An Alternative Natural History of Sussex.
This blog shows the highlights of my day to day findings as a naturalist and ecologist living and working in Sussex. Delivered with a pinch of nihilism, a dash of sarcasm and absolutely no tweeness, here is my attempt to show natural history as it really is: Brutal, beautiful, uncompromising and fascinating...and occasionally ridiculous.
I have been studying natural history for some thirty years, nineteen in a professional capacity. I currently work in Sussex as a freelance entomologist, ecologist and botanist and specialise in nature reserve and rewilding management advice based on the interpretation of the surveys I carry out. I also run a number of identification courses. An advocate of the pan-species listing approach. My main areas of interest are birds, plants and invertebrates and a lot of my spare time is spent in the field. I am the county recorder for spiders and bugs.
I was just looking for a blog title when I saw that the actor who played my favourite character in my favourite film has just passed away. So the title is a quote that many of you will get but still kinda works for this post. I think some Vangelis is needed at this point and it has to be this one from the soundtrack.
I just got back from Ken Hill again and it was another amazing week. I'll start with the vegetation structure and composition plots. The good news is I only have 28 left to complete. The woods are much harder going than the arable and grassland plots but have some interesting surprises. The biggest tree I have found so far is the Horse Chestnut shown above with a Girth at Breast Height (GBH) of 4.37 metres! Them conkers are bonkers! It was however the arable plants that were the most interesting again. Here is a quick recap on last month, we got to an index of 79 (which is already of international significance according to Plantlife's index). Here is a quick recap on the species recorded so far. Those in bold have conservation status.
This time, I found a few more goodies. First up only a single plant of Gold-of-pleasure, a plant I had never actually heard of before. Thanks to Richard Carter (vice county recorder) for his help with the identification of this one. I only found one plant of this. This is listed as nationally scarce and scores 5. That's 84.
The big surprise though was finding a lens of sand in a field I thought was dominated by Yorkshire-fog. It was dominated by Smooth Cat's-ear! I have only ever seen it as small plants before, never dominated the sward. This is listed as Vulnerable and scores 7, that's 91.
But in among this mass of pappus, there were scattered plants of Annual Knawel. Listed as Endangered (the highest scoring so far), this scores 8 bring the site up to 99. It's not much to look at.
Green Field Speedwell - scores 1, that's 100.
Grey Field Speedwell - scores 2, 102.
Common Broomrape - scores 2, 104.
Slender Parsley-piert - scores 1, so that's an incredible 105. I did have a look for Red-tipped Cudweed but didn't find it on site. I may have found it nearby though but the jury's still out on this one.
And with it, some Small-flowered Catchfly! My first on the mainland. Anyway back on to the Estate. A large patch of Harbells were present on the Plain.
And this veteran Holly, with a GBH of 2.37 m! It's definitely the biggest I have ever seen.
Birds were pretty quiet but the highlight was an Osprey flying overhead out to sea! If you've had enough of Vangelis, have a listen to this Woodlark (and Yellowhammer) singing at the south of the site.
Now for the invertebrates. After four visits I am up to 583 species and this is really just field dets, exciting species and the spiders, there are lots of specimens yet to identify over the winter and two more field sessions to add to this. On the last morning I spotted this female Pantaloon BeeDasypoda hirtipes. Couldn't get a good shot though so the second one is a stock photo.
Lots of males about too.
As I watched this female fly into her burrow, immediately two of these flies appeared and jostled for position. As far as I can tell they are Miltogramma germeri (rare). Thanks to Stephen Plummer for his help with these.
This Megalonotus antennatus was a new one for me and also means I have now seen the whole genus. I swept this from St John's-wort.
I swept this Chamomile Shark from some mayweed.
But the other larva I swept in the same net stumped me. A quick post on the UK caterpillars page and some suggested Heliothis. Which realistically for Norfolk means it could be Marbled Clover! I would be interested to see if this can be verified. Alas Tony Davis has just suggested it could also be Scarce Bordered Straw so it looks like I am stuck with Heliothis sp.. I have only ever seen Marbled Clover once when Mark Telfer showed me an amazing triangle of arable plants in the Brecks some 15 years ago. Whilst looking at Sand Catchfly, an adult came in to feed! Never seen one since.
Next month I will try again for Red-tipped Cudweed! I bet there are more arable plants yet to be discovered out there.
"All these moments will be lost in time like tears in rain."
Technically they'll live on in my notebooks, reference collection, blog and in the relevant records centres but it was the line in Bladerunner that got me hooked as a nihilistic teenager. It's still my favourite movie after all these years but here's a sobering thought. Bladerunner was released exactly halfway between now and the end of the 2nd World War.
OK so I am trying not to work at weekends anymore but if I don't get this done now it will drift. I spent a good few hours processing the specimens from the bioblitz yesterday so can now publish the full list that I produced yesterday. I recorded solidly for six hours from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm and was helped in the afternoon session by Sam and Glenn. In all we recorded 362 species and 37 of these were new to the site. One of these was new to the reserve network. The proportion of invertebrates with conservation status rose slightly from 12.3 to 12.4%, firmly cemented the site as a great site for invertebrates. Now, I'm going to start with the highlight and then go through the list.
