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.
If you didn't read the post I put up requesting help for a 'research ' project, you can read it here. Thanks to everyone who contributed. It's not come back with anything conclusive, if anything the results are quite difficult to explain but I will try!
To summarise the data: 61 people took part with scores ranging from 29 to 70. My score of 68 was beaten only by three people putting me in the top 7% (thanks for spotting that mistake), at least I'm not making it up when I recognise people all the time! The mean of the whole data set was 58.8, considerably higher than the 53 which was noted as the mean on the website.
In the above chart, you can see the data is split between three categories. This therefore requires a one-way ANOVA (assuming normally distributed data). The data wasn't normally distributed and no amount of data-transformations was going to do anything about that. So we had to go with the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test (X2=3.65, P=0.16, n=61). And no significant differences were found. I was intrigued to compare just the 'Naturalists' with 'Pan-listers' using a Mann-Whitney test and the same was true but this result was approaching significance (Z=1.82, P=0.07, n=61).
This would be quite interesting if the 'Non-naturalist' category wasn't sitting right in the middle. All I can think is, is that many of the PSL and naturalist types just did the test while perhaps the people who didn't see themselves as naturalists only did the test if they thought they had pretty good facial recognition. In fact, this was the group that had the least submissions. All of the groups were way above the mean on the website of 53. I believe my data collection method was causing an intrinsic bias across all three classes as only people who thought they might score well were entering. Who knows. All thoughts on this are most welcome.
I'll stick to the ecology.
But is there a correlation with PSL list size and test score I hear you say? Well, no is the answer (F=0.05, P=0.82, n=21). A big fat no at that. That line can barely get more level.
Yesterday was the first meeting of the Ditchling Beacon Conservation Super Squad. A conservation task force aimed at tackling this difficult site with it's seemingly inaccessible steep slopes and back-breaking scrub removal; it's not for the fainthearted. We started gently on the slope above though and had a great day. We used the new Tree Poppers for pulling up the invasive Wall Cotoneaster that has invaded large areas of the quarry (along with smaller amounts of native Hawthorn and Wayfaring-tree) and it was really successful. We covered pretty much the whole of the slope above and the plateau beyond that which will make way for all sorts of chalk-grassland plants, bryophytes and invertebrates. I personally loved getting my hands dirty again after all these years and it was a great feeling doing it as a volunteer.
By the end of the day, the slope looked great! I can't wait to see this in the summer. The Tree Poppers are so much better than just cutting and coppicing the scrub as they pull up the whole plant roots and all. They also create some bare ground in the process. The drawback is it takes much longer and they are quite hard work on the slopes. Manageable though.
What was a real surprise (considering we only surveyed it last year) was that Carole Mortimer found an insect new to the site. This is the Nb Agonopterix pallorella which is restricted to the eastern Downs and feeds on Knapweed. As we mention all species with conservation status in the management plans and Ditchling is just about to be submitted, this moth just scrapes it into the plan! It's the 181st moth we have recorded at Ditchling and the 1233rd species over all. I really like being able to tie the management together with some worthwhile species recording as we go, it really completes the circle.
Next month we will try some larger scrub and maybe put some spuds on the fire. If you're interested, please message me on graemelyons@sussexwt.org.uk. It's always on the last Sunday of the month so the next one will be 25th February.
I have literally only just managed to enter all the records from the 1000 species challenge. I have been chipping away at them for weeks. I have already reported that we had three species new to the reserve network (never recorded on any SWT reserve before). These were; the Welsh Oak Longhorn Beetle (shown above), the mite Aceria origani (a gall forming mite on Wild Marjoram) and...Walnut. Yes there is a naturalised Walnut tree that's grown up in the last few years and that's a new record for the site and any reserve. Although it turns out there is one at Ditchling too.
What about the species new to just the specific reserve they have been recorded on? Well, of the 1033 (this has dropped by two since pulling this together, I doubled counted Great Tit and deleted Oyster Mushroom), 177 (17.1%) were recorded between the reserves leaving 856 (82.9%) record on the reserves. Of these, 114 (13.3%) had never been recorded on that particular reserve before. Levin had the most new species with 24 out of 93 (24.7%). This is surprising as I surveyed the invertebrates there in 2016!
