The Lyons Share

I find it hard to believe that I have managed to miss out on a 95 mile stretch of mind-blowing coastline on the south coast for 36 years until now but I have. Tony, Seth and I took the day off and headed to Kimmeridge Bay in Dorset. The first thing I said as I got out of the car is 'What's that?' pointing at Portland showing my ignorance of this landscape. I have literally missed out on this entire stretch of coast all my life. And what the heck is going on with 'double low tides'?! The tide went out and stayed out for at least three hours. Who knew? I didn't manage to magic up ten new species of fish for my list but we did get ten species of fish in total including two lifers for me.

Above is the Cornish Sucker or Shore Clingfish. I was VERY pleased to see this freaky little fellow. We only saw one and I found it by turning a rock over. I watched it roll off the underside of the rock thinking, "that must have been a clingfish" but it plopped into the water and disappeared. I thought it couldn't have swam far, so I swept the Serrated  Wrack with my net in the surrounding area and there it was! It didn't have any markings though, no big blue spots on the top of the head. The fin arrangement and head tentacles are diagnostic though. Here is the full list, species in bold were new for me.

Cornish Sucker                  1

Rock Goby                          3

Five-bearded Rockling        1

Small-headed Clingfish       4

Long-spined Sea Scorpion  1

Sea Bass                              2

Sand Smelt                          1 

Mullet sp.                            Many

Corkwing Wrasse               Many

Shanny                                Many

Rock Goby was a cracking fish being by far the biggest goby (and my fifth goby) that I have ever seen. The pale top to the first dorsal is distinctive. They go pale in the tray before you get the camera out being naturally much darker animals. Had to work quite hard to get this list though and pulled a muscle in my forearm in the process! Quite a work out.

This was a 'two clingfish day' though and this gorgeous little Small-headed Clingfish couldn't have looked more different in colour and pattern than the ones I saw off Brighton two years ago. These ones were perfectly camouflaged against the yellow-orange of the Serrated Wrack.

Now some stuff that isn't fish. I was pleased to see my first Gem Anemone. Cracking little things!

The rather stunning (but not QUITE rainbow) Rainbow Wrack. I think you need to be there for this one.

The Sea Hares (my first since Rhosneigr in 2002) seemed to like the Rainbow Wrack.

Thanks to Seth I got my first two barnacles! They were the awesome Volcano Barnacle Balanus perforatus and these striking Chthamalus stellatus.

I've definitely got the Jurassic Coast bug, I can't wait to go back and have another go! A big thanks to Jessica in the Marine Centre and the Dorset Wildlife Trust for their advice on where to go and what to see. I never did get that Tompot Blenny though, so I will have to go back!

You may not know this (really, where have you been?) but there is a ongoing, bitter struggle between the forces of good (me) and the forces of evil (the Dark Lord of the Fish, Richard Comont) to be the top fish lister on the PSL website. Last week I clawed my way up to joint top place for 24 hours before Richard got two new species himself. Yesterday, I closed that gap again. Here's how...

...I decided to go and see my old friend Oli Froom who is always up for an outdoor adventure. Living in Eastbourne, I thought it would be good to try and see if there was anything happening in the rock pools off Beachy Head. It was actually really quiet although a really nice afternoon. Typically, Shanny was the most abundant fish and after many attempts, the small fry I was seeing were proved to be young Bass. 

I then walked straight up to a fish stranded on an area of bare sand between rock pools. It was still breathing (just about) so I stuffed it in my net and put it in a rock pool and got out the handbook. Now I knew this was a gadoid but it didn't look familiar. I have seen Pollack, Whiting, Bib and Cod but this looked different. It keyed out to Poor Cod! A lifer and my 74th fish! I'm still one behind Richard but I will get there soon enough.

Finally some Trivia. We also saw this Spotted Cowrie Trivia monacha, haven't seen these since I was a kid!

Last weekend my worst nightmare came true. I'm on my way back from crossfit with nothing but my gym kit, no pots, no camera. Nothing. I suddenly spot a weevil on a door frame in deepest darkest Hove that I don't recognise but I have about a four mile walk to get home and loads to do on the way, it could be hours before I got home, I can't carry a weevil betwixt thumb and forefinger all day. Or can I? 

So, one handed I did my shopping in the nearest supermarket, bought a box of Tic Tacs, necked two, poured the rest in the bin and secured the beetle at a cost of 59p.

Well worth it as this is Hypera zoilus (my 867th beetle and I think our biggest Hypera) and with only 18 records in Sussex, it's not a species I could of afforded to have left where I spotted it. It's not quite Darwin carrying beetles in his mouth when he ran out of pots but it does illustrate the lengths I'll go to, to not miss out on a new species!

I spent the day in the New Forest and surrounding area with Seth Gibson yesterday and what fun we had! I had 28 ticks in total, including 15 plants and one fish. I really was in the mood for letting someone else do all the work whilst I just drank it all up but it turned out I earned my keep in the end. Where to start? Well, the highlight was a trio of ticks all within a few centimetres of each other (two of which were new to Seth too). The first being Coral Necklace, a rather fine species I've wanted to see for years. I knelt down to have a closer look and spotted some Allseed, not a tick but we were talking earlier that it often grows with Chaffweed and right next to it, there it was! Tick number two!

But that was when I noticed the third new species, the TINY Yellow Centaury! I really struggled to get a decent photo but here it is anyway.

Not the most amazing photo in the world but you get the idea with this one.

Nearby, my first UK Large Marsh Grasshoppers, the females are huge!!!

