The Lyons Share

Possibly the strangest thing I am ever going to see EVER. I called in to twitch the Starfish Fungus on my way north today. Must be the first fungus I have added to my list in nearly a year (#210). An introduced species from Australia, it certainly doesn't look like it belongs here. I made the mistake of smelling it and I can confirm it is somewhere between dog muck and rotting corpse. Disgusting, beautiful or somewhere in between? It just leaves one question. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT BROWN STUFF?!

I've wanted to see the male of this spider since I first saw an illustration of it in a field guide. It's Walckenaeria acuminata. It's a money spider, quite big for a money spider but still only a few millimetres long. Not at all rare, I found two today by sieving moss in a conifer plantation as part of an ongoing survey at Old Lodge. It's hard to believe what is going on with this spider Where the eight eyes are normally clustered on the front of the cephalothorax is a huge stalk with  a cluster about two thirds of the way up with four eyes on and the remaining four eyes on the top of the 'periscope'. This tiny little creature is one of the strangest things I have ever seen in this country. There are loads of different species of Walckenaeria and the males have a baffling array of different shaped 'heads'. I added my 202nd spider today, the common Walckenaeria nudipalpis. I'm just starting to open my eyes to money spiders and this genus is certainly one I'll be looking out for in the future. Check out the rest of the family!

...she would probably look like this. I've been at Rye Harbour carrying on with the NVC I'm doing there this year where I bumped into a species I have not seen for 12 years. It's a female Red-veined Darter and it was by far the most well behaved dragonfly I saw today (there were dozens of pairs of Common Darters ovipositing today as well as Ruddy Darter and Migrant Hawker but they were all very lively). I don't think I have ever seen the females of this species before and did wonder whether this was a teneral animal due to its reluctance to fly. I love the blue and red eyes, which along with the black-bordered yellow pterostigma and the yellow veins are ID features. Here are some more shots...

I saw one Clouded Yellow today, I am hoping it was a female of the form helice but it was so fast and it appeared to come straight in off the sea heading north west faster than I could run, and I can run pretty quick! I wonder if the best way to find Pale or Berger's Clouded Yellows is to catch and check closely every helice type Clouded Yellow you see? It's the only one I have seen this year though and I didn't get a chance.

But perhaps the scarcest thing I found today was a new one for me. A nice scarce (Na) carabid called Cymindis axillaris. Not a bad day!

WARNING: This post contains the details of an offensive encounter, some of the most shocking behaviour I have ever seen in a birdwatcher and a moth-related euphemism that triggered a painful trip down memory lane. It's about 90% rant and 10% wildlife.

Yes a lot went on yesterday. For those with less time on their hands, here is the abridged version: I ticked Radde's Warbler on the edge of Brighton and saw Southern Chestnuts at Ambersham Common.

Now the long version. Where to start with such a day? I was in the middle of some work when I heard about the Radde's Warbler up at Sheepcote Valley, just to the east of Brighton. I needed this bird so I legged it up there only to find it had not been seen for three hours. After half an hour of watching Ring Ouzels flying all over the place (I saw at least six) the Radde's was relocated in a thick bramble bush. It was not showing well, diving out of the top and then flying straight into thick cover and only rarely calling. A birder played calls of it repeatedly before actually crawling into the bush to flush it and play more of its calls to it. Is this normal behaviour in birding circles now?! It was enough to put me off twitching for life. The total disregard for the bird's well being was disgusting, to certain individuals it would seem that tired and disorientated wildlife exists for one reason. Their amusement. I saw the bird, sadly probably because it was flushed. I would rather have not seen the bird. I left the site feeling dirty thinking to myself 'bad things happen when good people do nothing'. So this is my protest to such behaviour. I would like to add thanks to all the decent birders who were not doing this!

I picked up the gang and headed off to the other end of the county to do some real natural history but not before I recall my last encounter with a Dusky Warbler (a bird very similar to a Radde's Warbler) 12 years ago...

...I was at Dungeness RSPB at the time as a residential volunteer. Dave Walker had found a Dusky Warbler at the Obs so I dashed around on my push bike and when I look back it was a very similar feel to the Radde's twitch. Lots of people rushing from bramble bush to bramble bush but birders didn't use bird song or crawl into bushes back then, they used field craft and patience. The bird was relocated some distance from where I was and I jumped onto my bike landing heavily on a rather sensitive region of my body. I fell to the ground in agony as birder after birder ran past and over me without stopping to help! I guess some things never change. Jesus, birders are so unfriendly sometimes. I saw the bird. Memory lane sucks, I'm going back to Ambersham...

