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.
Although I have had copies of the book for about a month now (and I had a great day at Adastra a couple of weeks ago by way of a 'soft launch' selling almost all of the books I had), publication day was not until today. I suppose that means I am officially an author (what's so strange is, I really hated English at school - I just wanted to do maths, science and art). Yet I am so pleased with how it has come out. It was an immense amount of work on top of an already busy life as an entomologist which has been tough at times. A big shout out to Rachel Hudson for that amazing cover and to everyone at Pelagic - but especially the editor David Hawkins. Here's a quick flick through I did a few weeks ago.
I have had a few people say this book is like no other natural history book they've read, I'm really happy with that, as I am quite different myself and this was exactly what I was going for. I have tried to do many different things with this book and I hope I have achieved at least some of them. They are...
It's a guide to pan-species listing
Kinda obvious really, it even says it on the cover.
I have tried to write a book that's useful to all naturalists - not just pan-species listers
I have tried to write a book that will appeal to as many naturalists as possible, with or without an interest in PSL. Obviously, there's loads of stuff about PSL, but about half of the book (around 200 pages) is an extensive section on how to access each of the taxonomic groups in detail. This includes what books to get, keys to use, online resources, societies, FB groups to join, kit you'll need etc. I also start each group and sub-group with how many species are listed and how difficult that group/subgroup is to tackle. I have factored these together to make an 'accessibility' score to give a guide on how accessible each of them are. I wanted to write something I would have found useful 30 years ago - I hope I have achieved that. The hints and tips section will also be of help to any naturalist and/or biological recorder. I've also detailed PSL survey methods I have come up with that are proving very useful in my work.
It's part biographical, peppered with personal anecdotes and daft picture captions
The book is also biographical to some extent. I set the scene early on how my life and career have been intrinsically entwined with natural history and use personal anecdotes throughout. I am not personally a fan of nature writing (I just wanna be outside) but if you are, I have tried to make this book as readable as possible and I have had a surprising number of people tell me they couldn't put it own and read in a couple of days (I really wasn't expecting that).
A guide to being a naturalist/biological recorder in 21st Century Britain
It's also a guide to be being a biological recorder/naturalist in the 21st Century in Britain. The world of natural history is changing rapidly, and I have tried to show how to navigate your way through this as best I can. As a Xennial (the Goonies generation) who had an analogue childhood and a digital adulthood, I am lucky enough to walk between these two worlds, which give me a useful viewpoint. I discuss some difficult topics like representation and make a stand on a series of subjects that I know and expect not everyone will agree with me on - and that is OK. Yet, I am having my say here, as I have some skin in the game and plenty of relevant experience, and feel like this stuff isn't being said.
I want this book to help other neurodivergent naturalists
The chapter on ND was the last to be added but is really important to me, and early feedback is showing that this is doing exactly what I had hoped. REALLY helping other such naturalists be 'seen' and feel less alone, while allowing NT people to understand their ND friends a little more.
Finally, with c200 colour photos, it's a joyous celebration of British wildlife
I have been told that my excitement and love for natural history pours off every page of this book and I was perosnally surprised at just how fantastic the final product looks, Pelagic really have put this together well.
It's all very strange for me, the kid from a council estate who hated English and didn't even think they were a real person until they their 30s, yet here they are with a book they are really proud of. Sending this off to my two childhood mentors (who I dedicated it too) was one of the happiest moments of my life.
Now I need to get back to PSL year listing, I am already on 1,420 species!!! Oh one last thing, I am doing a talk at Exeter Street Hall (opposite the Chimney House and just around the corner from me) next Wed night from 7.30 to 8.30 pm. Beers after!
As of today I am on 1,255 species (20.9%) in the first six weeks of the year (665 of which are inverts). The latest addition being a tiny Pseudeuophrys lanigera that was actually sitting on the edge of the key hole on my front door when I got back from training! Yesterday, we had a look around Swanbourne Lake, part of the Norfolk Estate. I was mainly looking inside old tussocks of Greater Tussock-sedge. They were insanely productive, the highlight being this adult female Donacochara speciosa which was new to West Sussex!
Before that though, I pulled over by a flooded field along the Arun just south of Arundel WWT. There were hundreds of Black-headed Gulls and I was hoping to get Med Gull, which I soon did. I wasn't then expecting to get 80 Cattle Egrets!!! Followed by Gadwall and finally...Greylag (?). That's Little, Great White and Cattle Egrets before I got Greylag Goose. I am out of touch with looking for birds though, here I am trying to get on to some distant swans. My top target on the PSL website for the year is now Pochard.
Other spiders NFY included Rugathodes instabilis, Panamomops sulcifrons, Antistea elegans, Hahnia nava and Gongylidiellum vivum. That's 190 arachnids and 176 spiders for the year. I just love these tussocks. Water-measuers, Drinkers, Glow-worms - they contain multitudes!
