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!
I did actually do some terrestrial stuff on Jersey, although not that much compared to last time. With 10 minutes to go before leaving for the ferry, Karen spotted this Geranium Bronze, thanks to some help from Tim Ransom. A new butterfly for me. They have been turning up in this area of Gorey recently, but I thought I had missed my chance.
A few minutes earlier I thought I had found one when I saw the vertical streak on the underwing of this butterfly. But it was just a box-fresh Long-tailed Blue! I have only seen them once before back in 2014. Really pleased with these shots.
Nearby we saw a couple of Swallow-tails too, including this very scruffy individual.
Whilst searching window boxes and planters around Gorey for a Geranium Bronze, I spotted this Tebenna micalis. A smart little migrant that I have seen three times now, never at light.
The rather large Halictus scabiosae was fairly common in the few flower-rich areas I could find. A new species for me.Down at Ouaisne, I spotted a few of these Antigastra catalaunalis in the coastal grassland. Only seen this once before at Portland. And they let me run my MV out the back of the Undercliff Guesthouse again, the first night had two of these ladybirds in, Calvia decemguttata. Also in the trap there, I finally caught up with Portland Ribbon Wave. And a couple of Spanish Carpets, a Channel Islands speciality. No trip to Jersey is complete without an encounter with the ground bug, Horvathiolus superbus.
I didn't do as much spidering this time but it seems that this Zodarion fuscum was new to the Channel Islands from Ouaisne. And a quick look around Portelet Common produced the awesome hairball, Heriaeus mellotteei.
I didn't so much beetling, but we did see Cassida hemsiphaerica at Groznez. A quick search for this parasite of Ivy Bees came up trumps, Stenoria analis.
We did alright for herptiles too, with Agile Frog and this Spiny Toad spotted. A massive thanks to Tim Ransom for his help. It was another great trip. There's so much to see on Jersey! Why not give it a go?
This time last year, I had never even heard of the Écréhous. Now I have been lucky enough to spend two days and nights there snorkelling and rock-pooling, all courtesy of Nicolas Jouault. I literally went on holiday from my own holiday. The Écréhous are some small uninhabited islands and rocks in the sea off the north east coast of Jersey, not quite half way to France. It falls under the Bailiwick of Jersey, and therefore counts on your pan-species list! Along with the abyssal plain off the western coast of Ireland, this is one of the areas we decided counts that few pan-specie listers, if any, have ever recorded in. Now the key target for the entire Jersey trip was the nudibranch Berghia coerulescens. I'll come back to that. Oh and I started with my favourite photo from this trip, a stonking male Black-faced Blenny (by far the commonest fish there). Look at that dorsal fin!
Here's Nick loading up his boat.
Leaving Gorey Harbour past Mont Orgueil Castle. It was a pleasant and uneventful crossing, with a few Manx Shearwaters and terns the only wildlife.
Although I could see the Écréhous from the actual room of our accommodation at Bouley Bay, this was my first proper view of the islands.
The main clusters of huts on the Écréhous. It's an incredibly unusual place.
Here's the view looking back towards Jersey. When the tide went out, we went out snorkelling just in front of the end of that rainbow.
I was really lucky to get out there at all. The ferry on the Wednesday was cancelled, Thursday fully booked (and alas, also cancelled) and the next one wouldn't get us in until Friday afternoon - too late for the Écréhous. So we went a day earlier. Hence why the holiday just kept getting longer and longer.
We snorkelled on days one and two, and rock-pooled on the last day due to higher winds. This is really the first proper snorkelling I have done and it was a steep learning curve. Turning rocks in a foot or two of water is really interesting, it's like being in zero g, you have to think a lot about the physics of it all. I also learned that the annoyingly high temperature I always run at steams my goggles up and I have to wipe them every 15 minutes or so. This is a radical change for me, the first time I got in the water was only last September. I was terrified of putting my face in the water after being a poor swimmer my whole life. I must admit, I am much more comfortable when I can see the bottom. Now you can't get me out of the water, it's like I have grown gills. I think we did three hours each time and it seemed like less than an hour.