...It was cold last night and despite four traps, we only saw about five moths. Grey Pine Carpet, Grey Shoulder-knot, Black Rustic, Red-green Carpet and at least four Southern Chestnuts. A pretty little moth. It wasn't exactly mothing at its best though and I was a bit concerned I might have put Rachael off mothing for life. That said it was a stunning evening with a beautiful sunset and an amazing cold mist that crept in across the heath. Would you believe this was my first time to Ambersham Common?! I really must go to more none SWT sites. We saw one other person all evening, a young lad taking his remote control car for a walk. Pretty strange but not as strange as what happened next. Two strangers from the Midlands were also moth trapping. Friendly as ever, I wanted to talk to them. This is the exchange that happened in front of Rachael and my friend Simon.

Me: Hiya. Are you finding much?

Stranger: I would do if you lot would go away. This place is big enough for us all to have some space.

For once in my life I was speechless! I'd only been in that spot just long enough to net and pot up a Grey Pine Carpet for ID. I think that's the rudest a stranger has ever been to me during a natural history event. I can't imagine how debilitating this behaviour is. We have such a laugh when we go out on events like this, the company is so important, especially as I do so much natural history alone. Why do people sink to the lowest common denominator in crowds?!

We went to the pub afterwards, where po-faced bar maids continued the theme of rudeness.

Rude people of Earth, I remind you of the words of Bill and Ted: 'Be excellent to each other!' A big thank you to Tony Davis, Dave Gibbs, Simon Cullen, Shaun Pryor and of course the lovely Rachael Dover for being, as ever, excellent!

I went to Seaford Head on a whim with Rachael today looking for Long-tailed Blues. We didn't see any, but we did see lots of butterflies for the time of year being Clouded Yellow, Red Admiral, Meadow Brown, Small Copper, Small Heath, Small White, Common Blue and Speckled Wood. Nice to see but not really that surprising considering the Indian summer. So as the last of the warm weather faded, I resigned myself to dipping out on Long-tailed Blue in the best year I have ever known for this species. How many more years would go by before I'd get this chance again? Despondent and hungry, we headed off for Sunday dinner...

...what happened next happened so quickly I could barely believe my eyes. Upon leaving Seaford I spotted a couple of men at the top of a south facing road verge with cameras. I recognised one of them by the back of their head as Neil Hulme and instantly realised he must be looking at a Long-tailed Blue! So I pulled in, grabbed my bag and ran up the slope straight up to my first ever Long-tailed Blue!!! Before I knew it, TWO males were flying around my head fighting. What an incredible experience!

Several hours later after our roast, I realised I had left my camera on the bank so we headed back. Neil and co. were still there and Neil told me that he had seen seven males in total making this not only the site with the most in Sussex, but probably the site with the most LTB's in the UK!

I didn't bother trying to get a photo with my Coolpix as Neil offered to send me one of his shots, which was great, thanks Neil. I did manage to get a photo of the back of Neil's head though, which leads me seamlessly on to my parting comment. Always learn to identify naturalists by the back of their heads, you never know when you'll need to!

I last updated my list on the 27th April 2013. Despite doing most of my natural history at work this year, I have added quite a few in this time, 283 species to be precise. Beetles continue to be the biggest grower with 71 new species, closely followed by spiders at 51. I split arachnids into spiders and harvestmen, so now my next spider will be my 200th spider! The third group which showed the highest increase this summer amazingly was fish! I added 24 new species this year, a 60% increase in this group for me.

I've seen so many good things this year but have had very little time to show them. Here are a few that never made a blog post of their own! First up is a male Araneus marmoreus we found at Old Lodge in September.

I also caught up with one of my most coveted species, the ant mimic jumping spider Myrmarachne formicaria. Yes, this IS a spider. This was at the Crumbles near Eastbourne in July. 

Also at the Crumbles I recorded a species new to Sussex, albeit a naturalised one. The small ground bug Nysius huttoni.

I had no idea that Cat-mint was a native and vulnerable arable weed. I had to do a 50 mile double take for this one.

New longhorn beetles are always a welcome addition to my list. I've encountered Arhopalus rusticus twice this year, this one was at Old Lodge.

I finally caught up with Red Hemp-nettle over at Rye Harbour.

And I've been enjoying getting to grips with coastal invertebrates too including this Liocarcinus holsatus from Rye Harbour last week. I'll resist showing you anymore photos of fish!

Here is the break down:

So, 283 species later my list currently stands at 4505 species. However, the big change this year for me has been beginning the long process of databasing all of 25 years of natural history recording. I posted about this sometime ago but it took me a whole to get going. It's a long process but a hugely rewarding one and I might have only scratched the surface but it's changing the way I do natural history. My approach is that I will never allow current records to develop into a backlog and this is working. Perhaps half of the 7129 records I have put in this year are casual records from this year alone. So my casual records for the last five years are up to date. I now have to concentrate on surveys and older records. I am currently working on the RSPB years, 2007 to be precise but it does get increasingly 'birdy' the further I go back. It's quite nice delving back through 25 years of records, if a little daunting.

