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.
I'm still feeling rough so I'm trawling through old files to find interesting tales from the past. In 2007 I spent a month working at Abernethy RSPB with Mark Gurney, helping them carry out bird surveys. There were lots of great things to see there but a day that really stood out was when we went up Cairn Gorm on the 5th May. We were in search of Ptarmigan and Dotterel and we had excellent views of both. Amazing how confiding these birds are.
I just love spending time in the mountains, so many new things to see! Lots of good plants such as Interrupted Club-moss, Alpine Hair-grass, Curved Wood-rush, Dwarf Cudweed, Sheathed Sedge and Stiff Sedge. But as is often the case, it's the things that you are not expecting to see that get you most excited. We saw a few of these little moths flying around in the sun shine that totally confused us. As we were looking through the photos afterwards, one of us was arguing for Black Mountain Moth and the other for Netted Mountain Moth. Of course, neither of these were anywhere near the mark. It's Broad-bordered White Underwing. This is quite a nice mountain moth and we were lucky to stumble across such a rarity!
By the way the moss in the background of the photo is Racomitrium lanuginosum. I have not been to Scotland since I left the RSPB. I really must get up there again soon...
I had a great (although very hot) week at Amberley last week with Mark Gurney and Sarah Fisk from the RSPB. We were finishing off an aquatic plant survey of the ditches that we started this time last year. I had a few new species including Whorl-grass but the real excitement came in the form of this sedge. True Fox Sedge Carex vulpina is much, much rarer than False Fox Sedge Carex otrubae. We left the ditches that True Fox Sedge was last recorded in, by James Cadbury, until the last day. Sarah spotted this sedge and I thought it looked quite different with a darker and broader inflorescence, shorter bract and more winged stem. We called Mark over and he began to get quite animated. Well, for Mark! He was keen to take some specimens to clinch the ID and it's the epidermis of the utricles at magnification which confirmed it. Here is True Fox Sedge with roughly square cells:
And False Fox Sedge with its elongated cells. A big thank you to Mark for sending the photos over.
So it's simple. We had True Fox Sedge. But how can we be sure that it wasn't just False Fox Sedge lying? You could just watch this and make your own mind up...
Wow. We had an AWESOME day at Iping yesterday. Andy Philips, Dave & Penny Green and my house mate Simon went out to Iping, partly for some spider recording/training but also to set up some monitoring that will hopefully happen there this year. In the car on the way over there, Andy talked about how great it would be to find Aellurilus v-insignitus. After a slow start that built up over the afternoon, Andy found a mature male in the small quarry! Latent heat was low, so photographing specimens in the shade was relatively easy. You can't quite see it but this nationally scarce spider had the most amazing metallic green eyes. The double V mark on the head is diagnostic. It's likely to be a new record for the site.
I had a ladybird tick, the rather drab Larch LadybirdAphideita obliterata that I beat of a Scots Pine.
Back to the spiders. Dave found the only specimen of the remarkable Thomisus onustus we saw all day (go Dave!). This is the first one I have seen in Sussex and only the second one I have ever seen. What is really strange is that it was hanging under the flower heads of Hare's-tail Cottongrass. It had turned almost white in order to camouflage itself. What insects are likely to becoming near this plant though? None I would expect, so perhaps the spider will go hungry for now. It does demonstrate a point though, just how important nectar sources are in a heathland, they are often in short supply. We only saw one small patch of cottongrass and only one of this nationally scarce crab spider too.
Another nationally scarce heathland specialist was this striking wolf spider Xerolycosa nemoralis which I found in the small quarry. Yet another tick but one known to be in this exact spot by Andy!
And this cryptically patterned spider, although not a tick for me, is a cracking looking thing. It almost disappears when it stops moving. Arctosa perita.
There were so many scarce invertebrates that we didn't have time to photograph including Ampedus sanguinolentus, Ampedus elongantulus, Slave-making Ants, Salticus zebraneus (Andy found one on pine) and Micaria subopaca (I found one on pine). Finally, Andy found the saproxylic dermestid Megatoma undata on a pine trunk which is nationally scarce. No photo I'm afraid, but it was a smart beetle. I haven't finished identifying everything yet but I have breached the 3900 barrier. In fact, I am currently on 3911, only 89 species away from 4000! I added a minimum of 15 species. Today, I'm heading for Cowdray to have a look for some more saproxylic beetles...
But fortunately for me it was a Rhinocerous Beetle. A dead one at that. I was on my way to start some quadrats at Furnace Meadow, part of Ebernoe. Highlight was the rather unusual record of a pair of Snow Geese flying north east over the meadow. I wonder if they are breeding anywhere? Not wanting to be distracted too much with insects, I tried only looking at things I encountered in quadrats. I took this photo of the Knapweed feeding tortrix Eucosma hohenwartiana but I have seen this before. I did get one new bug in a quadrat though, Orthocephalus coriaeceus.
