The Lyons Share

I have only ever seen Dendroxena quadrimaculata twice; in 2009 at Ebernoe and again in 2012 at Parham Park. Today I found a single elytron in a spider's web when servicing the data loggers at Ebernoe Common. There are less than ten records for this nationally scarce species in Sussex and all from the West, we didn't find it all during a repeat survey there in 2016. I love identifying beetles from body parts. It's like sea-watching for invertebrates. Distant and tantalising glimpses at the edge of your ability. This one is pretty distinctive though. A caterpillar-predating carrion beetle with unusual markings.

The most abundant beetle elytra behind the loggers in the spider's webs is what I am now coming to know as my least favourite beetle: Nalassus laevioctostriatus. A beetle that has way too many syllables for something so ubiquitous and dull. It truly is the Meadow Pipit of the beetle world. Most of the time if you find one intact, it's covered in fungus. I think they are so slow moving that they can't even outrun a fungus. What's your least favourite beetle?

Most of the spiders were Amaurobius but I did spot this HUGE Tegenaria gigantea which popped out from under one of the protective flaps hiding the loggers. I didn't jump at all.

Later on I noticed this mass of regurgitated beetles. Almost all of them looked to be the Woodland Dor Beetle Anoplotrupes stercorosus but there were a few carabids in there too. I wonder what had selectively sought these beetles out? It seems to have been lying here for some time. Hawfinch calling around the Brick Kiln too and my first Chiffchaff of the year at Woods Mill.

The festival of the crest to test which crest is best. 

I jest. We know the Firecrest (I mean look at it, thanks to Tony Davis for the photo) is infinitely superior to the Goldcrest. Goldcrests are cute but every time I see a Firecrest I get a little buzz, you know like when you see a Med. Gull? Anyway, what this is actually about is seeing which crest I hear singing the most. I like to do crazy little bits of pseudoscience and data gathering each year, like scoring every film out of 10 I saw in a year (I learnt I needed to watch more world cinema and less horror films), how much exactly I drank in a year (I won't say what I learnt about that!) or total distance walked in a year (before smart phones I would add - it was well over 1500 miles). I gave up on how many (and which) vegetables I ate in a year. I once tried to see how long I could go in a year without seeing a Pheasant. It's harder than you think. I've been working too much, can you tell?...

For years I've been saying I think I hear as many, if not more Firecrests, than I do Goldcrests. Now I'm talking specifically about singing birds, not calling birds. I am sure Goldcrest would win that hands down, I saw five in a tree yesterday on the way to the corner shop calling away. As I wasn't too well over the last few months I haven't been out much yet this year, so I haven't heard many of either but I did get a singing Goldcrest at Ebernoe at the end of Feb when putting some ARDs out for recording bats and today, two singing Firecrests and a Goldcrest (also at Ebernoe) when I was collecting them.

I'll also produce a little map of where I saw them. So here goes. Even Stevens for now but who knows which way it will go by the end of December? I just need to remember to keep it going and keep my GPS on me (it's highly unlikely that I'll forget that). Place your bets on which crest is best! Oh, if anyone else wants to have a go then the more the merrier, it would be interesting to see how the proportions compare in different regions. Not everyone knows the difference in the song, the basic difference is this; Goldcrest is a repeating pattern on two notes while Firecrest is only on one note.  They both usually finish with a little flourish. The basic vibe is the same in each; high-pitched. Like the worlds smallest violin playing just for you. 

I had the day off on Wednesday and went and helped Steve Teale and Tony Hutson do a survey in the tunnels under Newhaven Fort. Steve's been doing moth surveys there for a few years and I love any opportunity to get underground. Now most of these tunnels are not open to the public so it really was quite exciting getting in there.

First up, a Pholcus phalangioides spider that has been infected with some strange fungus! Hanging in the air in the torch light, this really was a creepy site! Loved it. Here is our team entering the first tunnel.