Here is the breakdown of the species we recorded by reserve. We wanted to break the back of it at Ebernoe early on without moving too much which I think was a good tactic.
This just goes to show that was partly a bit of fun and also partly a fund-raising and promotional event turned out to have a real tangible recording element. I think part of this is down to being on sites at unusual times using methods you perhaps wouldn't normally use. The other big factor is going to parts of reserves you wouldn't usually go to. You tend to survey at the best bits of reserves but if you want to get a huge list you need to start sweeping as soon as you walk through the gate. The rank grass at the bottom of the hill at Levin that is a long way from being good quality chalk-grassland, produced a lot of site firsts!
Some of the site firsts were indeed quite surprising. That is how recording goes though. Here they all are in the order they were recorded. Just bare in mind that this is the first record that's been made, it might not be the first time it's been seen there. Also, the sites with multiple ownership (Burton and Amberley) this is just referring to SWT's portion of the site. So, Bombus pascuorum is new to SWT's portion of the site, it may well have been recorded elsewhere on Amberley Wildbrooks.
Mistletoe has never been recorded on a Sussex Wildlife Trust reserve. But today we recorded it FROM one. Not that we'll be counting it on the site list but this shows how tantalisingly close we got to it today at the Warren, part of our Burton Pond reserve. The road delineates the edge of the reserve and across the next field you can see a clump of Mistletoe. However, 'from' just isn't good enough even for a bird (let alone something that can't fly. Or move even). We never recorded the Short-toed Eagle using Old Lodge for example, although it was seen distantly from the reserve. Now this might have made a nice tweet and the story might have ended there so why am I blogging about this I hear you ask?
Well, this is the winter of 2017/18 and you can't even take a photo of a clump of Mistletoe without it being photo-bombed by a couple of these chunky monkeys due to their unprecedented invasion!
Yes, you've guessed it. A couple of Hawfinches! This is getting ridiculous. Not only did we see these two and hear them flying over the Warren we also saw five more round at New Piece. This seems to be a new record for our part of the site. This is my eighth encounter this winter which outnumbers ALL my other encounters ever! The last two times I've been out in the field they have outnumbered Chaffinches. I don't think I'll ever get bored of them and I've never been more tuned in to their insignificant calls. All encounters (except this one) this year wouldn't have happened without knowing this call, so to maximise your chances of seeing one or more of these awesome finches, keep your ears open. I love how upright they are in silhouette. I guess it's hard to perch diagonally if you're head weighs as much as a Hawfinch's does without falling over.
I'll leave you with this. The scientific name (Coccothraustes coccothraustes) always makes me think of these. Hawfinches: they're grrrreat!
P.S. Mistletoe has still not been recorded ON at Trust reserve.
Where to start with this one. A 120 Hawfinches? Australian Flu? The first airing of Season 3 of the Mighty Boosh some ten years ago? The Big Bang? Or maybe my first day back at work this year. Yes let's start there. I got to the boot of my car on the 2nd Jan and the whole car STUNK of fox. I was even more surprised when the smell had some how permeated into the car. I drove to work half expecting the Crack Fox from the Mighty Boosh to be sitting on the back seat. This guy. Fortunately he wasn't.
I got back in the car at the end of the day and it STILL stank! I even called one of of my colleagues over and he was amazed at how bad it was. And it wasn't until the 6th that I realised what on (fox) earth was going on! But first we have to go back to the 30th Dec...
...I am recovering from what I now think is Australian Flu and having spent all of Christmas indoors I am itching to get out. I have some freelance work to do at Heyshott Down looking at bryophytes and I'm up there in a bit of a daze, it was way too soon to be back at work but you live and learn. I am seriously wrapped up and I only went out because it was 12 degrees. I have some new finger-less gloves. I'm head down mapping the stunning moss Rhodobryum roseum (which has spread on the site due to the management of the Murray Downland Trust) BUT I am continually distracted by calling Hawfinches. I had seen five at one point perched in the distance but it's so hard to ignore the call as I usually hear them so infrequently.
