The Lyons Share

Here's a mystery for you. I was shown this after being asked "will you tick a stick?". It's quite surprising but I'd be interested to hear what people think it might be...

I went to Seaford Head on a whim with Rachael today looking for Long-tailed Blues. We didn't see any, but we did see lots of butterflies for the time of year being Clouded Yellow, Red Admiral, Meadow Brown, Small Copper, Small Heath, Small White, Common Blue and Speckled Wood. Nice to see but not really that surprising considering the Indian summer. So as the last of the warm weather faded, I resigned myself to dipping out on Long-tailed Blue in the best year I have ever known for this species. How many more years would go by before I'd get this chance again? Despondent and hungry, we headed off for Sunday dinner...

...what happened next happened so quickly I could barely believe my eyes. Upon leaving Seaford I spotted a couple of men at the top of a south facing road verge with cameras. I recognised one of them by the back of their head as Neil Hulme and instantly realised he must be looking at a Long-tailed Blue! So I pulled in, grabbed my bag and ran up the slope straight up to my first ever Long-tailed Blue!!! Before I knew it, TWO males were flying around my head fighting. What an incredible experience!

Several hours later after our roast, I realised I had left my camera on the bank so we headed back. Neil and co. were still there and Neil told me that he had seen seven males in total making this not only the site with the most in Sussex, but probably the site with the most LTB's in the UK!

I didn't bother trying to get a photo with my Coolpix as Neil offered to send me one of his shots, which was great, thanks Neil. I did manage to get a photo of the back of Neil's head though, which leads me seamlessly on to my parting comment. Always learn to identify naturalists by the back of their heads, you never know when you'll need to!

Less than 24 hours ago I saw these Roman Snails on Steve Gale's blog, north downs and beyond. They have been on my wish list for some time so I left a comment asking if I could have the gen. Before I knew it I had a text and had arranged to meet Steve this morning at Banstead Woods. I wasn't prepared for the four mega rare plant ticks I would also get thanks to Steve! I was surprised at how close these parts were to me in Brighton, being only 40 miles away and less than an hour's drive. It takes me much longer than that to get to many parts of Sussex, such as Ebernoe, Iping, Filsham or Rye Harbour!

Back to the snails though. What impressive beasts they are. They are surprisingly large and heavy. And disgusting. The shell is really tough, I doubt they have many natural predators apart from Humans...

Steve showed me a few areas where Greater Yellow Rattle grows and we found a small patch that were yet to open! The first rare plant of the day.

We then passed on to an area where Cut-leaved Germander and Ground Pine were possible. I was getting a wee bit excited by this point as I have always wanted to see Ground Pine and with 20 years of botanising behind me, it was about time 'n all. So, we entered the area of grassland known as Fames Rough and I spotted a tiny Cut-leaved Germander plant not yet in flower. I was pretty confident that was the plant after swatting up last night. A nice little Cryptocephalus moraei posed on the rare plant.

We found much more of the germander in an area that had clearly been managed for the plant. The chances of seeing Ground Pine were suddenly looking up.

After about ten minutes of searching, I found the Ground Pine! What a cool little plant. It certainly does not look like it belongs in this country and it is so unlike anything else. Awesome.

Steve then took me round to an area near Box Hill where Green Houndstongue grows right by the side of the road. It really is a very different plant to regular Houndstongue, the jizz is captured in the bottom photo. Four very rare plants and North Downs specialities. A massive thanks to Steve, I added five species today, all of them really good ones so I will have to return the favour at some point. In the meantime, for 24 hours only, my blog will be suffering from an identity crisis.

Field Mouse-ear has been my 'bogey plant' for some time and I finally caught up with it yesterday on a road verge at Beachy Head. Ticked from the car! It's quite a striking plant but doesn't half look like Greater Stitchwort. The key differences are the quite different habitats but also the growth form, the mouse-ear forming quite dense patches of flowers. As soon as you start looking closely at individual flowers, they do start to look quite similar.

And below is a Greater Sticthwort flower for comparison. I wonder how many times I have walked passed Field Mouse-ear thinking it were Greater Stitchwort?

I tried to look for Small Hare's-ear again on the cliff tops but it was to no avail, I think I was too early again. The Peregrines were entertaining though and I did find a nationally scarce weevil (and a new species for me) on Wild Mignonette. It was a metallic blue thing called Aulacobaris picicornis. I think my biggest bogey of all has to be either Otter or the Lappet. Maybe this year hey?

I was walking back from a meeting at the RSPB office in Brighton today, wondering what I would blog about when I stumbled upon my first Rosemary Beetle Chrysolina americana. This is the sixth Chrysolina I have seen now. I know this is an introduced species but it is a very nice looking beetle all the same. Has anyone else seen them in Brighton yet? There are lots of records in Sussex on the NBN gateway but only two on the SxBRC.

The Lyons Den is two years old today! I was thinking how much things have changed in these two years with the blog becoming well received and this then leading on to pan-species listing and of course the podcast. I think it has been a worthwhile use of my time and despite feeling like I was going to jack it in a few months back, I am very much here to stay.

