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.
I am trying to finish my annual monitoring of the arable margins of the Norfolk Estate this weekend but the weather has been challenging. I shot up to Lee Farm for an hour yesterday afternoon at 3.30 pm after the storms dried out (to make this afternoon a more realistic possibility). This is year six of me monitoring the Peppering side (and year three of the Lee Farm side). This year has so far been exceptional and it is amazing just how any new species are still turning up.
So, here is what happened in just one hour of monitoring two arable margins of two fields yesterday. I recorded 103 field dets in that hour, not in itself exceptional. At about 26 minutes into the survey I looked in the net and saw this!!! Carpocoris purpureiepennis. A recent colonist and a lifer, with very few UK records so far. It was the first to be noted on the new pan-species listing website. I was pretty stoked with this, as there are very few shieldbugs in the UK I have not seen now. I carried on looking through the same sweep net sample, and saw this! The same species but showing how variable they are.
Here they are side by side.
They are pretty big bugs, and strikingly different to anything else. They also look pretty odd underneath.
I walked back and swept a third one, which was very soft and clearly teneral, showing confirmed breeding. Apart from a nymph of this genus recorded in Kent earlier this month, this seems to be the first confirmed breeding of this species in the UK according to Tristan Bantock. Now there are lots of other species in the genus on the Continent, so you really do need to check any Carpocoris carefully.
On the same margin, I turned one big flint and found Eratigena picta, a Nationally Rare house spider with very few records nationally. I had in this field last year and last month.
Other species seen in that hour included a nymph of a Vernal Shieldbug, Dark Green Fritillary, Sitochroa palealis and Cerceris quinquefasciata. It was an eventful hour. I particularly enjoyed this five-spotted ladybird, which is clear an aberrant Seven-spot Ladybird, but shows the importance of correctly writing common names.
But the other day at Peppering was also really exciting. The first margin had a Hornet Robberfly! The first one I have recorded up there in six years.
Small Blues have colonised the margins this year with the new seed mix providing plenty of Kidney-vetch.
I found this scarce migrant moth, Loxostege sticicalis. A lifer and with less than 30 Sussex records. Sitochroa palealis and Evergestis extimalis were also new to the site. There were plenty of Clouded Yellows too.
Then I nearly tripped over this huge Large Conehead, another recent colonist! This is my first for the site and my first West Sussex record. This is an impressive cricket.
I also heard a Whimbrel flying over and found Knapweed Broomrape.
Last month was exciting too! I stumbled on my first ever Small Marbled there.
As well as a couple of Bordered Straws! Who needs a moth trap when you can just stumble upon moths in fields like this?! It also shows just how much insect migration is happening this year (although I have recorded many more migrant insects here than anywhere else on the Downs this year).
These arable margins are all in place to help the Grey Partridge project up there, which is a fantastic initiative and is really working to help biodiversity across the board. The farmers and keepers are working together with ecologists to produce something really exceptional. I have recorded over 1,000 species on just 16 fields over the years (and have hardly mentioned here the host of native rare species, with over a 100 noted so far). This year, the margins have been incredibly exciting and diverse though. Now hopefully I can get up there this avo and finish the survey for the year...
Yesterday morning was my first day in my part time role at the Trust. I started early by heading out to Butcherlands to finish the bird survey. I have, since the last visit I reported, confirmed breeding of the Dartford Warblers there. I was just getting to that area when in the distance, around 100 m away among the cacophony of Garden Warblers and Whitethroats, I heard what I thought was a Sedge Warbler. That was odd as I had a migrant Sedge Warbler last time. So I headed towards it and soon realised I had something quite different. It sounded like a Garden Warbler singing twice as fast but this was preceded by some unusual repetitive notes, not unlike Swallow or Starling alarm calls.
