Last Sunday we went to South Wales to see some slugs. Seriously. This part of the world, thanks to
Christian 'Sparrow' Owen, has become a bit of PSLers pilgrimage of late, with some people going back three times to get their fix! I actually don't know how many new species I saw on Sunday, I lost count. I do know that I quadrupled my slug list.
Until last Sunday, I hated slugs. Both physically and taxonomically but thanks to Christian, I am now rather fond of them. I can't state enough how impressive a naturalist Christian is, I don't think he has left a stone unturned in South Wales. He's found two species new to the UK (including the cracking Alsatian Semi-slug Daudebardia rufa above, who wears his shell like a flat cap and is the size of an Alsatian) within a few miles of his house by adopting this approach and his knowledge of myriapods and molluscs is impressive. He was the real star of the day and I am very grateful for the time he gave us, great company and a cracking teacher. Here he is on the left, King of the Edgelands. There I am on the right experiencing my nth new mollusc; bewildered, soaked and slug-blind but loving every minute! (thanks for the photo Tony).
Would you believe it, the photo above is of Ghost Slug habitat. And here is one in all its glory. Impressive hey?! These are actually the spirits of other species of dead slug that have unfinished business in this world. This particular individual was murdered by his best friend and has come back to seek revenge. Heartbreaking and haunting in equal measure, I'm sure you'll agree. The sense of loss is profound.
Some of the above was rubbish. Also there I saw my first ever
Worm Slug (below). And my first Tree, Hedgehog and Tramp Slugs! I'm not even gonna start with the
Arions!
Later on we went to a woodland site where we saw the
Lemon Slug. Quite the looker!
Now I think this cool harvestman, a real specialist of the area, was perhaps my favourite species of the day. This is
Sabacon viscayanum subsp. ramblaianum. Check out the funky palps.
And the myriapods! This is
Lithobius pilicornis, I think it's out biggest centipede and it totally bit Christian before we got it in this pot! What a beast.
And there are some interesting millipedes recently found new to the UK, such as this
Hylebainosoma nontronensis.
And this one that Christian found new to the UK a while ago that doesn't even have a name yet! I reckon Gavin. Or maybe Stacey. Anyways, it was an amazing day and I'm so glad that I finally have a foot in the door with slugs. Happy days!
Four nights, three men, two countries and one camper van. I've been on a bit of an adventure for the last few days taking in an eclectic range of species from Wild Boar to Pilchard. Small Cushion Star (above) to Heath Grasshopper. Where better to start though than the end? The end of the world. Well, the end of the Gower in South Wales or the Worm's Head to be precise...
...we (Seth Gibson, Danny Copper and I) decided to go rock-pooling along the Welsh Atlantic coast so we drove to the end of the Gower. The Worm's Head is an impressive island (it looks a bit like a dragon) that is accessible for 2.5 hours either side of low tide. We got there a little after low tide but we had plenty of time on the second day too for rock-pooling. Ricocheting Choughs bounced along the thermals around the car park, this is a striking landscape.
Fish were on my mind but the smaller, shallower more sheltered rock pools were providing lots of new species other than fish. This Elegant Anemone was quite a looker.
Compared to the more intricate and subtle beauty of the Daisy Anemone.
However, I think my favourite new species was the Green Sea Urchin. Exactly the same colour combo as a Snakelocks Anemone!
Saddle Oyster, Black-footed Limpet and Trophon barvicensis were all knew molluscs for me but the fish were pretty quiet. Shanny was the most abundant with a few Five-bearded Rocklings and singletons of Long-spined Sea Scorpion and Butterfish. Then we stumbled upon a rock pool full of fish!
We hoyed a few out and after a bit of deliberation and an expert second opinion, we believe they are in fact Pilchards (fin position and radial marks on the gill covers clinches it). Quite an unexpected tick and with Transparent Goby added retrospectively from Rye Bay in August, I'm now on 78 fish. Next up it's the Wild Boar story...
I had just put my bag down and began working in a plot at Butcherlands today when I looked up to see a large wasp-like thing buzzing around my bag. It landed on it and I realised it was one of the black and red sextons that, although I have seen them in the past moth-trapping, I have never keyed any out to species. I rushed in and was suddenly hit by the stench. I tried to get a photo but the beetle dropped off and almost vanished into the mud, these are strong beasts indeed and I was amazed how quickly it could dig. I did get a shot that was good enough to key it out from though. I am a bit squeamish about putting these in pots, the smell is unbearable and I'd rather not have them stink out my reference collection. Using the key on
Beetle News I am confident this one is
Nicrophorus vespillo. I always assumed these beetles primary way of finding food was olfactory. Maybe they rely on sight more though. Or maybe my bag just really stinks.
Sean Foote popped in to say hello and spotted a nice Commophila aenea. I have only seen this once before at Friston Forest (this photo was taken at Friston - the one I took today was dreadful). It's odd that a species that feeds on the roots of ragworts can be so scarce. I end the day on 4025 species. This may be the last blog for a week or two. On Friday I am heading to Ireland for a week and coming back via Anglesey and Snowdonia and this time I will be leaving the laptop at home. But not of course, my camera and an arsenal of natural history literature and equipment.,,
I went rock pooling again this evening with the gang after work and it was amazing! Four species of fish, two of them new to me. Perhaps the most bizarre, wonderful, ugly, whatever you wanna call it is this Long-spined Sea Scorpion Taurulus bubalis. I have seen the Fatherlasher before on Anglesey which looks similar to this but this one was new to me. The long spine on the gill covers and the short tentacle at the corner of the mouth are clinchers. I only caught one of these.
I caught two of these Corkwing Wrasse Crenilabrus melops (again I have seen it on Anglesey). The black spot in front of the tail fin is characteristic.
