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.
Last weekend was another really good set of low tides. Which meant I spent four sessions out in the rock pools; once at Ovingdean with a gang, once at Felpham with a slightly smaller gang, once at The Pound at first light solo, and finally again at The Pound that same evening with a different gang. It was knackering and involved the first and only time I have ever got cut off and had to wade through waist deep water (I'll come to that).
First off, an afternoon session at Ovingdean. I promised nudibranchs, and found eggs under the third rock I turned. Soon after Mark Colvin found some more eggs and a neat little Goniodoris nodosa. They breed on one very specific location down there. This is the first of three nudibranchs I saw that weekend. Between myself and the brothers Greaves, we've now recorded four nudibranchs from Ovingdean, I wonder how many more species there are within the confines of Brighton & Hove?
Susy Dixon-Jones found a Toothed CrabPirimela denticulata.
Simon Van Toller netted this Conger Eel larva. I was at first convinced it was something completely different like an oarfish! But the head shape gave it away. It was so strange and completely flat, like sellotape!
And Kim Greaves found this Black-headed Shrimp Philocheras fasciatus (I have only seen these on The Scillies and Isle of Wight before). I did get one lifer, the tiny Needle Whelk Bittium reticulatum swept from weed.
The following evening we headed to Felpham where James Chisnall and son were our tour guides on some rocks I have never visited before. The strange colonial tunicate Molgula socialis was a new one for me. The bizarre sand-encrusted shapes cover much of the sand there. I stupidly didn't get a photo but a verbal description was enough for Gerald Legg to help we with an ID.
The rocks were very good for crabs but fish were restricted to the usual suspects; Worm Pipefish, Rock Goby, Five-bearded Rockling and Tompot Blenny. We found three or four young Congers too (all much more opaque than the one above) and no nudis (although Solar-powered Sea Slugs were present in one area). Under one rock I spotted a purple patch of colour. I hoped for a nudi but soon realised it was a flatworm.
Pretty sure this is Cycloporis papillosus. What an awesome looking beast, it was quite fast! And a lifer too.
By this point I was feeling really weary. So I set my alarm for 4.00 am and got to The Pound at Eastbourne for first light (5.20 am and one hour before low tide). The sun came up just as I got there on a wonderfully warm and still morning. It was like an alien landscape, utterly sublime.
Instead of going to the south of the lagoon and working north up the edge of the reef to the gap where the water drains out like I usually do, I went north and across the lagoon and worked it all the way south. Once I got to the reef, under the first rock I turned was this leviathan of a Shore Rockling! I have only ever seen this once before on the Scillies, it was one of the biggest fish I have seen in a rock pool!
A couple of rocks later, a young Lobster!
Then nothing much for an hour or or more. The rocks were increasingly covered in mud, making it harder to see things so I looped back to where I started towards the north of the lagoon where the water and rocks are much clearer than the south end. I found this nice Snapping Prawn Alpheus macrocheles.
And the first time I have seen Golf Ball Sponge Tethya citrina there.
But what I really wanted were nudibranchs. On the Isle of Wight and also historically at The Pound, I have found quite a few goodies by sweeping the sea weed, especially the invasive Wireweed. In fact, four of the fourteen species of nudibranch I have seen, I have only seen doing this and one of them, Trapania maculata (read this blog here to get the full story on why I wanted to get some better shots of this seemingly quite scarce nudi), is a target for mee to refind. But after about 30 or more good sweeps and the associated cleaning and sorting of weed in the tray, I had not seen a single thing of note. Then further north along the lagoon I spotted two people who were also clearly doing natural history, I thought it might be Gerald Legg so went to so say hi. It was in fact the algal specialists, Ian Tittley and Claire Lathbury.