Earlier, Frances Abraham showed me the difference between two sedges that have been bugging me for some time, Wood Sedge and the scarcer Thin-spiked Wood Sedge (both are ancient woodland indicators). The first photo shows Wood Sedge at the top left and the larger leaved Thin-spiked Wood Sedge at the bottom right. The other photo shows Thin-spiked Wood Sedge. I'm really glad I have sorted these out and another new species for my list. I think I like sedges even more than grasses.
Finally, I have been watching this ugly brute by the side of the main road for the last week, it's the notorious alien Giant Hogweed. I was not familiar with the leaves and initially thought it was going to be Gunnera until it flowered. I have been meaning to get a photo but I was surprised to see it 'coned-off' today. I hope its days are numbered, it's not something I have ever seen in Sussex but the last thing we need is another alien. Especially one so dangerous it needs four cones and some barrier tape to stop it from attacking passing cars! I imagine because of photophytodermatitis there are all sorts of health and safety regulations about controlling it.
UPDATE 16/06/11: Thanks to Kingsdowner I have also been made aware that Giant Hogweed has inspired men to do other odd things over the years too. I'm not a Genesis fan but you'll see why I've included this...
I've been back to the New Forest today to discuss management of Holly so that we can gain experience for the proposed management at Ebernoe Common, Neil Sanderson was our guide and was, as ever, very helpful and informative. I managed a few ticks, best for me was a number of these smart hoverflies, Sericomyia lappona feeding on Bramble flowers in the woods near Pig Bush car park. On the edge of the wood, Neil was able to show me the leaves of Soft-leaved Sedge that I could not find two weeks ago but looked for. Probably because it was hardly in flower!
Nearby we also stumbled upon a Lesser Butterfly Orchid. I might not have seen this since I was a kid.
Neil also pointed a number of rare lichens that I could not possibly hope to re-identify so I won't be adding them to my list however, this Usnea ceratina is pretty distinctive and can't tolerate much pollution. We also saw the acid loving version of the moss Thuidium assimile which is called Thuidium delicatulum. I end the day on 3430 species.
Went for a walk around Woods Mill this lunch time and found a few things by sweeping. This tortoise beetle Cassida vibex was the most attractive although I have seen this species before. A very smart weevil called Cionus alauda very nearly fooled me with its (bird dropping?) mimicry. The Brown Sedge area near the river restoration is repsonding well, you can see clearly where the machinery went but the sedge seems to be growing faster than the other plants in the area. There is a lot of growth in the wet places despite the lack of rain, things are slow on the dry areas though.
Finally, this flew into reception and I was called in to catch it as it was stuck in a sky light. It looks quite bat-like in this photo but it is a Hummingbird Hawk-moth. I have finally reached one quarter of the way to 4000 and I am now on 3251 species.
These metre high Greater Tussock Sedges (NVC community S3) always make me laugh, looking like something from the Dark Crystal, I swear they move around when you're not looking. We went to Amberley Wildbrooks today to discuss management with the RSPB. There were lots of Lapwings and a few Redshank displaying, it was looking really good. Sadly, this Lapwing was predated, probably by a Fox looking at the ends of the feather shafts. Or maybe one of the tussocks got hungry?...
Getting my laptop back top back tomorrow at long last! Moth trap is out tonight at Woods Mill too so I hope we get a bumper March catch in the morning.
More from Frensham Great Pond and some impressive lichen communities. I think the greenish lichen in this photo is Cladonia portentosa but I am not a lichenologist by any means! Sand Sedge is perhaps the best visual example of a species that spreads by rhizomes, a horizontal underground stem that roots and spreads at the nodes. You can see 11 upright stems growing from this single plant. I think this community is likely to be an inland form/variant of the scarce SD11 but I need to learn a few more Cladonia species before I can confirm this, fortunately they don't rot down in the winter like vascular plants. Incidentally, Trouble with Lichen is a sci-fi by John Wyndham and worth a read.
This is another nationally uncommon NVC community W5a Alder & Greater Tussock Sedge - Common Reed subcommunity. This is the woodland community variant with an understorey of Wood Club-rush that completely replaces the understorey of sedges.
I am starting to get as excited at seeing a new NVC community as I get when I see a new species. I am aware that this is massively nerdy but do I look like I care?
Last year I discovered the fourth known colony in West Sussex of the nationally scarce (Nb) moth, Dotted Fan-foot, (photo attached) in the valley field here at Woods Mill. The moth is known to feed on sedges, which are plentiful at Woods Mill. Lesser Pond Sedge is probably the commonest but the moth has only ever been found in one distinct area, close to several small patches dominated by the uncommon Brown Sedge (photo attached). The caterpillar would be quite small and I would think that it would struggle to tackle the tough leaves of pond sedges. The Brown Sedge is flowering right now at Woods Mill but the moth is not likely to be on the wing until June/July when I am hoping to try and determine if it is dependant on the Brown Sedge at Woods Mill.
Posts
