibbosa but actually the Nb Araneus angulatus. I wish I had managed a photo now, quite a large spider, certainly bigger than any Araneus diadematus that I have seen. This just goes to show, moth-trapping is great for getting you out into wild places after dark with a torch, something that few people do. Pan-species listing has made moth trapping even more exciting for me!

Here is how the list breaks down:

Vascular plants	1144 (+49)
Moths	828 (+24)
Birds	335 (+1)
Beetles	381 (+61)
Fungi	150
Mosses	111 (+2)
True flies	82 (+15)
True bugs	76 (+23)
Arachnids	74 (+6)
Molluscs	60 (+2)
Aculeates	56 (+12)
Butterflies	53 (+2)
Mammals	38
Fish	37
Dragonflies	32 (+1)
Liverworts	28
Lichens	27 (+1)
Crustaceans	24
Crickets & grasshoppers	19
Amphibians	6
Reptiles	6
Seaweeds & algae	6
Anemones & jellyfish	5
Mites	5 (+4)
Cockroaches	3
Lacewings & allies	3
Millipede	3
Caddiesflies	2
Centipedes	2
Leeches	2 (+1)
Earwigs	1
Ant-lion	1
Lice	1

Harvest Crunch

2011-08-01T13:11:00.000+01:00

I have been having a few problems with my computer and camera recently, hence the dearth of posts. I have however, still been seeing shed loads of natural history.

However, the first thing I have to say is that I have finished the farm surveys!!! It has been an incredible experience, walking just shy of 600 miles, around 5000 in the car, 54 early starts over a nine month period. All this on top of a full time job. And even nine months into a survey and new birds were still being recorded. On Saturday I was searching for arable plants on a tiny corner that was quite productive last month. I was close to a high hedge and looked up to see a raptor circling. I focused my bins and shouted (to myself - getting really at good at that) Honey Buzzard! It immediately flew west and disappeared behind the hedge where I got a brief view of its 'spirit level' straight wings as it flew directly away from me. I wished I had had a better look at it but I was confident enough. A report of a bird on BirdGuides flying south west elsewhere in Hampshire was reassuring.

Honey Buzzard was the 10th species of raptor I have seen during these surveys. From commonest to rarest, this is what I have seen:

Buzzard
Kestrel
Sparrowhawk
Red Kite
Peregrine
Merlin
Hobby
Hen Harrier
Honey Buzzard
Black Kite

Which I think is pretty amazing and it goes to show how, if you watch a place long enough and hard enough you can pick up good birds, even if it's not a nature reserve.

On Saturday I also found some larvae of the Na moth the Striped Lychnis. This is a BAP species and a new one for me, I have been expecting to see them in this area based on what I have read about them. Search for them on the flowering spikes of Dark Mullein in far West Sussex and Hamsphire. The closely related Mullein will also take Dark Mullein but is a larva earlier in the year. The larvae I saw today were quite early instars, the biggest no more than 15 mm long, there were five individuals on two spikes. These two moths are much easier to separate as larvae. I also found some Cionus weevils but I have struggled to get past a final couplet of species in the key. As it is the 1st of the month today, I will also do a long overdue pan-species list update. The end of July has been incredibly productive for me and despite scaling back the listing, I am at the time of writing on 3600 species.

Ditched

2011-07-29T18:23:00.000+01:00

Whilst surveying the ditch flora at Amberley I spotted this Dotted Fan-foot. Like the ones I saw at Woods Mill two years ago, it was very close to some Brown Sedge. We didn't see much today that we hadn't already seen but Flowering Rush is always a welcome sight. A juvenile Marsh Harrier provided the air support and the only new beetle I had was Scirtes hemisphericus (thanks to Mark Gurney for guiding me away from the leaf beetles on this one). I didn't manage a really decent shot of the rarest plant, Cut-grass. as it is not really in flower yet. It's quite hard to pick out from other non-flowering grasses but once you get your eye in it is easy enough. Here is a nice patch growing on the edge of a ditch, its typical habitat. We must have walked miles along those ditches and I'm feeling pretty knackered now!

