An Alternative Natural History of Sussex.
This blog shows the highlights of my day to day findings as a naturalist and ecologist living and working in Sussex. Delivered with a pinch of nihilism, a dash of sarcasm and absolutely no tweeness, here is my attempt to show natural history as it really is: Brutal, beautiful, uncompromising and fascinating...and occasionally ridiculous.
I have been studying natural history for some thirty years, nineteen in a professional capacity. I currently work in Sussex as a freelance entomologist, ecologist and botanist and specialise in nature reserve and rewilding management advice based on the interpretation of the surveys I carry out. I also run a number of identification courses. An advocate of the pan-species listing approach. My main areas of interest are birds, plants and invertebrates and a lot of my spare time is spent in the field. I am the county recorder for spiders and bugs.
Whilst grubbing about for spiders at Devil's Dyke this afternoon, I noticed a few of these hairy little larvae in among the Common Rock-rose. They looked a little bit like small, dull burnet moth larvae. The food plant clinched it though, they must be the larvae of Cistus Foresters. We have three species, Cistus Forester, Scarce Forester (feeds on Knapweeds) and the Forester (that feeds on Common Sorrel). Collectively known as foresters (note that this is a really important example of why species names should be capitalised, so that a distinction between forester in the generic sense can be made from the species the Forester). Cistus Forester is probably the most restricted in Sussex with Devil's Dyke and Malling Down being the main sites. The larvae feed on Common Rock-rose and it's one of the dominant plants there on the south facing slope. If you go at the right time of year, you can see clouds of the metallic green adults.
Did you know, Tina Turner is a keen lichenologist? So taken was she when she first recorded Golden-eye LichenTeloschistes chrysophthalmus that she wrote the following song to celebrate its beauty, which was later used as a Bond theme tune! They even named a duck after it too! I imagine, like me, you always thought the Bond movie was named after the duck but it was, in fact, the lichen. You may recognise the particular shade of orange below on Pierce Brosnan's face, that's no coincidence.
OK, none of the above is true but this is. I've wanted to see the Golden-eye Lichenfor years, so was very pleased when Simon Davey mentioned that one had been found at Devil's Dyke. Then I had a message from Veronica Atalanta on Twitter with the gen. It didn't take too long to find it. I was totally wrong with the search image though, I was looking for something yellow, like the ubiquitous Xanthoria parietina but the Golden-eye Lichen is very much orange in comparison. I took this image below to show the difference between the colours of the two species, so it should be easier to get your eye in at a distance. It looks a bit like an orange Venus Flytrap!
Here are some more close ups. It's such a strange looking thing.
This lichen is listed as Critically Endangered and Nationally Rare but the Downs around Brighton and Lewes seem to be a hot spot for it, so keep your eyes peeled as it might be growing on some scrub near you!
Back to the arable field by Devils Dyke again this evening for my evening stroll and as we arrived, clouds of dust highlighted the presence of a tractor slowly cutting its way through the poppies and all the wonderful arable plants I have been looking at recently. He soon left though and the whole field was still pretty much left untouched. I took Jo through the field down to wear I saw all the Narrow-fruited Cornsalad and further into the north east corner of the field, this plant formed a dense mat. There was also a lot of Common Hemp-nettle but the best find was spotted by Jo. A single specimen of Night-flowering Catchfly! The top three photos are of this specimen, yet another new species for me. It's much smaller than White Campion with narrower, deeply split petals. The flowers were very weakly yellow on the outside and almost pure white on the inside, quite unlike all the exaggerated pink/yellow illustrations shown in the books. The sticky stem is indicative, White Campion never has this. I have included a photo of White Campion below for comparison.
In 'Arable Plants - a field guide' it is shown as being a Species of Conservation Concern and in 'Sussex Wildflowers' it says there were only 11 records between 1984 and the time of writing (2004) with only 9 sites in East Sussex, although it is not now thought to be nationally scarce. I have always wanted to see this although it's a shame it didn't look like it did in the books!
I went back to the poppy field at Devils Dyke today with Oli and finally got as far as the far side of the field, via the Dwarf Spurge and Venus's Looking-glass. That is about as far as I can walk at the moment but it was good to get out of the house. I saw one plant new to me, Narrow-fruited Cornsalad. The top photo is the fruit, the shape of which separates it from the other cornsalads. The bottom photo shows the flower head. This species looks nothing like Common Cornsalad, it has a totally different jizz with a much less congested head and long spindly branching stems with much whiter flowers. I thought at first it was going to be one of the two small umbellifers, Stone or Corn Parsley. This species is listed as Endangered. I did see some Fool's Parsley nearby.
After struggling with back problems for three weeks, my GP and physio have finally convinced me to have a week off sick. This is gonna kill me at this time of year and in this heat as I am supposed to sit still and only go on short walks/drives. Fortunately there is a lot of stuff to see in Brighton & Hove, I can't walk anywhere without seeing something new at the moment! So much for going to the New Forest this weekend. I was feeling pretty miserable at the thought of spending a week locked up so on the way home yesterday I saw this field of Common Poppies and had to stop for a few shots. It is a stunning field by Devils Dyke and a public footpath runs through it. It is right next to the road, park in the second car park along the dyke road from Brighton. In the distance you can see Brighton and Hollingbury fort, just behind that Perennial Sow-thistle. It also has a lot of nice arable weeds, Venus's Looking-glass, Dwarf Spurge, Small Toadflax, Sharp-leaved Fluellen and lots of Rough Poppies (second photo. You can see how obviously different they are to Common Poppies). I also saw all three field speedwells and actually took a photo of Grey and Green Field Speedwell. In the bottom photo, Grey is on the left with the darker leaves and flowers and Green is on the right with the lighter leaves and paler flowers.
Sadly I found New Zealand PygmyweedCrassula helmsii (photo attached) today at Filsham Reedbed during a breeding bird survey. It's only a small patch and hopefully we will be able to get on top of it. It's a really hard to kill amphibious plant that can completely choke ditches and ponds, it was introduced from New Zealand as a garden aquatic. It's notoriously difficult to get rid of and even if you did get rid of it there is a good chance your neighbours won't have and it's likely to come back. Given it is known from Pevensey Levels and Rye Harbour, it was only a matter of time before it arrived at Filsham as it's easily carried between sites on people's boots and by migrating birds. On a lighter note, the survey produced 20 singing Reed Warblers, 4 Cetti's Warblers and 4 Sedge Warblers. Strangely I saw a Fulmar flying over the reeds at about 6.00am. At Woods Mill we attempted a new dragonfly transect but the sun went in and yielded only two Large Red Damselfly. Surprisingly though we had two Red Kites flying south east over the reserve towards Devils Dyke at about 2.00pm. A final surprise was a Corn Bunting on the fence along the road between Devils Dyke and the A27 on my way home from work.
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