With about an hour left, Glenn and I were in Hope Gap. I was poking around near the cliff edge (keeping a safe distance I would add) looking for Henbane. Glenn was sweeping Viper's Bugloss on the other side of the valley looking for a scarce weevil - with my net. So when I spotted what had to be a species of Marbled I was feeling a little lost without it. Fortunately it only flew about 30 cm after each bungled attempt to get it in a pot. This did at least mean I had a good chance to get a photo. I finally got it in custody where I initially identified it as Small Marbled until I got home. I think it's too big for this with a wing length of over 9 mm, I am now convinced this is Purple Marbled f. catharmi. In this form the purple colour is replaced by an almost entirely white moth. It was hanging around a big patch of thistles, which also adds up. Colin Pratt just confirmed this ID. My purple patch continues! Kind of.
Colin Pratt just told me that less than a dozen have ever been recorded in Sussex and I think it could well be the first one that has ever been caught in Sussex that wasn't in a moth trap or at sugar. So significantly scarcer than the Small Marbled. Awesome!!!
I might as well do the moths while I am here. We recorded 20 species and three were new to the reserve. Crescent Plume was also recorded by suction sampling a single patch of Rest-harrow which produced a mass of Rest-harrow feeding specialists. See the bug section. We also recorded two of the S41 Forester moths. Pleased with the shots of this male, you can see the antennae detail that splits it from Cistus Forester here. That and there is no Common Rock-rose on this area (Forester feeds on Common Sorrel).
Now for the remaining orders in no particular order. Two ants, nothing new there. Only six bees on this very well recorded bee site. Amazingly I did manage a new species in the form of a Wool Carder Bee in Hope Gap!
As for the beetles, 38 species in all with five new species. Podagrica fuscicornis and Orthochaetes setiger were new site records. well Glenn did get a couple of the impressive weevil Mogulones geographicus off the Viper's Bugloss but it took some work!
I picked up Cassida nobilis (known from the site) using the suction sampler on the tiny saltmarsh,
Birds. A mere 20 species. Highlights were a Great Spotted Woodpecker and a Reed Warbler in sub-song in Hope Bottom!
Bugs. The most species-rich invert taxa this time with 44 species, a whopping nine of these were new to the site and one of these was new to the reserve network, that is never before seen on an Sussex Wildlife Trust reserve. This is the Nb Drymus latus. Suction-sampling that big patch of Restharrow that I found Berytinus clavipes on last year produced five species in the final five minutes that all feed on Restharrow that we hadn't seen all day.
Butterflies, 15 species. Three crustaceans, one earwig, one harvestman and one lacewing. Nothing exciting there.
Fifteen flies including the nationally scarce Machimus rusticus new to the site. I did find several of the massive Saltmarsh Horsefly Atylotus laistriatus on the saltmarsh again.
Mammals. Human, Rabbit and Fox. All recorded by their droppings. Oops, I meant just the latter two!
Mites. Three species in the genus Aceria. Aceria sanguisorba galling Salad Burnet was a new site record.
Six species of molluscs but nothing new. Two springtails with one new (bt very common) species.
Orthoptera were well represented with seven of the nine species ever recorded on the sote being recorded yesterday. Including this huge Great Green Bush-cricket that Glenn found.
And the plants. A total of 151 species were recorded and amazingly I picked up quite a few species new to the site. Highlights were Lesser Centaury.
But the huge patch of Hard-grass that has appeared on the saltmarsh was a real surprise. I can't believe that this has been overlooked. The whole of the saltmarsh looks completely different now but is looking good now that the EA are not dumping shingle on it anymore. It's recovering well with Yellow Horned-poppy and Sticky Groundsell (new to site) growing on the shingle. The saltmarsh itself has more Rock Sea-lavender than ever before (just sad that the amount of marsh is hugely reduced).
Last but not least the spiders. We recorded 25 species and eight of these were new to the site. The highlights was Sitticus inexpectus, a nationally scarce shingle specialist that is present on the eastern side of the river here but I have never managed to find on out bit of shingle before. It's also my 296th spider this year. Anyway, this is a great sign that this habitat is recovering after the abuse it suffered and is more evidence that absolutely no more shingle should ever be dumped here. This is an old photo from Rye Harbour by the way.
Another Diopena prona in the suction sampler made for a very happy Glenn. The third male I have recorded from this bank now.
And a nice male Xysticus erraticus new to the site.
So a really useful exercise. I do love a good bioblitz. Even on well recorded sites it typically produces about 10% of species new to the site. Yesterday we recorded 21% of everything that has ever been recorded at Seaford Head in a six hour period. Here is the full list with order in which it was seen and year of last record. Clearly grasses have been a bit under-recorded at the site. M=microscope ID, N=New to site and NN=new to network. I also recorded the time at each multiple of 50. Species with conservation in bold. Apologies for any typos, I did write this up very quickly last night. Enjoy!
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