Wildbrooks

2011-07-28T20:06:00.000+01:00

Another great day at Amberley with six more vascular plant species I have added to my list. First up though, I found a couple of Wasp Spiders over one of the more peaty ditches. In the same ditch we found Marsh Cinquefoil, Bogbean and Floating Club-rush.

In this chalk stream that passes through the brooks you can see a large patch of Narrow-fruited Watercress. Other plants new to me today were Fan-leaved Water-crowfoot, Short-fruited Willowherb, Opposite-leaved Pondweed (first photo below) and this Almond Willow (bottom two photos below). A big thank you to Frances Abraham for helping me out with some of the more difficult plants. We even spotted the naturalised Juneberry on the way back to the pickup. One more day ditching then back to my chalk-grassland quadrats next week.

Disproportionately large hind legs

2011-07-27T19:23:00.000+01:00

I'm at Amberley Wildbrooks this week carrying out a joint monitoring project with the RSPB, with one of my old colleagues, Mark Gurney. We are looking at aquatic macrophytes in the ditches and it is incredibly diverse, I have been quite surprised at how many new species of vascular plant I have had there. Eight in the last two days alone!

However, it as this beetle that I really wanted to see. It's Donacia dentata, a Na reed beetle that is known from Amberley. It feeds on Arrowhead of which the ditches are full. We only saw two and this one that Mark caught was obliging enough for a photo. A big thank you to Sam and Seth for lending me the literature! I also saw Narrow-leaved Water-plantain with a Water Ladybird on, both species were new for me but I knocked th ladybird off before I could get a photo!

The list goes on and on but highlights include Cut-grass, Great Water Parsnip, Lesser Water Parsnip, Sharp-leaved Pondweed, Hair-like Pondweed, Marsh Stitchwort, Creeping Yellow-cress, Fine-leaved Water-dropwort, Unbranched Bur-reed and Least Water-pepper. I end the day on 3583 species. Oh I totally forgot that I kicked up a Wood Sandpiper too, first one I have seen for years! Also the moths Lesser Cream Wave and Evergestis pallidata.

Better late than never

2011-07-26T19:21:00.002+01:00

I have been falling behind with my blogging because I have been so busy. We had a great day recording at Parham Park yesterday. Best for me was this Cassida nebulosa that Peter Hodge swept, it being a first for Sussex and the only tortoise beetle that was not recorded in the county. The atlas states that the conservation status for this tortoise beetle is indeterminate, I'm not sure what this means but it's obviously not all that common looking at the distribution maps. I didn't see much more until later at night when we started moth trapping and I started searching oak trunks by torch light.

I was amazed at how Helops caeruleus appeared on nearly every tree, one had at least five on! I also found several beetles that I do not recognise that are still to be identified including an Aphodius that came to light that is not Aphodius rufipes (there were many of those though), a tenebrionid I netted in flight and a water beetle from outside one of the traps. I didn't really see too many interesting moths but we did net a couple of Evergestis limbata, the moth that is the Sussex Moth Group's logo! I will have to wait to ID everything, I have had another epic day in the field at Amberley today. It's all happening too quickly to process!

Why the long face?

2011-07-23T16:57:00.000+01:00

Well, to accommodate Bombus hortorum's long tongue. Why the long tongue then? So that it can get into long flowers such as the labiates and legumes. Yes, I've been on a bumblebee course ran by Mike Edwards on behalf of the Trust at Lewes Railway Lands and the Linklater Pavilion today. Bumblebees have always been a bit of a blind spot for me but I have definitely made progress today. Bombus hortorum was a new one for me although it is very common. We saw one queen Bombus hypnorum but it got away.

We also saw lots of Bombus lapidrius, a very common bee that I have seen before but it's nice to know how to recognise the males too. The top photo is of a queen, the bottom one a male.

We spotted a few other things around the site that I had not seen before including a bee specific to Red Bartsia called Melitta tricincta and a small dark cranefly called Nigrotipula nigra.

