I reached 774 species (12.9% of the challenge) by the 14th January, 372 of which are invertebrates (there's so much to see in mid winter). I had a great day out at Binstead Woods with James Chisnall last Saturday and then went on to Burton Pond for a couple of hours. On the 14th I went to Old Lodge with Matt Secombe, targeting a whole load of spiders and we got most of them!
First up though, it was a surprise to beat a Corizus hyoscyami off a pine! That's me on 43 species of hemipteroids (my target is 500 for the year).
One of the key targets was Micrommata virescens. This spider is identifiable as an immature if you know how to separate them from Tibellus! I flushed a Woodock just as I found this (still not seen a Greenfinch but I did finally unlock Sparrowhawk in the park when I was training this afternoon).
Nice to get the bog specialist shore bug, Chartoscirta cocksii. There is so much to be found at the base of mature tussocks of Purple Moor-grass in January.
Back to the spiders. So I am now on 129 arachnids for the year (or 25.8% of my 500 species target). This 129 includes 122 species of spider. Taranucnus setosus is pretty much guaranteed at Old Lodge in Molinia.
We found just one immature Raft Spider Dolomedes fimbriatus but you only need one for the list! I really need to start taking photos of people and landscapes to illustrate this challenge, or an future talks or articles I do on it are all going to have photos with grey backgrounds.
Like this one! Centromerus arcanus is really common in Sphagnum at Old Lodge. It has such an incredible distribution, check out the SRS page for it and you'll see why I think of Ashdown Forest as 'Sussex's upland'.Other spider targets all found included: Notioscopus sarcinatus, Hypselistes jacksoni, two male Theonoe minutissima (only the 2nd time I have recorded it there) and a bonus Thanatus striatus (which is new to Old Lodge)! It was a four species of Walckenaeria day too! I love it when you show stuff to someone and they keep saying 2 "I have wanted to see that for ages!" And any day you get to shove a Garlic Snail up someone's nose for the first time is a good day.
Matt found this Cychrus caraboides under a rock. I so very rarely see this big beetle, in fact it is only my 9th record in 17 years of beetling! I am on 94 beetles for the year, that's 7.8% of my 1,200 species target for beetles. Gulp.
And now the exciting find of the survey, vacuumed from a bog I have surveyed many times before, a couple of these small narrow beetles. It's Corticaria umbilicata, very obviously long and narrow. Last recorded in Sussex from Broadwater Warren in 1985 and not recorded since. It's not only new to Old Lodge but to any SWT reserve. These sort of records are important at demonstrating how worthwhile challenges like this are, every time I go to one of these reserves I find something new.
A huge thanks to everyone has donated to the
Just Giving page so far, and please do consider donating something at some point throughout the year. It's all going to help the management of the Trust's reserves.
If you want to take part in pan-species listing, you can sign up for free here!
Off to Ebernoe Common for a big day out tomorrow. Watch this space!
At the end of week 1, I reached 564 species (I am actually on 565 as of today as I saw some Large White pupae on my friends wall this morning). I ended week 1 with a much needed day out at Iping and Stedham Commons and added nearly 120 species, over a quarter of which were spiders. I had a Zora silvestris on Stedham Common (it is well-known from Iping Common but this might be first time I have seen this Critically Endangered and Nationally Rare spider this side of the road), and a whole load of scarce spiders even though much of the ground was still frozen. Persistence pays off!
Here's a list of the nice spiders I had yesterday and their statuses.
Zora silvestris - CR & NR
Lathys heterophthalma- Vulnerable & Nationally Rare
This is easy to find by suction on the shorter, managed areas of open heath at Iping. Seems to like very dry areas here, and can be found in numbers even on a freezing cold day in Jan!
Here's the real exciting one!
Centromerus brevipalpus - Endangered & Nationally Rare
This is the first record for Iping Common since 1969! And it means on the SRS page I will be turning the black cross back to a black dot. This spider has more locations in West Sussex than anywhere else, so I was pleased to sieve a tiny female from moss under trees at Stedham. I have only seen this spider twice before, so I have three records from three West Sussex hectads now. It's also a winter active species, so is exactly the kind of thing I need to be targeting at the moment.