Suddenly I look up and the sky is black with Hawfinches. A flock of some 45 birds flies over head and lands right in front of me. I lift my bins and can see a further 20 birds in the mid distance. I heard calling behind me and saw even more!!! Around 55 birds in the trees to the west. I did the math. 120 Hawfinches (and I believe that to be an underestimate). In all the excitement I began to overheat, now this is an important clue: I took my gloves off and put them in my big lower pockets in my combats. Exciting stuff.
I head home at the end of the day feeling a little rough and spaced out. The next day as I was heading towards the pub for New Years and walked round the back of my car to cross the road I thought to myself "Someone's dropped a glove there that looks rather like one of my new gloves right outside the boot of my car" but the penny didn't drop. I carried on. Then a few days later I realised said glove was mine. It was soaking wet from all the 'rain' so I left it on my parcel shelf to dry off. Big mistake. Yesterday (6th Jan) I retrieved the glove to find it still soaking and then it hit me. Both the stench of fox scent glands at point blank range and the answer to the stinking car conundrum. The local foxes had been having their New Year's celebrations on my glove for days. What went on there we'll never know. Here is the offending article.
Now I know what you're thinking. "Nice hops". No I'm kidding. You're thinking "Why didn't you use 'fox glove' as a blog title?". Well that would have given it away right from the start. I have washed the fox glove now. It kind of now smells of a mix of part washing detergent and part greaty reduced fox musk, which is actually quite pleasant. I wonder though, what will my car will smell like tomorrow morning on my way to work?
I have just finished all the identifications from the invertebrate survey I carried out at Graffham Common this year (a total of 412 species recorded) and thought I would do a little review of the spiders. It came as quite a surprise to me that 16 of the 80 species of spider recorded during the six visits last year have conservation status! That's a remarkable 20%! I have never recording anything like this, especially as I always thought the conservation statuses for spiders were more stringent than for other taxa. Of these 16, 13 are considered nationally scarce while the remaining three are nationally rare! And when you think it was mostly conifer plantation five years ago with some tiny patches of heath you really start to see how special the site is.
Overall we have now recorded 141 spiders at Graffham. I carried out some pitfalls back in 2009 and in 2014 and we added some interesting species back then. Including Xysticus luctuosus (we had quite a few in 2009 but none in 2014). Interestingly it took me until 2017 to find a living one and only then was it one individual (the female above recorded on Fir Toat)! Back in 2009 and even earlier last year this spider wasn't classified as having any conservation status at all but now I'm please to see it's classified as nationally rare and IUCN Endangered! This spider is currently not known from anywhere else in Sussex!
But the biggest surprise for me was the gorgeous IUCN Vulnerable Uloborus walckenaerius. It's an odd looking beast and is also rare. In Sussex known from neighbouring Ambersham Common. It was well established on Graffham West and on the last visit we even picked one up from Gallows Pond.
And also the BAP IUCN Near Threatened Lichen Running-spider Philodromus margaritatus. In Sussex known only from here and the adjacent Lavington Common. During this survey the spider was recorded on all three blocks.
We recorded for an hour on each of three blocks: Graffham West, Gallows Pond and Fir Toat. A site list was made for each of the sub-sites over the six visits. The full species list is shown below.