What on Earth was this? I can tell you hearing a singing bird in Britain that I don't recognise is a thrilling event. My heart was beating like a big clock in fear it would get away without me seeing it. It had moved from the big willow to the left of the image above and was moving away from me rapidly, singing from the bramble clumps. I headed towards it, filming to get a sound recording with my camera. It wasn't a warbler I knew from Europe, so it had to be one I had never heard singing. Through a process of elimination my money was on a Sylvia warbler and I thought maybe Subalpine Warbler. I rounded one bramble to see it sat right out in the open atop a bramble singing its heart out. A massive yellow warbler with a sharp crest and a big pale bill. Obviously a Hippolais warbler!!!
So that meant it had to be either Melodious or Icterine Warbler. I had good views but not good enough for a photo so I had to rely on behaviour, colour, timing, location and the sound recording. I was fairly convinced after listening to the two on Xeno-Canto that it was Melodious Warbler, which from memory was also more likely here,and this was soon verified by a variety of more experienced birders. How exciting. Here is the best of the recordings I made.
I have only seen one before in the autumn of 2001 when I was a volunteer at Dungeness RSPB at the start of my career. It was low down in some Rock Samphire in front of the nuclear power station, certainly not singing from the top of a bush. It felt like a lifer to be fair. All this happened between 7.00 am and 7.30 am and by 9.30 when I got back to the same location it was nowhere to be seen. So I think it is long gone. This was by far the best bird I have found on the reserves in the last 11 years. Being possibly my last time I do this survey, it was a real treat to see this and I did well up a bit with excitement. Butcherlands just keeps throwing up exciting records.
I didn't see or hear the Darfords this time, they have finished already. I did however add another new bird to the survey. A singing Reed Warbler in a hedge. Which makes NINE warblers this year from the survey.
Also, some of those weird asperitas clouds I saw last autumn when driving. Strange that these are the most recently named clouds but are some of our most distinctive. And that I have only seen them in the last two years.
Introduced species are the second greatest cause of extinction. So it was bittersweet to catch the first Boxworm for a Trust reserve today at Southerham, this seems to be one of the most rapidly expanding introduced species right now. There were lot of migrants too, such as the smaller Palpita vitrealis you can see next to it. I used to think this was a real rarity. There were two of those in the trap last night too. So this image really conveys how much our moth fauna has changed, and continues to change, through Human behaviour. I'd never heard of either of these moths 20 years ago.
Until today, I've only seen two Boxworms (in London) so I was pretty surprised to the melanic form, what an incredible moth. It has a purple sheen not unlike the Purple Emperor.
Probably the best migrant was a single Small Mottled Willow. I've only ever seen a handful of these.
There was also a Vestal.
A Delicate.
Several L-album Wainscot and White-points too. I guess you can't really call them migrants now being pretty well established.
More aliens though. On the wall of the office was the first Western Conifer Seedbug for Southerham. A species from the other side of the Atlantic originally, it's now very well established. As verifier for Sussex records of Heteroptera in iRecord, nine records have come in today alone across Sussex! There was only one other shieldbug record in the same batch. This has been the trend for the last four or five weeks. I'm amazed at how many people who's names I don't recognise are recording this bug. iRecord really is a great way of capturing these records. So it might be another invasive but it's another big, impressive, eye-catching beast so at least it's getting people recording wildlife.
Finally I was showing Alex some of these species in the fridge when I noticed a tiny piece of symmetry in amongst the mud on the floor of the kitchen Symmetry = invertebrates. It was only a lifer for me!!! Finally, a mouse spider! Scotophaeus blackwalli. Also a new record for any Trust reserve leaving us on 10,147 species. I wonder why I have not seen this synanthropic species until now. It is certainly not common in Sussex.
OK. I'm about nine miles into one of my farm surveys somewhere near Bishopstone in East Sussex and have had a good day with arable plants including one lifer. That all seems so tedious now, I'm going to have to write a separate blog about this. I'm keeping one eye on the ground for arable plants when this happened in my head.
