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.
With an even bigger and brighter Rainbow Sea Slug Babakina anadoni! Today we went to Gylly Beach and this was spotted by one of the rock poolers. It was so much brighter and bluer than yesterday's animal. What a wonder!
Finley found four swirls of eggs under a large rock before it was found nearby under a much smaller rock.
Then it started munching on Candelabrum cocksii, the weird worm-like hydroid that is feeds on.
I found another Limacia clavigera under the second rock I turned and finally found another three! Noy scarce bit this shot was much better than the one I took yesterday.
As the tide was coming in, I saw a gully with a flow of water. I said to Ty that you often get nudis where there is some flow and turned a large rock to find two adult Spurilla neapolitana and their eggs!!! The 19th and 20th record in the UK I think. The first one had really orange rhinophores. Just magic. So glad that Ty, Sally and everyone else got to see these again we mopped up yesterday.
Well that was worth setting my alarm for 3.30 am for! I have just had FOUR nudibranch lifers at Silver Steps, Falmouth in Cornwall. I'll start with the species I have wanted to see more than any other since I first clapped eyes on it. The Rainbow Sea Slug Babakina anadoni! It was almost dream like seeing this today. In fact, I really wasn't expecting to pick this up today (I was aiming for it tomorrow) so when I turned a rock and found a pair together as the tide was coming in, I was pretty stoked. It was also a lifer for Finley and Louis! I said, "anyone who finds it has to shout BABAKINA!!! as load as they can!" Which I took great enjoyment in doing.
Here are a few more shots. The first one is my first shot shorty after I saw it for the first time, I almost forgot to breathe today.
They were bigger than I was expecting. Finley took this pic of me looking rather pleased.
Well, it's gonna be hard to top that. Or is it? This is the Hair-curler Sea SlugSpurilla neapolitana. Seemingly only the 18th record for Britain after Charlotte Cumming found the first here only two months ago. This was one of the largest sea slugs I have seen that wasn't a dorid. Check this utter beauty out! Sad to see it had lost a rhinophore.
I am pretty sure these are the eggs, which I found high up the beach after about 10 minutes of getting there.
EDIT: This could well be a much commoner species I had not considered, thanks to Charlotte Cumming for the suggestion.
Check this video out! It reminds me of that bonkers alien 'Calvin' from the sci-fi movie Life.
I took this over to show some girls I was chatting to in the car park and bumped into another rockpooler called Vicky Barlow. She just so happened to be looking for Spurilla so was very pleased. She's also the person who found the first Babakina (other than divers) so gave me some great tips on where to look that totally paid off.
I found my first (very overdue) Limacia clavigera. Finley found another one. It's really not that scarce but one I have failed to see until now.
Then Louis found this, which is Facelina annulicornis, identified by Vicky and my 4th nudibranch lifer of the day! That's me on 35 species of nudibranch, all this year.
I found this which I think is a St John's Jellyfish Calvadosia cruxmelitensis, only the second time I have seen one. Thanks to Finley for the photo. I was too furiously searching for Babakina at this point to stop to take a photo of this.
And I had one more lifer. A Black Brittlestar Ophiocomina nigra! I thought these were deep water species, so was glad to spot one. Finley showed me the smooth black disc of the animal is the clincher! Result.
Is there such a thing as too many sea slugs? Hell no! Send more nudis!
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