The Lyons Share

The stream restoration at Woods Mill is looking good and the bare muddy edges there seem to be a little longer lasting than I was at first anticipating. As I walk along these edges I see lots of ground beetles and wolf spiders and thought it was time I gave them some more attention. I am only really doing this as a trial outside of work time but if it is succesful I may do it properly with a large sample size. In the mean time, I have three 'dry' traps out that I am looking at every day or two. This way I get to see the animals alive and 'em to the list!

I've been up twice to have a look and they have so far proved quite good:

Visit 1. 

Trap 1. Two Velia caprai (a female present that I was able to get to species so that was a new one!)

Trap 2.Three Bembidion illigeri (the most abundant beetle out there)

Trap 3. One B. illigeri and one Pterostichus sp.

Visit 2

Trap 1. Popped up due to water pressure beneath. Re-sited nearby.

Trap 2. Three B. illigeri. One adult male Pardosa (proxima?). Will get this checked today. Also one Heterocerus marginatus.

Trap 3. Nine B. illigeri.

Other species I have seen on the mud over the last two years there (but not yet in the traps) include Agonum muelleri, Agonum marginatum (above photo), Bembidion articulatum and Elaphrus riparius. I ended the 22nd March on 3817 species.

The moth trap at Woods Mill was pretty good yesterday with two Caloptilia stigmatella (the little micro that flew off last week).

And my annual attempts to string a Northern Drab out of a Lead-coloured Drab were again thwarted. These two moths are both LCDs but the one on the right gave me a brief moment of excitement. Will I ever see a Northern Drab?! 

I went a walk up to Hollingbury Hill Fort today and have never really noticed what a great view of the Lewes Downs massif you can see from there if you look to the north east. You can clearly see it's a separate portion of the Downs with the very noticeable Mount Caburn (146m) on the right. Behind the quarry in the centre of the massif is Southerham and on the left behind the almost invisible football stadium is Malling Down, you can see clearly right up the Coombe. Lewes itself on the other hand, is concealed from view.

From pretty much the same vantage point you can see Truleigh Hill looking to the west, only about 5 miles away from Brighton as the crow flies but it is great to know that one of the farms I surveyed there had 50 Skylark territories, over 20 Corn Bunting territories and three singing Quail. Not only that but some really great arable plants. It's nice to know that some of the closest parts of the Downs to me are so great. It all feels so much smaller from the top of the fort.

Another farm survey completed. Highlights included a Peregrine, two Ravens and a Reed Bunting. This is the view from the top of Truleigh Hill to the stream restoration project at Woods Mill. The camera is on full zoom, a bigger lens or a super zoom would do this justice. Today has been the first day that the visibility has been good enough to bother to take this shot. Woods Mill itself is just visible through the trees, the car park being just behind the Leylandii hedge.