"What's that Rose Chafer doing scrabbling around on the floor? Rainbow-coloured Rose Chafer?. No carabid, wait, that's the Sycophant Calosoma sycophanta, SYCOPHANT! AAAGGGHHHHHH!!!"
Aaaagghhhhhhh!!!!! was emitted rather loudly as I scrambled to get a pot out of my bag. Jesus, that was unexpected, my heart's still beating like a big clock. Thanks to Mark Telfer for his pretty instant help on this species' recent records. The following is derived from Mark's notes: It was last seen alive in the UK 23 years ago at Thursley in Surrey and last recorded as fragments representing a breeding population 19 years ago near Thetford. There were only two other records in the 19th Century but it is stated that it was much more frequent as a vagrant in the 18th Century where it was recorded from East Sussex. So it's not a county first but it is the first in Sussex since the 18th Century. Pretty damn cool indeed. Especially as it featured in a blog I wrote about three years ago which makes for interesting reading in the context of how few people have actually seen this alive in the last 100 years or more. I mean, how many people have written a blog about seeing this and then actually seen it three years later? Kind of freaks me out thinking about it. And also asks the question, "which family member DID I trade in?".
Enjoy some more photos of the beast.
I found it walking along the 50 cm or so gap of bare ground between a winter wheat field and a set-aside margin, it wasn't a particularly interesting part of the site, just at the bottom of a chalk grassland slope with scrub. I think it's very unlikely that this represents a population, I didn't see any more and in it's home territory, it is more of a woodland species preying on the larvae of processionary and tussock moth larvae. Not something at all represented on the site I'd think. It was very fresh and Mark thinks this suggests it's more likely to be a vagrant. In fact, as the crow flies, it was only 1.5 miles from the coast. So, was this just amazing luck or are there more out there? It's hard to miss, about the size of Carabus violaceus. It just goes to show, that if you walk around anywhere long enough, eventually something amazing appears. I was also really pleased to bump into the farmer at just the right time to show him. Amazing. I'm not so gutted that I had to miss the Pan-species Listing recording weekend in Norfolk now due to work commitments. The find of the decade?!
UPDATE: Thanks to @bugmanjones for the updated title.
WARNING: This post contains the details of an offensive encounter, some of the most shocking behaviour I have ever seen in a birdwatcher and a moth-related euphemism that triggered a painful trip down memory lane. It's about 90% rant and 10% wildlife.
Yes a lot went on yesterday. For those with less time on their hands, here is the abridged version: I ticked Radde's Warbler on the edge of Brighton and saw Southern Chestnuts at Ambersham Common.
Now the long version. Where to start with such a day? I was in the middle of some work when I heard about the Radde's Warbler up at Sheepcote Valley, just to the east of Brighton. I needed this bird so I legged it up there only to find it had not been seen for three hours. After half an hour of watching Ring Ouzels flying all over the place (I saw at least six) the Radde's was relocated in a thick bramble bush. It was not showing well, diving out of the top and then flying straight into thick cover and only rarely calling. A birder played calls of it repeatedly before actually crawling into the bush to flush it and play more of its calls to it. Is this normal behaviour in birding circles now?! It was enough to put me off twitching for life. The total disregard for the bird's well being was disgusting, to certain individuals it would seem that tired and disorientated wildlife exists for one reason. Their amusement. I saw the bird, sadly probably because it was flushed. I would rather have not seen the bird. I left the site feeling dirty thinking to myself 'bad things happen when good people do nothing'. So this is my protest to such behaviour. I would like to add thanks to all the decent birders who were not doing this!
I picked up the gang and headed off to the other end of the county to do some real natural history but not before I recall my last encounter with a Dusky Warbler (a bird very similar to a Radde's Warbler) 12 years ago...