Probably the highlight for me was seeing 13, yes that's 13, Bloxworth Snouts (above)! Counting these moths whilst listening to the unnerving sound of an air-ride siren was a rather odd experience. last time I heard one of them I was running for my life in a forest fire in Australia but that is a different story. I saw the 7th record for this moth in Sussex back in 2008 and then again in Waterstone's in Brighton in 2009 but I have not seen it since. Great to see so many of them there, they must be established close to the Fort. This moth must be a candidate for the most stupid name of any animal in this country, just brilliant. I do hope that we name less species in the future after people and places and instead leave behind a legacy of English names that have some use to aid identification. Bloxworth Snout is OK though for its outright daftness.

There were lots of spiders but no Cave Spiders sadly. Amaurobius ferox (below) was perhaps the most common with Nesticus cellulanus and Steatoda grossa also present. A couple of Tegenaria silvestris were a surprise away from the woods.

Always nice to see this beauty too. It's the subterranean bristle-tail Trigoniophthalmus alternatus.

Only slugs I saw were Limax maximus and Limacus maculatus. One Brown Long-eared bat was the only bat action. Apparently it's THE only bat there which seems odd.

Here is some primitive cave art.

I got one lifer, the little moth Agonopterix purpurea. Thanks Steve for organising this, it was a great day!

This week I finally caught up with one of the rare mammals that is so significant on some of our West Weald woodland sites, the Bechstein's Bat. This rare woodland bat is heavily protected and was captured as part of a survey by fully licensed bat specialists. It's a fairly big bat with large ears, noticeably bigger than Natterer's Bat which we also saw.

But who was Bechstein? A quick Google and I found this page. It seems Johann Matthäus Bechstein was one of the first naturalists concerned with conservation and the bat was named in his honour. It was described by Heinrich Kuhl, who it seems was a younger contemporary of Bechstein's who died at the age of 24 in 1821, only a year before the much older Bechstein passed away. What I find remarkable is that the naturalists at this time (nearly 200 years ago) were able to catch and describe this and other species like it, with very little of the equipment we have today. It must have been such an exciting time with so many species being undescribed then. I guess the only way we'll ever witness a period like that again is if we find another planet with life on and start describing that too...

13/06/2015 UPDATE: So I accidentlay wrote that Bechstein's Bat is my 49th beetle (this is clearly not true as I have seen many more than 49 beetles). This was brought to my attention by Dr Robert Hoare of New Zealand who left me this comment which I just had to include here...

I've recently determined that
the Bechstein's Bat is not a bat...
What observations sway me? Many:
the 'ears' are saucer-like antennae...
that fuzzy 'fur' (I'm sorry sweetie)
is clearly Coleoptera setae
(the kind that keeps a chafer safe
when other chafers start to chafe)...
those wings, apparently of hide?
Elytra (highly modified)!
It has six legs, but due to frost,
two pairs have recently been lost...
and what are these? Surprise, surprise:
they're single-facet compound eyes!
My stark deduction bears repeatal:
the Bechstein's Bat's a bloody beetle!

A couple of days ago I found myself being escorted into the Millenium Seedbank at Wakehurst Place to give a talk on Barbastelle Bats (featuring a picture of a Ferengi from Star Trek of course). I was nattering away with Ben Rainbow at the back of the group and as we walked up to the entrance we were distracted by some fancy raised beds with wild plants set out in various habitats, the nearest one being vegetated shingle. I saw there two plants I had never seen in the wild, Yellow Vetch and Small-flowered Buttercup, I recognised them both instantly and felt excitement closely followed by frustration as they were not wild and I couldn't tick them. Ben said in reference to the vetch "I saw that at Widewater on Monday". Three hours later, I was at Widewater and the above photos are of the wild plant. My 1220th vascular plant. There wasn't a huge amount there and it took a bit of searching. The vegetated shingle is really nice with masses of Sea Heath, Thrift, Rough Clover, BFT and Sea Kale.

I helped Sussex Bat Group to count the hibernating bats in the abandoned tunnels and mines in West Sussex yesterday, my main motivation being to get access to our Marehill Quarry site as I haven't been in there for several years. Bat numbers were low due to wet and mild conditions but we did see Natterer's and Daubenton's Bats and I'm feeling much more confident at identifying those two now. There were no rare bats this time.