So, today I was doubtful for a story to mark the second birthday but boy was I wrong! Whilst downing a pint of coffee this morning, I was flicking through British Wildlife. I Googled this new Rambur's Pied Shieldbug Tritomega sexmaculataus so I would know what to look for. I ended up on the British Bugs website and then on Ashley Wood's Flickr account. I then saw a load of photos of Firebugs Pyrrhocoris apterus on Ashley's account taken in Sussex just days before! Now, I am friends with Ashley on Facebook so by mid morning I had the gen and was hurtling down to Sompting on my lunch break. I counted 80 Firebugs in a short stretch of road verge on the north side of the A27. They seem to be in a narrow (20 cm) litter layer under the mallow and between the concrete foot path. Cool looking things, I have not seen them in the UK and probably last saw them in Menorca 20 years ago. A big thank you to Ashley's son, Steve Jeffs, as it was him who found them. Watch out for the superficially similar Corizus hyoscyami, I have seen this a few times in Sussex.

Then things got really exciting when I spotted this massive (15 mm long) weevil! I thought I had found the very rare Liparus germanus but with a little help from Andy Phillips and Mark Telfer, I realised it's the nationally scarce (Nb) Liparus coronatus. I love it when you go looking for something exciting and you find something even more exciting. What an amazing looking weevil. Two ticks for the price of one and all within 8 miles of my office. I love the Internet.

Some stats from the blog: I have had 20,321 people look at the blog with over 122,309 page views. I have made 555 posts, which works out to around 3/4 days. I'm quite pleased with 185 followers and over 1900 followers on Twitter. I look forward to more antics in the coming years! A big thank you to all the people who have helped and contributed over the years. I end the day on 3869 species.

Was the most frequent thing any one said to me as I stood by the main road in Worthing staring into a bush. Why you ask? Well, I went to Worthing to see the Yellow-browed Warbler (and to but some new running shoes for British Military Fitness - I am not joking, I have been doing it for two months now). Where was I? Yes, Worthing and one of the strangest twitches. The bird has been very faithful to some ornamental bushes around the edge of a small car park near central Worthing. After about half an hour of messing about, it showed. It was very close but hard to see. I recorded it calling, I have heard them before but I must say I originally mistook it for the call of a Pied Wagtail. 

 

It has clearly become something of a local celebrity as many people stopped to ask if it had been seen or what we were up to. Even a rough looking bloke that I overheard talking to his mate about getting out of prison asked what we were doing. It's a funny place Worthing, a completely different demograph to Brighton. The presence of two universities in Brighton means that there are so many young people and all the sub-cultures are well represented. In Worthing, I only saw a small flock of Hipsters and an immature Goth. Living in Brighton I forget how crazy the place is.

I'm almost half way, 3499 to be precise. I went to look for a trio of vascular plants in the Arundel area that would all be ticks for me. I found them all quite easily. First off was this Wild Madder. A pretty straggly looking thing that won't be winning any beauty competitions but interesting all the same.

And within metres were a number of plants of Small Teasel just coming into flower. Not that small actually, it was already at about waist height.

A few miles away at Bury and I was up to some more roadside botany. This time the rather smart looking Wild Liquorice which smells nothing like liquorice as far as I could tell. All in under an hour! So, what's going to be species 3500?

Another day, another labiate. This time Cut-leaved Selfheal, the only Sussex site for this scarce alien is on the edge of Brighton on a road verge. It took a little searching for. I have always been fascinated by this large group of plants. They were one of the groups I got into as a kid, I remember finding Black Horehound for the first time and being amazed by the smell. I grew to think of them as 'poor man's orchids'. Anyway, nearby I saw what I think is the hybrid between this plant and regular Selfheal. Also nearby was Knotted Hedge-parsley and Corn Parsley.

Despite the horrific weather, Oli and I set out into East Sussex in search of Spiked Rampion. We found it with a little help from Penny Green and Michael Blencowe. We actually spotted it from the car. I was surprised that it had almost all gone over but we did see a few still in flower. It did recall Ribwort Plantain to some extent. We were only out of the car for ten minutes but still managed to get thoroughly soaked. Glad we went anyway as if I had waited till next weekend I don't think that there would have been any in flower. This Endangered, RDB, BAP species is entirely restricted to East Sussex. I end the weekend on 3439 species.

Thanks to yet another tip off, I have been able to add Bithynian Vetch to my list. Growing on the edge of Brighton, this nationally scarce plant took me a while to find. The books all state May to June for flowering but this season is unusual, it is more like July. On my second attempt I found the plants, they had all gone to seed and I searched for a long time before I found this lonely flower. It was not what I was expecting to be honest, it was completely out shone by the bright magenta pink of Common Vetch. I also saw loads of Yellow Vetchling which is also pretty uncommon.

However, the best occurred as I was walking back to the car. I decided to have a quick look on some Dogwood for any interesting inverts. Pretty much the first thing I saw was a large, brick-red bug. It only turned out to be Deraeocoris olivaceus a Nb species associated with large open-grown hawthorns that seems to have undergone a range expansion recently. A nice surprise and I end the day on 3407 species.