However, this photo is best of all. This poor little sucker (I have no idea what species of fly this is) flew straight into a spiny bract on some Teasel and impaled itself! Flying is dangerous business and you should always look where you are going.

What do you get if you don't take your boots off after a walk on the Downs?

2011-07-21T18:16:00.000+01:00

A Chalk Carpet of course! I have always wondered why I have not seen this moth because I always spend a lot of time on the chalk during its flight season. As I walked towards a quadrat at Ditchling Beacon today, I kicked up what I thought was going to be a Treble-bar but as it settled I recognised it as a Chalk Carpet. It was quite well hidden against the chalk. The small black twin-spots are an ID feature. This moth is both Nb and on the BAP list but there are old records for the site. Nearby I saw the remains of a Musk Orchid.

I added two other species today too, the small tortrix Acleris aspersana and the leaf beetle Sermylassa halensis which in hindsight I have seen before at Castle Hill and probably other places too. That leaves me on 3562 species. Someone mentioned to me today about me stopping listing. Just to reiterate, I have not stopped listing! All I have done is ease the pressure of trying to get to 4000 by the end of the year. I don't think I could ever stop wanting to see new things, nor will I ever forget what I have seen. Anyway, three new species just by walking between quadrats is pretty good going I reckon!

Candidula camera

2011-07-20T16:10:00.000+01:00

I saw these strange looking snails on the edge of an arable field this morning. I'm pretty sure that this is Candidula gigaxii, a species I have not seen before. The shell is less wrinkled and with a more rapidly expanding outer whorl than it's close relative the much commoner Candidula intersecta. They were also climbing around in rank herbage which also fits, as intersecta is meant to prefer shorter turf. I was surprised that there was no reference in the literature to how white the body was. I'd be interested if anyone has seen this species for their comments.

Tales from the Cryptocephalus

2011-07-19T17:11:00.000+01:00

Finding things in quadrats is proving quite a good technique to add to my pan-species lit without having to really do anything. I added two species today. First off, what I am fairly sure is Cryptocephalus bilineatus. This is a Nb species that seems to have a concentration of records on the Downs, I was indeed at Southerham today.

Also in the quadrat, this gall on Hedge Bedstraw. In it was the larvae of the fly Geocrypta galii. Just a short one tonight as it's moth group and there is yet another exciting publication to get my hands on being unveiled tonight!

Death's-head leafhopper

2011-07-18T18:51:00.000+01:00

That's just a name I made up for this little leafhopper that I found in one of my quadrats today but you can see why. I didn't notice the markings until I blew the photos up on the screen. I'm pretty sure it's the rather common Allygus mixtus but I have used nothing more than the British Bugs website to come to this conclusion, not a key, so I make the identification tentatively. I was at Badlands today, monitoring vegetation. I decided to try and identify any invertebrates that I did not recognise within the quadrats but apart from a very wet bee, this was all I managed to get a photo of.

On the way past the big Aspen where I saw the Light Orange Underwings in the spring I spotted what looked like berries on some of the leaves. I thought that this gall looked easy enough to identify, it keyed out to the fly Harmandiola globuli. Frustratingly, there was no one home in the single specimen I collected so I can't even tick it.

The meadows are looking great this year, with more Betony than I have ever seen. I'm surprised how lush it looks compared to this time last year.

Now, I have had two new books arrive today so I will be immersing myself in those for the next few hours. I think there may have to be several book reviews in the near future.

Weasel's Snout

2011-07-15T16:34:00.000+01:00

I'm always pleased when I see a new plant and it's bigger and more impressive than I expected. After work I popped into the edge of an arable field in the West Weald where I was told some Weasel's Snout was growing. Easy enough to find on the edge of a sandy flax field. Unlike the arable plants that grow on the Downs, you get a very different assemblage on sandy, more acidic ground. Another welcome addition to my list and a plant that I was quite taken with. It's got a ridiculous name to boot, word play in this instance seemed irrelevant.