We became engrossed in conversation about sea weeds, sea slugs and more. Now it's nearly two hours after low tide at this point and they were wearing wetsuits. I had thigh waders on. I tried a few more sweeps and found a Trapania maculata!!! As Claire was taking a few quick snaps of it I looked up at the river of water streaming along between us and the beach and just said "Oh bugger!". I hastily grabbed the sea slug, and legged it but it overtopped the waders and I was wet up to my waist. There was quite the current! It was quite scary and I am convinced it happened because we were all distracted, I am much more careful on my own! I made it back to the beach with about 10 pints of sea water in each wader and then attempted to get a shot of the nudi but lost it immediately. Fortunately Claire took these but I am gutted that I have twice now failed to get a decent shot of this amazing looking species...
I will bee investing in a wet suit after that. I am so glad my phone was in water proof case.
So, was I put off? Was I heck. I was down there again 10 hours later for the next low tide. Despite about 60 or so sweeps, not a single nudibranch. Evan found this large Sea Lemon though. This one looks more like a lemon than had fallen down the back of the cupboard for six months. There were loads of goodies I didn't photograph though, like Sea Gooseberry, Sea Gherkin, Lightbulb Sea Squirts, Boot-lace Worm, Strawberry Worm and Keyhole Limpet.
This adult male Corkwing Wrasse pretty much caught itself, it's by far the brightest one we had ever seen.
Finally, these strange little sponges were everywhere, as yet unidentified. Evan found a stalked pink one too.
That was a mad few days, it was physically quite demanding but I can't wait for the next lows. Will I ever write another terrestrial post again?
WOW! We have just got back from a week on Jersey and it was INSANE! I will have to write several posts to cover just how much stuff we saw there, this one being concerned with the marine side of things. Rock-pooling to the south east of the island is incredible. The first thing you need to know about rock-pooling here is that there is a huge tidal reach but (and this is where I went wrong last time I went in 2017) it's not just about going as far out as you can. In fact, it's as much about getting as low as you can. So yes, you'll see more on the lower tides but that can still be quite close to the shore. This is where I went wrong last time, legging it out as far as I could, I spent so much time worried about getting cut off, that I barely found anything.
I had at least 44 lifers on this trip, the majority of these coming from the rock-pools. So here, in no particular order are some of the amazing things we saw. I am starting with the nudibranchs and other sea-slug like creatures as they are the thing I have become most obsessed with! First up above is Facelina auriculata, a new one for me and the only one we found (at Green Island). Only about 5 mm long. Who needs to watch science fiction when there is an alien world on your doorstep?
I was very pleased to find five Edmundsella pedata! At both Green Island and La Rocque. I found this last year on the Isle of Wight and this was the sea-slug I found the most on this trip. Again, all only about 5 mm long on the underside of rocks.
A lifer for me was the huge Warty Doris Doris verrucosa. Karen spotted the first one by finding the egg mass (image below).
Just one Aeolidiae filomenae at Green Island.
I am definitely getting better at spotting nudibranchs. This one at Ouaisne was so inconspicuous at first when I turned the stone but it soon unfurled. I believe this is the star-ascidian-eating Goniodoris castanea. I saw one of these at Kimmeridge Bay last year but this was a much larger animal. It might not be that bright but the shape of the thing is incredible. Like a snow plough crossed with a WW1 tank. I was pleased with five species of nudibranch for this trip.
There were quite a few Yellow-plumed Sea Slugs (Berthella pulumella) about but I didn't photograph them and I believe these things are Lamellaria perspicua (a sea-slug like snail). I have seen this at the Pound in Eastbourne but again I am pleased to be getting better at spotting them. Close-focus binoculars are pretty useful in rock-pools.
Now for the other molluscs. When I turned a rock shortly after starting to find FIVE Green Ormers under it, my mind was blown. This is a huge, fast-moving mollusc and a real Channel Island speciality. I could not get enough of their weird beauty. I reckon I saw 50 of these on Saturday 21st, which was one of the lowest tides of the year.
Key-hole Limpet (Diodora graeca) was a long-overdue lifer too. Quite different to what I was expecting with the key-hole itself mostly obscured, the shell covered in debris and the mantle rising up around the base of the shell.
Anemones were pretty amazing too but my favourite was the Parasitic Anemone. We found two of these, really quite large.
