I attended the RSPB's Woodland Warden's Gathering today (well half of it) and gave a short talk on deadwood invertebrates and their management. It was a really good day with speakers from Plantlife and Butterfly Conservation also attending, so I got something out of it too, everyone wins! I love conferences like that. It was great to see some of my old colleagues from Reserves Ecology and it reminded me that I must get up to The Lodge sometime soon, it's been four years!
I did get one new species. This common lichen Parmotrema perlatum that was shown to me by Tim Wilkins of Plantlife. Now I come to think of it, I am sure I have seen this one at Woods Mill but I have never been able to put a name to it.
I was very proud to give this talk on Saturday at the National Moth Recording Conference in Birmingham. Putting this talk together made me realise just how active the group is and also, how lucky we are in Sussex. Some of the comments I got after giving the talk supported this further. I think that the most important thing with any such group is openness and inclusivity. Everyone and every group is talking to every other person and group. Strong relationships between the Sussex Moth Group and Sussex Wildlife Trust, Butterfly Conservation and particularly the Sussex Biodiversity Records Centre are in my opinion (after an enthusiastic membership) the reasons why our group works so well.
I still get nervous before talking to this many (200) people and I think I always will but I do my best to hide it. I think the nerves keep you on your toes.
It was great to see some old friends and we came up with all sorts of ideas for field trips and holidays for the summer. I also spent over £100 on books...
My favourite talks were about the forthcoming micro moth book and the evolution of bats and moths. Oh yeah, the kites. On my north bound journey I saw 80, that's not a typo, 80 kites! On my way south today, I saw only three.
I was at Butterfly Conservation's National Moth Recording Scheme's annual conference in Birmingham yesterday but on the way up I stopped off just inside the M25 at Epsom Common to meet two strangers in a car park. I was in fact there to meet two pan-species listers who I have been in regular contact for nearly a year now online, Seth Gibson and Danny Widerscope (Danny, as I can't remember your surname and thought it was Widerscope anyway, I'm gonna stick with that).
It was quite interesting swapping a few ticks, something I greatly enjoyed and I got three out of it (a vascular plant and two micro-moths) while Seth got 13 (10 bryophytes, two vascular plants and a lichen). It's quite interesting how pan-species lister's lists change when they briefly meet, I could quite get into this side of natural history.
Anyway, first up was Barberry. It's not often that I actually tick twigs but this was clearly alive. Strange three sided thorns, I am rather surprised I have not seen this before. Seth's also pretty good on his psychids (far better than I) and I was impressed that he showed me two dust covered balls of fluff that actually contain the larvae of tiny little moths. Firstly are these strange little galleries that are tightly adpressed to the bark, winding their way through Lepraria lichens, it's Infurcitinea argentimaculella and I wonder whether I have completely over looked this in the past.
There's more though. This psychid was one with a three living case but it's a similar idea. This one is Narycia duplicella. I ended the day on 3749 species. After this I head north up the M40 and beat my record for the number of Red Kites I have ever seen in one journey but that will have to wait for another post...
A big thank you to Seth and Danny for showing me around, I look forward to heading back that way in the summer for some Dicycla oo action.
Recent migrant moth trapping I was involved with over the last week is beginning to stir up a mini media storm, the first article I am aware of is
this one in the Littlehampton Gazette. It's looking like the best migrant moth year since 2006. Whatever next!? You'll soon find out...
Well today started bad. Got up at 5.00 am to do a bird survey, got in the car at 5.45 am to find that I had left the lights on when I came home from work ill a few days ago. Survey aborted. After a £62 update to my RAC cover, I finally got the damn thing going again. A glorious day awaited so I went to Southerham to see what I could see. Lots of Aphodius beetles on the wing. I saw a beautiful spider that was identifiable in the field although I didn't get a photo (too fast!). A male Alopecosa barbipes with hairy segments on the front legs. A real handsome beast, Google it! Tightly grazed chalk-grassland certainly seems like a typical habitat according to the texts. Tick number one. I found these two tiny snails under an old post. Bear in mind that each snail is under 3 mm. The snail on the left is new to me and is the Moss Chrysalis Snail Pupilla muscorum. Tick number two. The snail on the right is the tiny but beautiful Ribbed Grass Snail Vallonia costata.
I then had time to have another look for Early Meadow-grass at Shoreham. Third time lucky. I found it on the causeway along the river close to the airport. Not much fun dodging dock muck, swooping police helicopters and wet dogs. It's funny how as soon as you bend down you become fair game to any dog. The moment I found the grass and then bent down to take a shot was ruined by a wet dog that jumped over me, the grass and my camera before it's mate came up and shuck half the contents of the river all over me! Anyway, here is the grass. Very vibrant green, reminded me of the colour of Marsh Club-moss.
Here it is on the right next to some of the ubiquitous Annual Meadow-grass.
I was worried that it would be hard to spot as you often see AMG that is small and yellowish but with EMG all the plants are consistently the same shade of yellow-green throughout. The leaves are also quite short and stubby. The arrangement of the florets on the spikelets and the shape of the anthers are the clinchers though. I was going to call this post 'Is that it!?' but I actually think this little grass is quite smart. Tick number three. Finally, I had a moss tick growing near the Early Meadow-grass which was Syntrichia intermedia being my fourth and final tick of the day leaving me on 3159 species. I finished the day off by giving a talk to BC on moths which seemed to go down quite well. Now for the the lasagne Jo made which is magnificent!
Posts