...I was at Dungeness RSPB at the time as a residential volunteer. Dave Walker had found a Dusky Warbler at the Obs so I dashed around on my push bike and when I look back it was a very similar feel to the Radde's twitch. Lots of people rushing from bramble bush to bramble bush but birders didn't use bird song or crawl into bushes back then, they used field craft and patience. The bird was relocated some distance from where I was and I jumped onto my bike landing heavily on a rather sensitive region of my body. I fell to the ground in agony as birder after birder ran past and over me without stopping to help! I guess some things never change. Jesus, birders are so unfriendly sometimes. I saw the bird. Memory lane sucks, I'm going back to Ambersham...
...It was cold last night and despite four traps, we only saw about five moths. Grey Pine Carpet, Grey Shoulder-knot, Black Rustic, Red-green Carpet and at least four Southern Chestnuts. A pretty little moth. It wasn't exactly mothing at its best though and I was a bit concerned I might have put Rachael off mothing for life. That said it was a stunning evening with a beautiful sunset and an amazing cold mist that crept in across the heath. Would you believe this was my first time to Ambersham Common?! I really must go to more none SWT sites. We saw one other person all evening, a young lad taking his remote control car for a walk. Pretty strange but not as strange as what happened next. Two strangers from the Midlands were also moth trapping. Friendly as ever, I wanted to talk to them. This is the exchange that happened in front of Rachael and my friend Simon.
Me: Hiya. Are you finding much?
Stranger: I would do if you lot would go away. This place is big enough for us all to have some space.
For once in my life I was speechless! I'd only been in that spot just long enough to net and pot up a Grey Pine Carpet for ID. I think that's the rudest a stranger has ever been to me during a natural history event. I can't imagine how debilitating this behaviour is. We have such a laugh when we go out on events like this, the company is so important, especially as I do so much natural history alone. Why do people sink to the lowest common denominator in crowds?!
We went to the pub afterwards, where po-faced bar maids continued the theme of rudeness.
Rude people of Earth, I remind you of the words of Bill and Ted: 'Be excellent to each other!' A big thank you to Tony Davis, Dave Gibbs, Simon Cullen, Shaun Pryor and of course the lovely Rachael Dover for being, as ever, excellent!
...a public toilet. It wasn't until I got home that I found I had reached my 4500th species today without even realising. Now, I have seen loads of more interesting and exciting things than this species but I haven't had chance to blog about those yet. So in the mean time, my 4500th species was the rather dull little micro moth Eudonia angustea.
It's really difficult to try and 'fix' a significant marker in pan-species listing as an exciting species (I was hoping to see something during the small fish survey at Rye Harbour tomorrow) and you're not even safe in a public toilet it would seem! I was at Rye Harbour today and tried to get in via the south-west end of the reserve at Winchelsea Beach. The gate was locked but I spotted the toilets on the way back out and dashed in to use the loo. There were moths everywhere including four Eudonia angustea, three Mallows and best of all a Gem.
I took some pretty bad photos on my iPhone as I wasn't exactly prepared for macro photography when I went in there!
Only 500 to go until 5000 which I expect will happen some time in 2014. It's nearly three years since my 3000th species which was also a micro moth on a wall. It's strange to think I have seen half as many species again in the last three years than I saw in the previous 22 years (my first biological record being made in 1988).
When I left Newhaven on Sunday morning to go to France for a couple of hours, I wasn't expecting to get a new species of cetacean on my British list. The first dolphins we saw turned out to be White-beaked Dolphins. This is hugely significant in the English Channel as this species is associated with more northern waters, particularly the North Sea. They were quite large dolphins with obvious pale markings but their most striking feature was the frequency with which they were breaching, sending splashes of water high into the air, almost looking like the blow of a whale. This was my 11th species of cetacean but only my 5th in British and Irish waters. We also saw Bottlenosed Dolphins and Harbour Porpoises.
The trip was arranged by MARINElife as part of a two day course and was well attended. I was impressed by the knowledge of the instructors and I will definitely be signing up to do some volunteer surveys.