Species
Fir Toat
Gallows
West
Cons status
Achaearanea riparia
1
NS
Agalenatea redii
1
Agelena labyrinthica
1
1
Amaurobius fenestralis
1
Anelosimus aulicus
1
NS
Anelosimus vittatus
1
1
1
Araneus angulatus
1
NS
Araneus diadematus
1
1
1
Araneus quadratus
1
Araniella cucurbitina
1
1
1
Araneus sturmi
1
1
Arctosa leopardus
1
Arctosa perita
1
1
Argyroneta aquatica
1
Ballus chalybeius
1
NS
Bianor aurocinctus
1
NS
Clubiona trivialis
1
Diaea dorsata
1
Dictyna arundinacea
1
1
Dictyna latens
1
1
Dipoena tristis
1
NS
Drassodes cupreus
1
Drassyllus pusillus
1
Enoplognatha latimana
1
1
Enoplognatha ovata
1
1
1
Ero tuberculata (above)
1
1
NS
Evarcha arcuata
1
1
NS
Evarcha falcata
1
1
1
Gibbaranea gibbosa
1
1
1
Harpactea hombergi
1
Heliophanus cupreus
1
1
1
Heliophanus flavipes
1
Larinioides cornutus
1
Lathys humilis
1
Linyphia triangularis
1
1
1
Mangora acalypha
1
1
1
Marpissa muscosa
1
1
1
NS
Metellina mengei
1
1
1
Metellina segmentata
1
1
1
Misumena vatia
1
1
1
Neon reticulatus
1
1
Neottiura bimaculatum
1
Nuctenea umbratica
1
1
Pachygnatha degeeri
1
Paidiscura pallens
1
Pardosa nigriceps
1
Pardosa palustris
1
1
Pardosa pullata
1
1
Pardosa saltans
1
1
1
Philodromus albidus
1
1
Philodromus aureolus
1
1
Philodromus cespitum
1
Philodromus dispar
1
1
1
Philodromus margaritatus
1
1
1
NR
Philodromus praedatus
1
Pirata latitans
1
Pisaura mirabilis
1
1
1
Rugathodes instabilis
1
NS
Salticus cingulatus
1
Salticus zebraneus
1
NS
Savignia frontata
1
Simitidion simile
1
1
1
Stemonyphantes lineatus
1
Tegenaria silvestris
1
Tetragnatha nigrita
1
1
Tetragnatha obtusa
1
Tetragnatha pinicola
1
Theridion impressum
1
Theridion sisyphium
1
1
1
Theridion tinctum
1
Tibellus oblongus
1
1
Trematocephalus cristatus
1
NS
Uloborus
walckenaerius
1
1
NR
Xerolycosa nemoralis
1
1
1
NS
Xysticus cristatus
1
1
1
Xysticus erraticus
1
Xysticus kochi
1
Xysticus lanio
1
Xysticus luctuosus
1
NR
Zilla diodia
1
1
1
Zygiella atrica
1
1
Total
39
55
49
Cons status
5
10
9
Percentage
12.8
18.2
18.4
Iping & Stedham are on 204 species of spider and a whopping 25.0% of these having conservation status, Rye Harbour is very close to this with 201 species at 19.9% conservation status. Then we have Graffham Common with a grand total of 141 species (the 80 mentioned above was from the six visit standardised survey in 2017 alone) and a total of 17.0% of these have cons status. Old Lodge is next with 139 species with 11.3% conservation status. All these sites, except Graffham Common, are SSSIs (or with higher designations) with years of recording behind them.
And that's just the spiders. Other taxa are showing some similar exciting changes but that will have to wait for another day.
Time for my annual post of how things are going in the PSL community. We didn't have a field meeting in 2017, the first year since we started having field meetings in 2012 but it looks like the Cornwall one planned this year by Sally Luker is going to be awesome. I'm looking forward to meeting many of you then. I will be going whatever this time having not made one for some time.
The 1000 species challenge was also a great boost for pan-species listing, we raised over a £1000 for our Trust. I'm also hoping that listing the whole Sussex Wildlife Trust reserve network will encourage other conservation organisations to do the same thing. So who is going to have a go next? Could the National Trust beat the RSPB's 16000+?
First up, what's happening in the top ten.
2016
2017
Change
1
Jonty Denton
12399
12483
84
2
Dave Gibbs
11327
11327
0
3
Mark Telfer
7478
7603
125
4
Nicola Bacciu
6515
7045
530
5
Brian Eversham
6650
7030
380
6
The late Eric Philp
6878
6878
0
7
Graeme Lyons
6515
6840
325
8
Simon Davey
6722
6722
0
9
Matt Prince
6142
6483
341
10
Richard Comont
5919
6362
545
First up it looks like Jonty and Mark have slowed down a little. Dave Gibbs hasn't updated his totals in over a year and neither has Simon. Richard Comont has entered the top ten (with the highest increase in the top ten over the period) and Malcolm Storey has departed. Nicola continues to shoot up the rankings as the highest female lister. I've over taken Simon Davey making me the top Sussex lister.