As ever though, it was the invertebrates that got me excited! In the West Dean tunnel (above), we recorded the usual Herald moths, mostly around the cave entrance along with a couple of Peacock butterflies. The only other moth we saw deep in the cave was a single Tissue (quite a scarce moth in Sussex). Spiders were poor here restricted to Metellina merianae, we didn't see any of the larger Meta species. Further into the tunnel we saw a single Eristalis tenax, a rove beetle that turned out to be new to me, Quedius mesomelinus. At about 200 m in which is approximately the half way mark and about as far as you can get from the light, we recorded Cellar Snail Oxychilus cellarius (new to me!) and Rosy Woodlouse. The only other species we saw was Oniscus asellus.

At Marehill Quarry, you are never that far from the light so there tend to be more invertebrates (last time I was there I recorded a Bloxworth Snout). By far the most frequent species being a heleomyzid fly, that at first I thought was Scoliocentra villosa but now I'm not so sure. Heralds were again present in numbers also accompanied by a single Tissue. A cluster of Eristalis tenax was present at the entrance as was a single Armadallidium vulgare. The spiders though were much more interesting. There were lots more Metellina merianae as well as a male Micrargus rufus (new to me), a stonking male Amaurobius ferox with white palps and best of all a Comb-footed Cellar Spider Nesticus cellulanus (photo above) which I have never seen before. This is quite a local species and it doesn't look like there are that many records of it in Sussex. So I got four new species and end the day on 4765. I'm already 47 up in 2014 including 20 beetles!

So this is the longest I have gone without writing a post since I started this blog. Burned out, taking a break from natural history, whatever you want to call it my enthusiasm to do much outside of work is at an all time low. Strangely, I'm not worried about this. So last week, when I started one of the timed invertebrate counts at Iping, I wasn't expecting to get that excited. Boy was I wrong!

After rather a dull start we moved onto the grazing trial plot where we recorded Hornet Robber-fly and a number of dung beetles including Athodius foetens. Things really started picking up on the Stedham plot though when Andy called me over to show me a rare 'orb weaver' had just beaten off pine. I am hoping we can get a photo of this spider as it really is quite smart and totally unlike the other species in the genus. It was the Na Araniella displicata. As I was about to start sweeping I looked down in my net to see a distinctive spider of a genus I was yet to see, a pirate spider or Ero! This is a striking little spider with a cryptic pattern and strange tubercles on the abdomen. It was the Nb species Ero tuberculata. Just as I was gleefully singing 'we don't need another Ero!' I swept another one of the lumpy little buggers. It was then that I noticed the strange beetle in my net...

At first I thought it was a mordellid, but I recognised it from a specimen Patrick Roper gave me a couple of years ago. It's the Wasp Nest Beetle Metoecus paradoxus. There in the net was another one but looking quite different. This one must be a male as it had strongly pectinate antennae. I figure I had swept a pair in cop. I also recorded Ammophila pubescens and Machimus cingulatus for the first time. I even updated my list to 4089. I am eagerly awaiting DNA of a bat that I was lucky enough to see at Ebernoe a month back too but that is another story...
So am I back? I'm not sure. Someone asked me if it is affecting my work. The simple answer is no, I am still as passionate about the job. Where things have changed is the hobby side of things. So, I intend to spend the winter doing other things like BMF, Jiu Jitsu, lifting heavy things, occasional rock climbing, watching LOTS of films, writing my novel and drinking lots of beer.  So as quickly as I became animated by the survey's findings on the day, I rapidly sank back to the cold indifference that has dominated my feelings towards natural history since I returned from Ireland. Will I ever reconnect with my estranged hobby?...

We recorded the rest of Episode 3 of our podcast 'The Natural History of Sussex'  with special guest Tony Hutson today. We went to a series of undisclosed locations and I saw at least four species new to me. Best of all was my first ever Brown Long-eared Bat! Not the rarest of bats but certainly one I have managed to miss for many years. Other highlights included this strange cave dwelling fly called Scoliocentra villosa.

Outside we saw these smart fungi growing on the root plates of fallen trees. I am pretty sure these are called Brick Tufts. A great day out and I can't wait to hear Mat's magical editing once more!