Also
Hypsosinga sanguinea - NS
Hypsosinga albovittata - NS (ticked it on the 1st at Malling)
Kochiura aulica - NS
Scotina celans - NS
Scotina gracilipes - NS
Episinus truncatus - NS
Monocephalus castaneipes - NS & S.41
Agyneta mollis - (NR, NT & S.41) lol. I have had this spider every day I have been out with the sucker this year, it's a 1st January kinda species and shouldn't even be Nationally Scarce!
Not scarce but Aphileta misera is not an easy spider to find in Sussex and I recorded the first Tallusia experta at Iping 1968! I forgot just how awesome sieving moss for spiders is in winter, this is really bringing back fond memories of those three years of spider year-listing (although Sphagnum in the open was frozen solid yesterday). I've seen 74 spiders so far this year.
But you do find loads of other stuff when looking for spiders in winter. Obviously all the heathland plants were new yesterday, as were Lapwing, Mallard, Coot and Grey Heron as I drove to site, as well as Crossbills, Dartford Warbler, Linnet and Stonechat on site!
I beat some nice things off pine, including oddly a Juniper Shieldbug, which was new to the site.
Everyone's favourite wafer-thin ground bug Gastrodes grossipes.
And a gorgeous Striped Ladybird. I even saw a queen Bombus terrestris yesterday on Gorse!
My number one target on the website (the species that most other pan-species year listers have seen, that I have not) is currently Mute Swan (with my first non-bird target being Roe Deer).
This followed a quick but icy lunchtime walk around Withdean Woods on the 6th, where I found Pomatias elegans, one of very few land snails with an operculum. I always think they have the fire on in there and are watching something nice on TV with a brew. 23 molluscs for the year!I had a great day out at Woods Mill on the 2nd with Henry Miller. Orange Ladybird was a highlight.
Karen and I started the year with a bang on the 1st Jan at Malling Down. You have to work a little harder when it is this cold but there was still plenty to see. Like Round-headed Rampion if you know what the leaves look like.
I have seen 218 species of invertebrate species in the first week of one of the coldest weeks of the decade, so I am pretty pleased with that. Being used to doing lots of winter work for spider really helps here. I have still not been rock-pooling, waiting for some low tides in day light. The great thing with this game is there is always something else to do, so my game plan is to not go out when conditions are not really good.
So here's my overall progress so far
Now I am not out again until Saturday, when I am going out spidering again with my friend Jame Chisnall.I am fund raising for this for the management of Sussex Wildlife Trust's nature reserves, so please do consider donating on my JustGiving page.
And if you want to learn more about the pan-species listing approach to natural history, please have a look at my book here which is out very soon.
Now, will I find anything new for the year on my way to Hove Town Hall?...
I have had a break from social media for the last month. This was triggered by a period of feeling really unwell for a while, a trip to A&E after six hours of agonising stomach ache and nausea and a yellow eye (of course, I still went rock-pooling in the dark in gale in this state). I self-diagnosed gallstones and this was confirmed by an ultrasound at the hospital. A radical and rather rapid change in what and how I eat has been extremely successful but it was really scary at first. Every time I ate something it was like playing Russian roulette with my dinner. So the only way to play it was to eat the perfect diet. Not only have I not had a serious attack for nearly four weeks, but I actually feel healthier than I ever have! So I used that time to get my head down and write up a lot of reports.
So, back to 2025. This was a tough year to rank, there were so many red letter days last year. I love the pan-species listing approach to natural history, even 15 years into it (and 38 years since I made my first biological record) there are still countless encounters of amazing wildlife to see and record in the British Isles. So to celebrate that, with each of these ten I will also give a reason to get into pan-species listing. In reverse order then...
10). My first encounter with Eelgrass beds
Back in March, Mark Telfer took me to Seaview on the Isle of Wight where I saw my first Straight-nosed Pipefish! Also on that trip I found these things new to the Isle of Wight at Bembridge Ledges. Sarcodityon catenatum.
PSL pushes you outside your comfort zone into ever strange new worlds of natural history!
9). Surveying the farmland around Brighton
This is an ongoing project I am doing for BHCC. I found a population of Woolly Thistle, the first in Sussex for many years.
A population of Tettigometra virescens was new to Sussex! This is landscape is vitally important for biodiversity.
If you work anywhere hard enough and long enough with PSL, it will come up with the goods.