And this one was the Trumpet Anemone. Thanks toNicolas Jouault for his help with some identifications and gen for La Rocque and to John Walters for his gen too.
I am rather out of my depth with sponges and tunicates but I was told this one was Sea Strawberry (Aplidium elegans).
I am pretty sure this large sea-squirt was the Yellow-ringed Sea Squirt Ciona intestinalis.
And this thing was the size of a hand! It was huge. This must surely be the amazingly-named Neptune's Heart Sea Squirt Phallusia mammillata. That hand belongs to Tim Ransom by the way, I'll come back to Tim in the blog about the terrestrial stuff when I get some time. We had a great few hours yesterday morning looking at the marine stuff. Even on a rubbish tide, La Rocque is incredible just a few hundred metres out from the beach.
My only sponge tick was these orange-sized blobs I believe to be Tethya citrina. There is so much more there that I am not even attempting to ID.
Now for the worms. Karen spotted the first one of these huge worms but it shot in when she touched it. We found another though, easily disturbed if you are not quiet. This is Sabella spallanzanii. Listed as the Feather Duster Worm on the UKSI but called the Mediterranean Fan Worm on iNaturalist. This is my greatest issue with iNaturalist, the use of non-standard or Americanised English names for species. However, it was very good at seeing what people had been recording locally on the island, especially so when you have left most of your books at home. I wish iRecord could be as slick as iNaturalist for features like this. Thanks again to Nicolas for pointing this feature out though.
Nearby, the Twin Fanworm (Bispira vilutacornis) was a real looker. Yet another lifer.
We only saw two of these, but very pleased to finally catch up with Candy-striped Flatworm. This was a tiny one, spotted using the close-focus binoculars (barely 5 mm long).
Now for the crustaceans. So less than an hour into rock-pooling, we saw the most amazing thing but it got away. Perhaps the most brightly-coloured crustacean I have ever seen. With a little help, it was clear that what we saw was an immature of a Spiny Squat Lobster. Quite different to what the adults look like. Gutted I didn't get a photo though but what an experience seeing this red, orange, blue, yellow and white thing darting around our feet!
An incredibly attractive species this one but I was sad to realise it was a non-native. This is the Asian Shore Crab. Quite common higher up the shore.
There were lots of spider crabs about. I think this one is Macropodia deflexa but I was running out of time here and didn't get as many shots as I would have liked.
And this one is a mystery to me. It was much bigger than all the other spider crabs that I saw (the commonest seems to be Leach's Spider Crab (Inachus phalangium). This was almost twice as big with huge claws with a distinctive shape. I can't see anything that matches in "Shallow-water crabs". Is it just a large male Inachus phalangium? Those pincers are huge! EDIT: Thanks to Nicolas, it's a large male Pisa tetraodon.
And finally, the fish. I think the fish list for the week was nearly 14 species and three of these were lifers. I was surprised at how common Connemara Clingfish was! What a gorgeous fish this is.
Yesterday I found two Giant Gobies at La Rocque, which was also a lifer but no photo. Here is a Ballan Wrasse, we also had a Corkwing yesterday, as well as three species of blenny. Too much stuff to photograph.
And on the way back, I saw Blue-fin Tuna from the ferry near Alderney! No photo though, they were quick. As was the ferry.
It was pretty amazing. I couldn't drag myself away from the sea. I even overcame my fear of being in the water. I bought a snorkel and mask and went out with Bouley Bay Diving Centre who were great at helping me overcome my fears. After 10 minutes I got my breathing and heart-rate down and absolutely loved it. I didn't want to come out. A huge thanks to them for this. I am already planning on a buying wet suit for more snorkelling action more locally. I even had a shave, so that my mask wouldn't fill with water (always one of my big fears with this being a contact lens wearer). I got close to Pollack, Montagu's Blenny and Two-spot Goby here but it was much harder to use my camera than I was expecting!
So that's it for now, part two will be some time next week now as I have lots to do back home. Here's Karen and I on the way back enjoying the sunset. I will not be waiting another seven years before I go back to the Channel Islands. It is amazing!
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