Now for the 100th lister. In 2015 it was Rowan Alder on 903 species, last year it was Adam Harley on 1183 and this year it's Stephen O'Donnell (someone else who hasn't updated for over two years) on 1371. That means that everyone in the top 100 has now seen 1371 species. Pretty impressive!
The youngest lister is now only nine! The oldest is 73. There are 219 people on the rankings (up from 192 last year) and 464 users on the website (up from 300). There are 356 members on the Facebook page (up from 288).
Now for the site rankings (changes in bold).
2016
2017
1
Wicken Fen
8674
Wicken Fen
8674
2
Esher Commons
7945
Esher Commons
7945
3
RSPB Minsmere
5928
RSPB Minsmere
5928
4
Thorn Moors
5052
Thorn Moors
5052
5
RSPB Abernethy
4735
RSPB Abernethy
4735
6
RSPB The Lodge
4290
SWT Rye Harbour
4324
7
SWT Rye Harbour
4274
RSPB The Lodge
4290
8
Hatfield Forest
4184
Hatfield Forest
4184
9
SWT Ebernoe Common
3708
SWT Ebernoe Common
3900
10
Northwich Community Woodlands
3118
Sutton Fen
3708
So nothing has changed in the top five. As predicted, Rye Harbour has over taken the Lodge into 6th place. Sutton Fen has joined the top ten ranks and then Ebernoe Common has replaced it. This has pushed Northwich Community Woodlands out of the top ten. There are 63 locations on the rankings (something I didn't note down the last couple of years).
Now for the top taxa listers (again changes in bold).
2016
2017
Algae
Jony Denton
288
288
Slime
Moulds
Malcolm Storey
51
51
Protists
Jony Denton
24
24
Lichens
Simon Davey
1228
1228
Fungi
Malcom Storey
1391
1391
Bryophytes
Paul Bowyer
480
503
Vascular
Plants
John Martin
2278
2292
Sponges
Richard Comont
12
12
Comb-jellies
Lee Johnson
3
3
Cnidarians
Richard Comont
44
45
Molluscs
Richard Comont
222
224
Bryozoans
Richard Comont
27
30
Annelids
Richard Comont
51
55
Platyhelminth
worms
Brian Eversham
18
18
Sea-spiders
Richard Comont
4
4
Arachnids
Jonty Denton
493
499
Myriapods
Keith Lugg
77
81
Crustaceans
Richard Comont
99
100
Springtails
Richard Comont
44
45
3-tailed
Bristletails
Mark Telfer
8
8
Odonata
Mark Telfer, Dave Gibbs
48
48
Orthopteroids
Mark Telfer
41
41
Hemipteroids
Jonty Denton
861
875
Hymenoptera
Dave Gibbs
809
809
Coleoptera
Mark Telfer
2632
2739
Diptera
Dave Gibbs
3146
3146
Butterflies
Seth Gibson, Stuart Read
62
62
Moths
Tony Davis
1628
1635
Remaining
small
Jonty Denton
195
195
Echinoderms
Richard Comont
19
20
Tunicates
Richard Comont
22
24
Fish
Richard Comont
97
98
Reptiles
Richard Comont
9
10
Amphibians
Jonty Denton
13
13
Birds
Dave Gibbs
527
527
Mammals
Mark Telfer
64
64
Other
animals
Jonty Denton
36
36
Paul Bowyer has set a new record for bryophytes in only around three years, this is really impressive. Mark's added over a 100 beetles. Richard's somehow managed 10 reptiles. I'm still not top lister for anything.
So there we are, lots of new records being made and some interesting changes in the top ten. Maybe next year I will open it up to the top 20, what do you think? Oh and I hope 2018 is an awesome listing year.
Posts