And the rather gross eggs of the Horse Bot Fly Gasterophilus intestinalis.

I think the most ridiculous species I added to my list must be Duck-potato. I had never even heard of this until the other week, Anyway, quite close to the native Arrow-head, here is Duck-potato growing on Hatchett Pond.

A few days ago I went upstairs to the record's centre to volunteer my rock-pooling skills at an upcoming staff meeting (it's a hard life!) and I saw Bob unwrapping what I thought was a slice of cake. I was surprised to see it was a section of tooth fungus, sent in by John Cooban from his Crawley garden. Before I knew it I was looking at an email chain from the county fungi recorder, Martin Allison, stating that this was a county first! I couldn't resist the opportunity and asked John if I could go up and have a look...

...this is the Orchard Tooth Sarcodontia crocea and it's a BAP species. The book states it smells strongly of pineapple and aniseed. I did get a hint of this but it wasn't always strong. The fungus was growing from an old apple tree, literally bursting out of any possible place it could. It was much more impressive than I was expecting with most manifestations about the size of your forearm.  

The flesh was a lovely subtle yellow, looking like stalactites in an underground cave. It's great that this appeared in the garden of someone who recognised it as something different and can appreciate the subtle beauty of something as unusual as this. Nice work John!

End of summer is always a difficult time after a busy field season and the last few weeks have been very trying, so I almost didn't take the opportunity to go out on the Watchful again last week with Sussex IFCA, but I'm glad I did. It ended up being an epic 16 hours at sea and it certainly came up with the goods again. Another cephalopod in the form of an immature Common Cuttlefish was one of the highlights for me! Not to be mistaken for the adult Little Cuttlefish that we also saw.

In fact we recorded quite a few nice molluscs, including my first live Rayed Trough Shells (top) and Netted Dog Whelks (bottom).

And this Leach's Spider Crab Inachus phalangium was also one I hadn't seen before, although this one is covered in an orange sponge.

But this was a small fish survey and that's where all the effort went. And there were so many fish this time...

The two fish I had never seen before were Sprat and this awesome little Worm Pipefish.

However, we pulled up something very strange and as yet I have not been able to put this to a taxonomic group, our best bet is a type of sponge. When the Skipper came out (referring to his fishing days) he simply said 'we used to call those Dutchman's Farts'. So, can you tell me what on Earth this is?! Most unusual about this 'thing' was that after a few minutes it would take on the shape of the bottom of the container it was in, like it was struggling to hold its weight above water. I might not know what it is but I love it!

Pink and yellow, not exactly my favourite colour combo (unless of course we are talking Batternberg - marzipan is my only weakness! Well and I can't swim...and I'm scared of E.T. Anyway, where was I?) but quite an unusual one in the world of caterpillars. I swept this from sedge at Burton Pond last month during a survey there and struggled to identify it. Realising it was probably a micro and most likely a pyralid, I posted it on line and didn't get a single response. Well it pupated and has just emerged and I was quite surprised at how much smaller the moth was than the larva. I've only ever seen it three or four times moth trapping at Woods Mill. It's the Nb Nascia cilialis! This photo is from one I caught back in 2011 by the way.

We found this gorgeous little micro moth  at Hope Gap at Seaford Head yesterday. Out of the trio of 'mint moths', this one is the scarcest being Pyrausta ostrinalis (Nb). I have only ever seen it in the Burren  on the west coast or Ireland before, so it's great to find a new site for it in Sussex, although it's not quite a new 10km square record. There are only around half a dozen records for this in the SxBRC and we recorded about four of them yesterday. A narrow, slightly concave wing with creamy (not yellow/orange), dark-edged connected dots separates this from the commoner species of Pyrausta. We only saw this species in tightly grazed (you can see you are never far from a rabbit dropping in the above photo) CG2 chalk grassland yesterday.

We also spotted my third record of the scarce dor beetle Trypocopris vernalis (Na), which I have ONLY ever seen in late summer and autumn in this same 10 km square (TV59) but this is a new record for Seaford Head.

This is the incredible Dahlia Anemone Urticina felina and was the star of the show at this evening's Shoresearch event at Saltdean. We saw quite a few crustaceans and anemones but this was one that I really wanted to see, it was much bigger than I was expecting. It was quite a good Spring tide and right out near the water's edge I actually saw a few White Piddocks Barnea candida burrowing into the chalk! I love that this is going on just a few miles from my house in Brighton.

Peter Marren literally wrote the book on Britain's rare flowers, so it was a great honour to show him three rare plants that he had never seen before, all on Amberley Wildbrooks and all (in hind sight) within a square metre of a single ditch. Peter is on a quest to see all of the native plants in the UK and is only about 50 or 60 species away from achieving this goal. 

Above is Peter with handfuls of the very rare Sharp-leaved Pondweed Potamogeton acutifolius. The first of our three rare plants and the most widespread on site, growing in most ditches which have some open water in them.

The highlight was of course Cut-grass Leersia oryzoides. An assuming grass with a subtle beauty that is widespread around the site and is flowering well, this year. I've never seen it flowering before, my search image is focused on looking for the upper leaf terminating the plant, often pointing straight up like a spear. ALL my photos, yet again, came out badly for this grass which is as hard to photograph as it is to spot. The third and final plant was the hardest to find but the commonest species nationally being Hairlike Pondweed Potamogeton trichoides.

It was great to spend time with such a like minded naturalist, I even managed a tick of my own, a male Crabro cribrarius wasp. I leave you with my photo of Pasque Flower, inspired by the cover of Peter's book, that I took at Therfield Heath many years ago...