Gannets were as ever the most frequent and abundant species. We did see a few nice things too, which included a Bonxie, a couple of Little Gulls, Black-throated Diver and Arctic Tern. It was amazing that we didn't see a single Swallow. Even during the two hours we spent in Dieppe, we didn't see a single one.
A big thank you to Adrian Shephard and Carol Farmer-Wright for organising this course. Thanks also to Adrian for allowing me to use his photo of the White-beaked Dolphins dorsal fin above.
Picture the scene. You've just spent your birthday ill in bed with a rotten cold and have taken the following day off sick too. Having finally dragged yourself out of a steaming hot bath at about 3.30 pm, you notice a missed call from Paul Marten. He tells me these is a Corncrake showing well at Beachy Head NOW! My head is spinning, I feel like death warmed up BUT Corncrake is THE only regular British bird that I haven't seen. There is no way I am letting a cold get the better of me. Then 30 minutes later I was looking at this, a ludicrously tame bird. I never thought I would see this, many of the birders present who were older than me were also saying the same thing. It seemed like a once in a life time opportunity.
The bird was feeding actively on very large earthworms the whole time I was there. It was so close that if filled the entire view finder on the scope. You can make it out on the track in these pictures. Thanks to all the birders whose scopes I borrowed to take these shots with the Coolpix 4500 but a huge thanks to Paul Marten for ringing me! What an awesome belated birthday present!
I went a quick walk up Southerham this afternoon and spotted this little shieldbug. I first thought it was going to be the Blue Shieldbug Zicrona caerulea but I thought the white border meant it was a different species. A quick check of the Internet and I was pretty convinced I had the Down Shieldbug Canthophorus impressus. Now this is interesting for two reasons. One, the bug's only food plant is Bastard-toadflax, a scarce plant I have never found at Southerham and have only ever seen at Frog Firle in Sussex. Two, I currently can't find any records for it in Sussex! Fingers crossed this is a county first. It's surprising this thing is only Nb considering it has such specific requirements. I lost the specimen after taking two photographs, only to find it 30 minutes later followed by another one within centimetres of the first. This is my 4211th UK species.
Walking back to the car I had a Yellow Wagtail flying overhead. I cannot remember a time when my second summer migrant of the year was a Yellow Wag! I am yet to see a hirundine, a Wheatear or a Blackcap!
I started the Butcherlands bird survey this morning and picked up my first Nightingales (three) and Cuckoo of the year. I didn't see much else other than this little micro moth at rest on a gate post. It's Semioscopis steinkellneriana. It's a smart little moth which looks a little bit like a small Hebrew Character, I have seen it before in some numbers when moth trapping at Mill Hill.
This little fella's time was up but I never let a rotting corpse get in the way of some entomology. I was walking around Southerham today when I spotted the remains of this rabbit in Bible Bottom. I flipped it over to see twenty or so silphids scramble out of the way. They were incredibly camera shy and I was quite disgusted how quickly they buried into the fur and flesh. One dropped to the ground where it immediately started to bury itself in the soil. I found them equally disgusting and fascinating. The beetle is Thanatophilus rugosus and I have seen this once before a couple of years ago in the same valley. I love the texture of the elytra. Actually, scratch that, it's a tick! I just went through my records and in fact I recorded Thanatophilus sinuatus up there. Peter Hodge tells me that rugosus is the scarcer in Sussex so this is quite a good record.
I did get another tick today under an old fence post in the same valley. A shield bug called Podops inuncta. It has a massive scutellum, so big that it pretty much takes up its whole body. I also saw my first Wheatear and Blackcaps of the year and I am now covered in freckles. My list stands at 3811 (and that's not freckles).
As a child I was haunted by this song in Watership Down. I just listened to it for the first time in years and now realise why. It was my first real encounter with death. I remember fondly how my whole family laughed at me being so upset about Hazel. As an adult, I am considerably less bothered by such things but I do gain comfort from knowing all that energy and carbon is being assimilated by a multitude of other organisms in a never ending cycle of replication.
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