The joint most abundant fish went to the Five-bearded Rockling Ciliata mustela, another species I've seen years ago on Anglesey! We caught three of these.
I've saved the best until last though. I have never seen anything like these little fish. I caught three and realised quite quickly it was one of the species whose fins have evolved into a sucker. It actually sucked on to my finger nail! There were two species of clingfish in the book we took into the field but neither of them looked right for it. There were two more in my key to shore fishes when I got home that looked more like it though. I think it is going to be the Small-headed Clingfish Apletodon dentatus but I'm not sure. I can't believe this is just down the road from me! Cool, hey?!
"Whatever happened to the American dream?
It came true. You're lookin' at it".
The Comedian (1977)*
*(for the unenlightened amongst you, that's from the Watchmen. It's a graphic novel)**
**(for the seriously unenlightened amongst you, that's a comic for grown ups, not a Mills & Boon)
It wasn't until I got back from my day trip to Rhiwderin, Wales that I realised
Common Yellowthroat was my first American warbler! This is a stunning bird, as it exhibits a colour of yellow so intense, that I can't think of any British bird it shares this with, even a Golden Oriole isn't as bright. In fact, for the first twenty minutes all I saw was this colour as it crept slowly along this
Bracken lined hedge. The bird only very occasionally showed in the open (and then only for split seconds) and usually all I saw was its yellow back side. Soon after I did get some great views through me old scope and Nick Bond took the shot above, thanks for letting me use it Nick!. Nick Bond and his uncle Gary Messenbird were kind enough to let me tag along on this twitching extravaganza and you can see more of Nick's work on the
Widerscope pages. Anyway, this is my fourth new UK bird (and passerine) this year already.
We also saw some smart displaying Dippers and twitched a drake Lesser Scaup at Cosmeston Lakes. Now, where is that bottle-opener, I need a beer?!
I spent a pretty dull day in the office today so I have a brief trip report from Anglesey to fill the gap. Jo and I went to Tywyn Trewan dunes at Rhosneigr on the 20th April, I lived there for a summer in 2002 whilst looking after a colony of terns on the offshore islands shown in the central photo. The nearby dunes have some interesting plants including Britain's smallest grass, Early Sand-grass. The plant is in full flower in the photo so you can see how ridiculously small it is next to a penny. There is a large area of Black Bog-rush in the dunes which is usually a sign that there are other interesting plants about. The spider is Arctosa perita, a specialist of sand dunes and heaths. The spider has a remarkable strategy in that it almost disappears when it stops moving, so convincing is it's camouflage. Other interesting species included a Merlin chasing hirundines unsuccessfully (get a Hobby) and large areas of Heath Dog-violet and Dune Pansy. Nearly eight years have gone since I spent a summer there living partly in a shed on an island and partly in a caravan at the end of an RAF training runway. My most endearing memory was tying my dreads up to stop the terns pecking my forehead when I walked through the colony (they started dive bombing my hair instead) which made me feel really clever...only to have one shit in my mouth. Mm, I will never forget the taste of tern processed sand eels!
More Anglesey I'm afraid. Sussex will have to wait one more day until I get back to work! We visited Parys Mountain on the 21st April, one of the few places on Anglesey I had not been to. It is an old open cast copper mine and has every colour rock and soil you can think of. It looks like some bizarre post apocalyptic nightmare or a strange alien world and has has been used as the location of a number of episodes of Dr Who and such timeless classics like Mortal Kombat 2. Ahem. I tracked down a link which is attached. Enjoy. You can see patches of Heather in the background, the only plant to thrive here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pPp6lzkwlk
This was perhaps most barren place for wildlife I have ever been to. In two hours I saw two invertebrates, the hoverfly Eristalis pertinax and a Green Tiger Beetle despite warm, calm and sunny conditions. The only birds there were a nesting pair of Ravens (try and spot the nest in the photo) and a singing Wren. The shot of the tiger beetle took a little effort, they are really fast ground predators that also fly off quickly when you approach them. With persistence though, when there is limited latent heat (i.e. sunny days in early spring) you can tire them out quickly by casting your shadow over them. That is how I got this shot. Being a visual predator they have binocular vision and a very flat face, a perfect subject for macro photography. The purple colour is not really that visible in the field. A common species associated with bare ground but it's always awesome to see these savage beasts, Dr Who would not stand a chance!
OK, so the first post is not even from Sussex. Jo and I just got back from three days in North Wales, on Wednesday we climbed Snowdon and we are still aching now. The sun is shining in Brighton as I write but I can hardly move my legs so it looks like I won't be doing any natural history today. Anyways, back to the monutain. Not only was the cafe at the top closed but an annoying hippy was hogging the summit so he could beat his drum. His native American Indian drum that was utterly irrelvenat and quite frankly the last thing I wanted to hear after a three hour climb! Grrrr. We ate our pittance of a lunch (we were relying on the cafe) and were soon surrounded by 1084m high Herring Gulls begging for food. Just as I was thinking that I could have seen the same avian fauna from my Brighton flat window I saw two passerines a few metres away which turned out to be a pair of Snow Buntings. The bird photographed looks like a male just passing into summer plumage. They were feeding quite actively on the edge of patches of snow. As I was creeping closer to get a better shot (they were quite tame) a woman shouted 'don't turn around' behind me. I turned around of course. There was a woman having a piss. The birds flew off. I wouldn't have even known she was there if she hadn't shouted and scared the birds off! Grrrr. Anyway, first time I have seen Snow Buntings anywhere near the breeding season. There were hardly any flowering plants out, did see Alpine and Fir Club-moss. Small Tortoiseshell at 830m was looking as bit lost.
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