Anyways, I'll start with the fish. I was playing around by the jetty before we headed out and I spotted a fish, more importantly my 99th fish! Common Dragonet! These are beautiful fish up close but they were not easy to get close to.
We saw a few Topknots. I was just using my TG-7 here and the light was very bright above with a light breeze, leading to these rainbow like bands. I needed to cast my shadow over the subjects but I don't have the light setup for that.
Then I spotted this tiny fish with an odd fin near the front, I did not realise at first that this was a young Black-faced Blenny. Until I went on to see dozens on them! Just look at these beauties. My 100th fish!
Moving to a new area we swam over these young Black Sea-bream!
On the second day there were some small areas of Eelgrass in the pool we were snorkelling in. It looks amazingly beautiful under the water when floating vertically.
As I swam around the corner, I came face to face with a shoal of young Pollack. It was beautiful. But wait, there's something different in with them!
In fact, in this shot you can see three species. Pollack above, more young Black Sea-bream in the middle I think (although they are much plainer and buffier than the ones above) and below a Striped Red Mullet! Yet another lifer, fish species 101!
This Lobster was a bit of a shock, I was rather pleased to get my face away from those claws.
Time for some nudi-action. The commonest sea slug there by far was Pruvotfolia pselliotes. A beautiful sea slug with a hateful scientific name like a pile up in the mouth. Try saying it with a snorkel in your gob! I love the tiny white spots on the mantle. The cerata sometimes look like sparrow's wings.
A few of these large Geitodoris planata were quite impressive.
So, are you ready for the money shot? I give you, Berghia coerulescens. Yeah, we only found the eggs and then just one spiral. Despite ten days of constant rock-pooling and snorkelling, it seems the population has crashed just a couple of years after they turned up on the islands. In PSL terms, we count all stages (I have ticked Kentish Glory from its eggs). If it's good enough for a record, then it's OK on your list BUT I still feel like I have not seen the species. I will have to go back out to Jersey soon! It's always good to leave one thing you didn't get (would rather it hadn't been this species though).
While I am it, based on the nudis Nick has been seeing out there, I am pretty sure these are the eggs of Atagema gibba (an out of water shot).
Some other molluscs. Green Ormers are such wonderous things under the water and quite fast for molluscs.
Here's one of Nick's 'tagged' ormers. Nick tirelessly monitors different populations here and on Jersey. Recording dates, size, survival rates etc. Really important stuff for monitoring long term population trends.
I finally caught up with the smaller Lamellaria latens with its spotty underside to the mantle.
There were quite a few of these tiny, whitish, grub-like chitons which I identified as Letpochiton cancellatus.
The islands are really amazing for sponges, it's a Jackson Polack down there. Nick showed me most of these, so I hope I have got the names all right here. I think from top to bottom; Polysyncraton lacazei, Raspailia ramosa Chocolate Finger Sponge (if you left some chocolate fingers in a damp cellar for 25 years then maybe - guess it's just starting out), Chelonaplysilla noevus, Aplysilla rosea and Clathrina rubra.
On the last morning, we went rock-pooling in a a different area. Nick caught this Giant Goby! It was huge.
I turned a rock to find this large crustacean. I first thought it was Upogebia deltaura but Nick pointed me towards Axius stirhynchus. This burrowing crustacean is rarely recorded. It was interesting watching the appendages under the abdomen paddle away in the Ferrero Rocher box. My camera lens was a mess from the previous day's snorkelling, so these images are heavily edited.
Time to head back to Jersey. What an insane trip, it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life! I am eternally grateful to Nick for this. Especially as it has given me the confidence to get in the water on my own.
In fact, I was straight in the water at Bouley Bay. Although I learnt the hard way that five days of stubble lets water seep into your mask. Here is a young Barrel Jellyfish there!
And a brief attempt at Rozel where I managed to catch a Shanny with a bum bag. Imagine being that derpy.
And finally, the sea was pretty rough on the way back on the ferry to Poole, and as it doesn't stop at Guernsey any more, it went up the east side of Jersey, right by the The Écréhous! I took great joy telling everyone who would listen on the ferry about my time there.
I have one more Jersey post in me about the terrestrial side of things but that will have to wait until next week.
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