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?
I found an unexpected new fish this morning, during a an unexpected trip to The Pound with Oli and sons, on a very unremarkable low tide. In fact, I only just about got onto the reef before the tide started coming in. I swept some Wireweed in one pool and found what I thought was the common Worm Pipefish, but the snout was clearly too long when I showed it to Oli and his sons. By the time I got home and looked at the photos, I realised it was likely a Snake Pipefish, and got that confirmed on the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society FB page. I think this is the cutest one I have seen yet!
It was clearly an immature (it was the size of a typical Worm Pipefish). As Worm Pipefish is the smallest species, and apparently Snake Pipefish gets the biggest, its clear that all pipefish are at one time in their life, the size of a Worm Pipefish, and therefore it's really important to check the snout closely on anything that look like a Worm Pipefish. This is my 98th fish in the British Isles, and my 5th pipefish. The 5th being Greater Pipefish, which I have only seen during SxIFCA small fish surveys.
This means there is only one pipefish that I am yet to see - Deep-snouted Pipefish. I might have to try and make that a target in 2025.
In other news, I have pretty much done my April field work now (this is what my year will mostly look like).
And at the south east level. Some 4,489 records entered so far this year...
I just had a quick break on the Isle of Wight before my field season started and it's amazing how much things have changed for me in just two short years. For a start, I planned the entire trip to coincide with the big low spring tides. I could not pull myself away from the coast. I barely did any terrestrial recording and my hands were barely out of the water. Two years ago though, my back was so bad, I could not have coped with turning that many rocks day-after-day, or netted that much sea weed. That's all in the past now.
I have felt my attention being pulled away from the land to the sea over the course of the last year, writing the book played a part in this but the main culprit is the unrelenting lure of the nudibranchs! On this trip I found two more species for my list, bringing me up to 14 species for the British Isles. We spent a lot of time with Mark Telfer and family in the rock pools, and probably spent more time at Bembridge Ledges than anywhere else. I absolutely loved that site, so many turnable rocks! First up was Palio nothus, a a really small green nudibranch that I only found by sweeping Wireweed and then sorting through the contents in a tray. Close-focus binoculars really help here as these things are tiny.
You really can see how small this is next to a Pheasant Shell above.
The other cracker was Amphorina farrani which I saw at Bembridge and Freshwater Bay, again by sweeping Wireweed and sorting through the material.
At Freshwater Bay, using the same method, I also found St. John's Jellyfish Calvadosia cruxmelitensis! This is only the second time I have seen a stalked jellyfish that I have got to species.
There's always so much going on in rock pools that I just don't have a clue about, I dismissed this thing as a barnacle scar but Mark looked at it under the hand lens and it's clearly alive. I needed some help on this one from the Porcupine Marine Natural History Society, as I would never have realised this was actually a bryozoan! Plagioecia patina.
And I figured this might have been some kind of a coral, but I was really surprised to find out that this is a young Deadman's Fingers Alcyonium digitatum! Look what this becomes (the second photo is from over a decade ago during a SxIFCA fish survey).
And I found this on the first night. A stoloniferan, a type of cnidarian. Amazingly just as I found this the marine biologist Roger Herbert appeared out of nowhere and helped me confirm this as Sarcodityon catenatum.
On the way back to the shore, we found a rock pool that was full of Aeolidiella alderi, there was five under one rock! This is the 3rd nudibranch of the trip.
And in the same rockpool was an adult Aeolidia philomenae. This was huge! Four or five times bigger than all the other ones I have seen. The fourth nudi of the trip.
Here is Bembridge Ledges itself at dawn...
Then for something really exciting; an entirely new habitat for me. Eel-grass or see-grass beds! We went to Seaview and met up with local expert Theo Vickers. I found a couple of new fish for me, Painted Goby and this Straight-nosed Pipefish, putting me at top fish lister on the PSL site! This green pipefish is a real eel-grass specialist. It's about 11 years since I was briefly joint top fish lister last — PSL is all about the long game.
Also there were these Peacock Fanworms Sabella pavonina, another lifer! Really common there.
And a few really large Hairy Hermit Crabs Pagurus cuanensis.
This absolute unit of a Sea Hare!
Loads of these King Scallops.
And the fifth nudibranch of the week, Acanthodoris pilosa. Found floating upside down in the incoming tide.
Look at this incredibly strange habitat! I absolutely loved it there.
And just because I can, here is some Tim Buckley.
Don't panic though, although I am about to buy a wetsuit and get into snorkelling, I have not forsaken dry land and grown gills just yet. Just yesterday, I found a super rare spider at Graffham Common and a beetle new to Sussex but that is a story for another day...
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