I've not been up all night making a new rural based dessert, rather continuing with the annual bat monitoring at Ebernoe organised by BCT. Equipment again worked well and bats were recorded for more detailed analysis of their sonograms at a later date. However, with minutes before we were about to start the transect, we were confronted by this incredible view of Furnace Pond shortly after sunset. I have not in any way enhanced this photo, a moment that just could not be wasted. Sublime. Somewhere in there there are also a couple of bats but I can't pick them out at all.

My laptop battery has died so I have limited access to the Internet. Yesterday I had a very interesting day on a course looking at 'Bats and trees'. It was very much geared at protected-species consultants but it was still very useful to my work. I was amazed when the instructor got out some old bat droppings, they smelled a bit like Oxo Cubes, not all that unpleasant. If you squeeze a dropping between your finger  and it crumbles very easily and twinkles (I assume because of all the invertebrates bats eat) it is more likely to be a bat than an another small mammal apparently. Anyway, here are some Natterer's Bat turds.

And here is a whole mess of Serotine Bat droppings. Just add milk!

Whilst we were out in a clearing in the woods a Crossbill flew over but most bizarrely I spotted a small bat flying around in broad daylight. I saw a similar thing about this time last year at Ebernoe. No photo I am afraid but the instructor was pretty sure it was one of the pipistrelle species.

I've been to a training day at the Natural History Museum today organised by the Bat Conservation Trust looking at analysing bat recordings from woodland transects that I helped carry out last summer at The Mens and Ebernoe Common. It was really interesting and my physics degree came in handy for the first time in a while! I learned a lot, it was great to see and hear the different calls the bats make and how to describe and identify them. Particular emphasis was put on Barbastelle Bats and that is what is shown on the above photo. It has two calls at different frequencies and of different shapes. You can't identify all bats this way, the Myotis species for example cannot really be differentiated by call. A long day with a lot crammed into it but I have learned more abouts today than I have probably in the rest of my life put together. An invaluable day and I am looking forward to helping with the surveys (and now the sound analysis) this year on our sites. I had no time to look around the museum and all I managed to get a photo of was of this was this pasty looking fellow waiting for a bus.

During a walk around Ebernoe discussing bat monitoring yesterday, Tony Hutson and I very nearly stepped on this young Grass Snake. Tony soon spotted two more about the same size and we were quite surprised to find them there. They were on a very narrow path with tall and dense Holly on either side and it seemed strange that the animals would be able to get warm enough with such limited sunlight. Perhaps that was why they were so obliging? I also heard yet another singing Firecrest on the edge of the northern pylon ride.

Also, Tony spotted this fungi, which I am pretty sure is the RDB Pseudocraterellus undulatus. I know this from Ebernoe where two years ago it was abundant but the fungi here looks younger and smaller. 

I am currently taking a breather from the aquatic molluscs course that I am on here at Flatford Mill in Suffolk. This time though I have access to a wireless network so I can tell my wildlife adventures in as close to real time as is practically possible...

I decided to go and help at Ebernoe with the bat transect but sadly our equipment failed and although we heard and saw a few bats I was none the wiser to what they were and we were not able to make a full recording. I did see a single Glow-worm which was really cool and a Treecreeper flying around in a very unusual manner at night as well as about ten Perseids. The Milky Way looks amazing tonight in the dark of the West Weald and totally stole the show. Better luck next time with the bats!

I spent a very wet morning introducing Philip Briggs from the Bat Conservation Trust and Micklemus Blackman to a couple of transects they will be walking at The Mens looking at bats. Much of the work will be done by recording the bats vocalisations and identifying them later on play back. The focus of the study will be the rare Barbastelle Bat but all bats will be looked at in detail where possible. They will be doing similar work at Ebernoe Common where I am hoping to get out on one of the surveys. It's important to walk the route in advance as there is a very good chance of getting lost in these woods at night!

I changed the interception traps today as well and noticed that this recent wet spell has sent up quite a lot of fungal fruiting bodies including the first Garlic Parachute I have seen this year (they really do stink of garlic!) as well as Chicken-of-the-Woods, Dryad's Saddle and Green Elf Cup fungus. There are only two weeks left on the deadwood invert survey at The Mens, we should be taking the traps down in a fortnight.

It's good to be helping set up one project as another one comes to an end. I have about six weeks left of my survey season when it will all come to a close again for another year and I might just think about taking a fortnight off!