I found a couple of these odd looking dung beetles in the tussocks, it's the non-native saproxylic species called Saprosites mendax. I though this was a lifer but remembered catching one by hand in the park by my house a couple of years ago. Turns out Arundel Park is well known for it. Saw-sedge was a surprise too, apparently it has been introduced there for over 150 years.
I did get a couple of lifers in the tussocks though. The NR carabid Badister peltatus and the centipede Strigamia crassipes. I think this is the first time I have seen Rosy Woodlouse in a tussock.
I swear these tussocks move when you're not looking. I always imagine Jim Henson lives on in them.
I beat some Box and immediately got a rather nice moth tick, which I was really not expecting. The big micro Ypsolopha mucronella. But even better than that, Anthocoris butleri new for me and all of Sussex. This species only feeds on Box and as I rarely see it in any abundance, I have never seen the bug before. Four invert lifers, one species new to Sussex and another new to West Sussex was not what I was expecting! It pays to go to sites you don't normally visit. I think I only ever visited here once 12 years ago but remembered the Box and tussocks.
In other news. the garden actinic has been super quiet since a Dark Chestnut in January but earlier this week I had a Southern Green Shieldbug.
And I went bryologising again with the local group in what was at first awful weather (I greeted Brad with "I've gone bryologising by mistake"). It turned out to be a top day, and I got a few lifers. Ben also spotted one of my favourite mosses on the side of a ghyll. Hookeria lucens. I couldn't get any closer with my camera though. Wild Garlic, Opposite-leaved Golden-sax and a Dolichovespula mediaqueen were also NFY.
And that's my first target reached! I was aiming for 100 bryophytes for the year and with a little help, I have got to 107 species. So anything I can gain here I can take off my ridiculously high moth target of 850 species. Here's the totals so far...
Many thank to everyone who has sponsored me so far, please do consider sponsoring me if you can, I am fund raising for Sussex Wildlife Trust's reserves here.
You can sign up to the pan-species listing website here, it's totally free (although donations to the team are welcome).
And finally, my book is due to be released on the 26th Feb, two weeks today!!! You can order it here, directly from Pelagic. Getting some great feedback.
We had a long, much-needed day out yesterday along the Cuckmere and then around to Seaford Head. It was a 'ten-mile day', the sort of day that starts in the dark and ends in the dark (at a Garden Centre for Uloborus plumipes). I added about 100 species to the year list, ending the first month on 1,121 species - that's 18.7% complete. This includes a whopping 593 invertebrates in January alone!
We were joined all day by my friend Alex Worsley and it was great fun. I picked up a few missing birds, like Little Grebe, Redshank, Shelduck, Lesser Black-backed Gull andan Avocet was a nice spot along the meanders. I have still not seen a Greylag?!
Plants like Yellow Horned-poppy and Sea Mayweed were new for the year, and vacuuming big clumps of YHP is really good for shingle inverts. Including 10 Ethelcus verrucatus in one sample!!! This is a really rare weevil that only feeds on YHP, and represents more of them than I have ever seen before. I am up to 165 beetles for the year.
It was pretty cold on the beach, there's a lot of motionless staring into trays looking for stuff to move. We got the three target linys Halorates reprobus, Silometopus ambiguus and Typhocrestus digitatus but the jumpers were not coming out to play. I added about 15 spiders, putting me on 158 species in January, 171 for all arachnids.
One vac of some Viper's-bugloss returned this weevil royalty, Mogulones geographicus. Tubs described it best "Lines and lines and lines and lines."
And I rarely see Gronops lunatus, it was a very beetle-heavy day.
And the scarce coastal woodlouse with bonkers antennae, Halophiloscia couchii.
The new District 9 movie looks a bit rubbish...
Round to Seaford Head and a quick look back up the saltmarsh for known patches of Sea Wormwood, Sea Plantain, Common Sea-lavender and Common Saltmarsh-grass. Stomping past lines of bewildered tourists trying to walk along a REALLY muddy sea wall in their totally unsuitable footwear was hilarious. It was worth it though, as I got a lifer in the form of Saldula pilosella, a scarce coastal shore bug.
In the same area, the only place I know of where you can see Trichosirocalus thalhammeri.
And an unexpected Chrysolina staphylaea was only my sixth ever record.
At Hope Gap, a few easy ticks like Moon Carrot and Helicella itala.
And Alex told me what this Cladonia is, that I have been looking at up there for years as Cladonia foliacea. A lifer.
A bit of vacuuming and I got an adult female Agroeca inopina.
Many thank to everyone who has sponsored me so far, please do consider sponsoring me if you can, I am fund raising for Sussex Wildlife Trust's reserves here.
You can sign up to the pan-species listing website here, it's totally free (although donations to the team are welcome).
And finally, my book is due to be released on the 26th Feb, less than a month to go!!! You can order it here, directly from Pelagic. Also, my copies have arrived!!! People who pre-ordered it, should be getting their copies very soon! It looks amazing, I am so pleased with it.
This week; maybe some night-time rock-pooling, lichens and spiders on heaths. And maybe a bit on some arable too, all depends on the weather.
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