I haven't posted a longer update here in a while of my '6000 species in 2026' pan-species year-listing challenge, as I have been doing more daily updates on Instagram/Facebook. I thought an end of June update would be a good thing, the 'half way' stage in the challenge (actually not quite, as there are 184 days between 1st July and 31st December). Anyways, I ended 30th June on 3,840 species for the year (64.0% of the challenge complete). I am about 850 species ahead of where I would be if I were to add 16.4 species a day, every day (exactly the number I would need to reach 6,000 on the nose). Of course, that's already out of date (I am on 3,862 species - 64.4%). On the 30th June I was working at Heyshott Down, doing a plant survey, where I added Marsh Fragrant-orchid and Musk Orchid to the year list (along with Goshawk).
This is a really fun challenge but I certainly won't be doing it every year. Almost everything I am adding at the moment is from work and moth trapping. I am not looking at any specimens until after September. I had planned to go to Scotland in the last week of June but various things conspired against me, but I did have a few days out instead. A day trip to the Cambridgeshire fens with Peter Sutton was great fun. I finally got to see Reed Leopard!
And this aptly named Lister's River Snail! What an absolutely beautiful aquatic snail this is.
Wait, the top of that snail looks familiar? Oh yeah, it's the poop emoji!
And of course, the star of the show - the rather rare Agabus undulatus!
I have seen lots of new stuff already this year, 235 species to be precise! That's 1.30 species per day. I am only 53 species away from the mythical 10,000 species for my PSL life list, something that will likely now happen in late August. Everything in the following collage I have seen new in the first half of 2026.
One of the interesting things about this challenge is how how it has changed my behaviour. Now, we had an epic trip to Cornwall rock-pooling at the end of March/start of April. This was so good, that it has sort of ruined rock-pooling for me in Sussex. You have to work really hard here to find new things, as such I have only been out once since. Meanwhile, two or my largest target taxa are vascular plants (with a 1,050 species target) and moths (with a 850 target). Now beetles are my highest target (I have set myself a ludicrous 1,200 species) and although a lot of these are field identifiable, a huge number are also sitting in alcohol waiting to be identified over the winter. Not so with moths and vascular plants. They're both great groups to add yo your list as the year progresses. As such, I have really got back into these groups, especially moth trapping, dusking and going out at night. I have even really been enjoying gen detting moths. It's also a really great way to do recording when you are already busy! As well as a great way to cool off during a heatwave - go nocturnal! Nothing has been more exciting though than netting an Eastern Bordered Straw at Hurston Warren at the start of that invasion (before my feed was saturated with other people's pictures of them), what a moth!
After 137 days I matched my first incarnation of my pan-species list. That was 2,748 species that once took me 32 years to accumulate. In other words, it took me 137 days to match what once took me 11,795 days! I can't think of any better way to show the power of the pan-species listing approach than this! I should add I have never once used AI to identify anything and never will, you can read more about that in my book!
Anyways, here's where I am at with each taxa. I have reached my targets for protists, other animals, annelids, sea-spiders, crustaceans, springtails, 3-taled bristletails, fish, amphibians, cnidarians and bryophytes. I am getting very close on mammals, molluscs and butterflies.
This chart is interesting, you can see the rapid growth of the list in January that then flattens out in Feb and Mar where I became increasingly desk bound. Then the field season started at the start of April, from this point on I am adding species at a very consistent rate, around 24 species a day!
So I thought I would pull out the ten most speciose taxa and chart them in the same way (the other 28 taxa are displayed as 'others' here in dark blue - the fourth line down). Vascular plants (mid blue) are in the lead for now, but could well be over taken by beetles and/or moths. Beetles (orange) show a vert similar pattern to the vascular plants. Moths have REALLY ramped up in the last six weeks, storming past bugs, spiders and more. Moth trapping can add dozens of species a day (of course, the by-catch is significant too) but my garden actinic is typically one or two new species a night (so I have taken to trapping with my MV at my old place of work, Southerham). The two steep pulses below (the grey line) represent the madness of the two heat waves. Spiders (yellow) started hard but plateaued. This is because most spiders I couldn't field ID are waiting for me to look at over the winter. Bugs (in light blue) are likely to overtake spiders at some point. Flies, birds, hymenopterans, molluscs and bryophytes all cluster together, but with flies just nudging into 6th place (in green).
Will I make it? Sure, I think so. Burn out is something I just don't get, I love it all too much! I would love to get to 6,000 by the end of the year, with specimens further adding to the total as I process them from Jan to Mar next year. Fungi season in the autumn will surely add a few hundred species too. I still haven't seen a Dunlin, Grey Plover, Goldeneye, Goosander or Pink-footed Goose! An autumn trip to Norfolk is on the cards for sure.
If you want to get into pan-species listing, you can sign up to our website for free here www.panspecieslisting.com. And it's well worth getting my book, which has already gone to reprint! https://pelagicpublishing.com/products/pan-species-listing.And please do consider sponsoring me for this challenge, I am raising funds to help Sussex Wildlife Trust manage their land. My Just Giving page is here.
I'll be at Global Birdfair the weekend after next, so come and find me. Will do another post on that in the next few days.
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