So here is my overview of the records at the Sussex level. You can see the Trust reserves as dense clusters.

And a close up of Brighton & Hove. You can see clusters of records at Woods Mill, Ditchling Beacon, Malling, Southerham as well as Seaford Head and the Eastbourne Downs. I would encourage anyone with more than a passing interest to go down this road and the quicker you do it, the better. I just wish I had started years ago.

Last Tuesday I went out with Sussex IFCA to carry out a small fish survey in Rye Bay on their boat, the Watchful. I was rather excited the night before and despite a sleepless night and a 4.00 am start, I was wide awake and very alert as we left Shoreham Harbour at 6.00 am.

It was misty as we headed out to Rye Bay but it soon cleared by the time we starting trawling for the first of the samples. The best bird of the trip was a dark Arctic Skua.

We pulled up a couple of Sea Mice Aphrodita aculeata. I guess people who spend a lot of time at sea don't see many mice. It's actually a worm would you believe it!?

I saw four new fish including quite a few of these Hook-nose, Pogge or Armed Bullhead. Having neither arms or hidden weaponry, I would have thought Armoured Bullhead would have been more appropriate.

I also added Solenette (we saw hundreds of them - photo below) and a few Lesser Sandeels.

But best fish of the trip has to be the Tub Gurnard with the most amazing bright-blue fins.

And of course, the highlight of the trip was seeing my first ever cephalopod in the form of this 2 cm long Little Cuttlefish Sepiola atlantica. I think this is a candidate for one of my favourite ever species!

It was a great day and seeing the whole of the East Sussex coast in calm sees and glorious sunshine on the way back was a real treat. Here is a very different view of Beachy Head. A big thank you to Kathryn Nelson and the rest of the team, I have definitely got the bug when it comes to sea life and I'll be doing more of this when I can. We processed nearly 3000 fish which was surprisingly hard work so I glad to be able to give something back. For the time being though my feet are on dry land.

We hosted a spider field meeting organised by the British Arachnological Society at Iping and Stedham today. It was incredible how many invertebrates we recorded in exactly the same places as the survey we carried out there last year. The highlight for me was sweeping this female Araniella displicata as I didn't manage to get a photo of it last year. It's quite a scarce beast (Na) and looks quite unlike the other Araniellas. I swept Ero tuberculata (Nb) in the same net but could not get the bloody thing to keep still for a photo. Lots of Philodromus histrio today (I swept seven in one net) which was more than we saw all year last year!

...a public toilet. It wasn't until I got home that I found I had reached my 4500th species today without  even realising. Now, I have seen loads of more interesting and exciting things than this species but I haven't had chance to blog about those yet. So in the mean time, my 4500th species was the rather dull little micro moth Eudonia angustea.

It's really difficult to try and 'fix' a significant marker in pan-species listing as an exciting species (I was hoping to see something during the small fish survey at Rye Harbour tomorrow) and you're not even safe in a public toilet it would seem! I was at Rye Harbour today and tried to get in via the south-west end of the reserve at Winchelsea Beach. The gate was locked but I spotted the toilets on the way back out and dashed in to use the loo. There were moths everywhere including four Eudonia angustea, three Mallows and best of all a Gem.

I took some pretty bad photos on my iPhone as I wasn't exactly prepared for macro photography when I went in there! 

Only 500 to go until 5000 which I expect will happen some time in 2014. It's nearly three years since my 3000th species which was also a micro moth on a wall. It's strange to think I have seen half as many species again in the last three years than I saw in the previous 22 years (my first biological record being made in 1988).

It's a been a while. I've recently lost enthusiasm for social networks, so my online presence has been low this summer. Ironically, I have probably had the busiest year of natural history of my life and have seen loads of exciting things, I just haven't the time or the inclination to write about it. So, apologies for that and for being a bit hard to get hold of this year.

Anyways, it's only a month late but here are the photos from one of the most exciting few hours natural history I have had all year when I helped out with a small fish survey off the coast of Rye Harbour on the 20th August. I only managed 14 new species of fish! Fourteen vertebrates in a single day, which actually even beats the last time I went out with these guys where I added six new species of fish and hooked up with the Reticulated Dragonet. So what beats a Reticulated Dragonet I hear you say?!

A bewildering array of young flatfish made up the bulk of my ticks but I must admit that I quite liked learning to identify this difficult group and before I knew it I was getting quite proficient at helping identify them. First up we have the slimy Plaice with orange spots. I also saw Flounder (not a tick), Witch and Dab which were new to me but I didn't manage a photo of those in all the excitement.

As with snails, you get 'left-handed' and 'right-handed' fish, and as with snails, more species tend to go one way than the other. Two species which buck the trend are Brill and Turbot. We saw both but here is a photo of a young Turbot.