You've guessed it, I've been fungaling around (I hate the phrase 'fungal foray', it's so twee!) up at Oxshott Common. This area of Surrey is known to be the most heavily recorded site for fungi in the world, with over 3000 species being recorded there. So it was quite surprising to find this species new to the site only a few metres from the car park. It's the scarce bracket Plicatura crispa.
Everyone knows Turkeytail but this was a particularly smart specimen worthy of a photo. I see this fungus more than any other.
This was a new one for me, Leafy Brain. It's actually growing out of other bracket fungi!
And here is a fungus that looks like a bracket but isn't. It's the Oyster Rollrim growing out of pine, another new species for me. I added fifteen species in all (12 fungi, two moths and a gall wasp) with the help of the WWFRG and Tony Davis. I end the day on 4680 species.
Now for a bit of a rant. If there are any dog walkers reading that frequent Oxshott Common, or any other site for that matter, and you always take your dog's muck away, you can read on, smug in the knowledge that none of what I am about to say applies to you. I salute you. If however, you are one of the small minority who let their animals do their business in the woods for people like me to walk in, PICK YOUR DAMN MESS UP AND TAKE IT AWAY WILL YOU!?! Apart from the huge negative effects of years of nutrient input on the ecology, it's utterly disgusting. I could barely hold on to my breakfast at times today, it literally ruined the atmosphere. If I ever catch anyone letting their dog do this, I'll happily place the offending article in your pocket for you so you can take it away. But there in lies the problem. YOU NEVER SEE IT HAPPENING! Is there a secret code? Pick it up if there are people about but leave it where it falls if no one can see you? There were a number of such turds with my name on today, waiting silently in the woods for me to come innocently by. I'll catch someone one day though, no doubt when years of accumulated vitriol will come spewing out in a poorly judged way. In the mean time, I'll just go and breathe into a paper bag for a while. Preferably one with air freshener in it.
Possibly the strangest thing I am ever going to see EVER. I called in to twitch the Starfish Fungus on my way north today. Must be the first fungus I have added to my list in nearly a year (#210). An introduced species from Australia, it certainly doesn't look like it belongs here. I made the mistake of smelling it and I can confirm it is somewhere between dog muck and rotting corpse. Disgusting, beautiful or somewhere in between? It just leaves one question. WHAT THE HELL IS THAT BROWN STUFF?!
Last week I received an email from Paul Brock saying he had seen a rare longhorn beetle, Pyrrhidium sanguineum, on a log stack at Rewell Wood. Now, this would make for an exiting addition to my list as not only is this a smart RDB2 species, it was also new to Sussex as far as I could tell. So I did my best to engineer this as my 4000th species. I identified specimens from a survey at Iping two days ago to get me up to 3999 and held it there, hoping to make 4000 something exciting like a longhorn. I was right about one thing, my 4000th species was a longhorn beetle but not the rare one. I couldn't see that one at all. This is Pogonocherus hispidulus. I have seen all three Pogonocherus now but only ever one of each. Considering that hispidulus does not have a conservation status, it can't bee ll that common if this is the only one I have seen in three years of beetling.
I saw a few other longhorns including two Anaglyptus mysticus, this one was an ovipositing female.
And Wasp Beetles were everywhere.
This Lesser Stage Beetle posed well for me at the gate.
So, it took me about 20 months to go from 3000 to 4000. I expect the next 1000 will take a little longer. Pan-species listing has definitely made me a better naturalist and I look forward to continuing with it for the rest of my life (I'm already on 4004 species!). Here are the three Pogonocherus, from top to bottom hispidulus, hispidus and fasciculatus.
Went to Friston Forest today to discuss grazing. Saw this male Onthophagus coenobita, first time I have seen a male with the cephalic horn at the back of the head, looks a little like it has been set in place with gel! I like this family of dung beetles. We also saw many of these small Nb chafers that I have seen once before at Southerham, Omaloplia ruricola. I didn't manage to photograph it last time. There must have been five or six flying around today.
Neither of these beetles were new ones for me but this plant was, Field Pepperwort. It's not at all scarce, just one I never see in quadrats and one I must have over looked.
But the best find today was actually in reception as I was leaving Woods Mill. I saw what I assumed was going to be Xylota segnis in the window but when I got home I realised it was the nationally scarce Xylota florum, a new species for me. I end the day on 3483 species. It would be really nice to get to 3500 by the end of June.
I wasn't expecting to get a beetle tick at Woods Mill today but here's how I did. Whilst going into a meeting in the Mill, I glanced down at a small black blob that I immediately dismissed as a mouse dropping. About an hour and half later whilst going back into the meeting after a break, my eye was again drawn to the little mouse dropping but this time it moved! I bent down, it was a beetle stuck on its back. I picked it up and recognised it as a Deathwatch Beetle after finding fragments of one recently. It wasn't looking too well though and it barely appears alive in the photo. It's quite a pretty thing under the hand lens with gold hairs on a purple-brown background.
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.
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