8). Completing pipefish on Helford Sound in Cornwall
I spent a great day with Finley Hutchinson down on some more Eelgrass beds just round the corner from Falmouth. Deep-snouted Pipefish was a highlight, as it was my sixth and final pipefish in the UK! Yet finding Acanthocardia paucicostata new to me (and Cornwall) was a real highlight!
Some of the best PSL days are when you don't have any targets and you just find what you find.
7). The arable margins of the Norfolk Estate
This might have been the sixth year I have monitored these same eight margins, but in 2025 they were rocket fuel for migrants and recent colonists. I love living on the south coast! The first confirmed breeding of Carporcoris purpureipennis in the UK was great and a lifer for me!
Yet I think finding my first ever Small Marbled was my highlight.PSL is all about the long game. PSL definitely works best the earlier you start and as such, you could play this game for your whole life!
6). My third trip to Jersey
Now, I have to say it's testament to the following five highlights that Jersey rockpools are not higher up this list! A huge thanks to Nicolas Jouault for showing us around the marine habitats of the island. He was so generous with his time and I learnt so much from him. I was so glad to be there when he found Discodoris rosi new to the island. This absolute unit is Dendrodoris limbata. In fact, 2025 was the year of the nudibranch for me. I have seen 35 species so far in my life, ALL of which I also saw in 2025.
The main PSL listing area is 'Britain, Ireland, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands' and it's important to state we are not a recording platform. PSL is something you do as well as recording, not instead of.
5). Praying Mantis on the Isle of Wight
Seeing these breeding Praying Mantis with Mark Telfer was an absolute dream come true, this is probably the only twitch I did last year! In a normal year this should been number 1!
That evening, Karen I went to Bembridge Ledges and found this mollusc new to the island! Galeomma turtoni.
No PSL twitch ever happens in a vacuum. Even if you do dip, there's always a plan B...
4). Oh gawd this is getting tough now! You know it's an insane year when Rainbow Sea Slug isn't even in the top three!
It was a dream come true seeing three Rainbow Sea Slugs down at Falmouth with a whole bunch of keen PSLers, rockpoolers and naturalists.
It would seem you can't go out rockpooling at Falmouth now without seeing Spurilla neopolitana now too! Insane considering it only turned up in September.
PSL is about collaboration and cooperation, we all help each other out. If you have focused on the competitive side, you have totally missed the point. There are no losers in this game.
3). Meeting a whole bunch of brilliant Gen Z naturalists at Menai (and their sea slugs)
Meeting Nathan, Yolanda, Cameron and friends under Menai bridge several times this year was amazing, as well as seeing loads of amazing nudibranchs they have given me hope for the future! They're already brilliant naturalists, I am glad they've caught the PSL bug too! Here is Trinchesia cuanensis.
And Coryphella lineata. Just a few of the amazing beasts they showed me!
PSL is a really sociable way to do natural history. Yes, you can do it on your own but it's more fun to share some of it at least, some of the time and I have made a lot of great friends along the way.
2). Two days snorkelling on The Ecrehous
Thanks to Nicolas Jouault again, I had an amazing two days snorkelling on the uninhabited islands between Jersey and France. Black-faced Blennies were the commonest fish!
And this bonkers looking crustacean, Axius stirhynchus was a real highlight. I couldn't get out of the water. Amazing considering not two years ago I was frightened of putting my face in the water!
PSL breakdowns barriers and encourages you to be fearless - whether tackling a new group or jumping face first into a rockpool!
1). Finding Aulonia albimana on the Isle of Wight with Mark Telfer
This was the first record of Aulonia albimana in the UK in 40 years! It was a very exciting day and led to me sitting on the sofa on BBC Breakfast. The story got amazing coverage, I did six interviews and I think something like 70 media outlets ran the story!
The morning after we found the spider, at 5.00 am I went down to Bembridge Ledges and found another new nudibranch for me, it was only the second record for the island! Trapania tartanella!
PSL is great fun, it's exciting, it opens doors. Literally anything can happen at any time. So why not sign up now? It's free and the 1st January is a great time to start something new.
A quick update on the book. Publication has been put back a little to the 26th February! Not long now, you can pre-order it here.
Now it's time to start my 2026 challenge, to see 6,000 species over the year! I have seen a Human so far, so I better get to work! Yo can follow my progress on the website, only 5,999 species to go. Happy listing!
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