Biological Recorders' Seminar 2020 - Sussex Biodiversity

As Storm Dennis started lashing the country with rain, I was heading towards Sussex Biodiversity's 2020 Biological Recorder's Seminar.

Fixing and Linking Our Wetlands

Last weekend, I had been exploring an old Uckfield Tithe map and noticed just how many ponds there were in the area back in the 1840s.  Coincidentally, my first conversation was with a representative of the Fixing and Linking Our Wetlands (FLOW) initiative. She had also been looking at old tithe maps to find out where ponds had been so they could restore them.  She has been receiving communications from landowners whose ponds have been restored saying that they are not experiencing flooding even though it has been an exceptionally wet year.

Highlights of wildlife recording in 2019

Many of the highlights are explained in Adastra 2019.

Tall Ramping Fumitory - Victoria Pleasure Grounds

A couple of items relevant to Uckfield and the local area are:

• In the Freshwater Fish report (page 29) a report about Dace in the Uck (not far from the bypass). They spawn in March/April and you might be lucky enough to see a silver flash as they jump over obstacles or try to catch a fly.
• In Amphibians and Reptiles (page 32) they thanked the Uckfield toad patrol "for their continued effort to protect toads crossing roads, to and from their breeding ponds.
• Vascular Plants (page 12) mentioned the new site for Tall Ramping Fumitory that I found during my survey of Victoria Pleasure Grounds, undertaken for the SBRS Village Green and Recreation Grounds project.

A couple that really struck a chord were:

• The comment this this year was Fungi Heaven - back in December I wrote about this in A wonderful year for fungi..
• The cuckoo split insect survey - I had a go at this when "cuckoo split" was visible on plants in the summer but want to do more this year.

Soil Biodiversity

This is a truly fascinating area,  I was aware of microrhizal fungi but there is so much more going on down there. Natural England had set up microscopes so we could see live millipedes, springtails and even a Tardigrade.

Ouse and Uck

At the first break, I stumbled on the stand for the Ouse and Adur Rivers Trust and bought some copies of their new book, "Ouse and Uck, sketch of a Sussex Catchment."

There was also a stand about the River Ouse Project comprising a poster (available from their reports page) with a wealth of information about Meadows.

Potters on the Heath

I very much enjoyed John Walters talk, illustrated with his wonderful photographs and drawings about potter wasps.

Notable Sussex Bees

James Power of Sussex Bees and Wasps Recording Group gave brief descriptions of 10 notable Sussex bees and wasps.

1. Macropis europaea - Yellow Loose-strife Bee
2. Ammophila pubescens - Heath sand wasp
3. Anthophora retusa - Potter Flower Bee - Seaford Head
4. Halictus eurygnathus - Downland Furrow bee - Lewes, Slindon
5. Andrena vaga - Gray-backed Mining Bee - Dungeoness, Rye Harbour
6. Cerceris quinquefasciata - The Five Banded Tailed Digger Wasp - High and Over
7. Nomada zonata - Variable Nomad Bee - becoming WIDESPREAD
8. Colletes cunicularius - Early Colletes - attracted to Willow
9. Bombus muscorum - Moss Carder Bee - flower rich grassland
10. Osmia bicolor - Red Tailed Mason Bee - downs, nests in abandoned snail shells

I haven't met any of these bees yet but I live in hope.

Botanical Recording in Sussex Churchyards

Girdled Mining Bee - Holy Cross - 27 April 2017

Helen gave a lovely talk on this, which featured one of my bee photos, taken in Uckfield's Holy Cross Churchyard. I wrote posts on my Early April, Late April, June and August 2018 surveys

One unexpected point was that, for finding unimproved grassland plants, Victorian churches were the best. Medieval ones were not so good.

National Bat Monitoring Programme

Philip Briggs outlined bat recording schemes and some of the results.

The Spiders of Sussex

Graham Lyons outlined highlights of 2019 intensive spider recording.

Back home

After all the talk of ponds and rivers, I decided to check our own pond. As I approached, there was a splash and a glimpse of a webbed foot. Our frogs have arrived and are spawning.

A wonderful Autumn for fungi

This wet autumn has seen a bumper crop of fungi, with many appearing in places where I had never seen them before. When I say fungi, I really mean the fruiting bodies. They grow from the mycellium, which is a network of fungal threads from which the fruiting bodies grows, is present all year round.

BEWARE: The following have not been formally verified yet.

This year, it started to rain in September and seemed to keep going through October and November. Flushes of fungi soon followed.

Earth ball, Manor Park, 10 Aug 2019

The first to appear include the Boletales such as Earthballs (Scleroderma citrinum).

Sulphur Tuft, West Park Nature Reserve, 05 Oct 2019

These are followed by "toadstool" shaped fungi. On one of the Uckfield Nature Reserve Supporters walks, we saw several different types such as the Sulphur Tufts (Hypholoma fasciculare) shown above.

Magpie Inkcap, West Park, 06 Oct 2019

We also found inkcaps such as the Magpie Inkcap (Coprinopsis picacea).

Fly Agaric, Manor Park, 13 Oct 2019

Closer to home, near a birch, I was amazed to see Fly Agarics (Amanita muscaria). I had never seen them in that particular place before.

Parasol, Buxted Park, 26 Oct 2019

Towards the end of the month, a Parkrun took me into grassy habitats where I saw large Parasols (Macrolepiota procera) including the three above.

Club, Manor Park, 06 Nov 2019

The weather had been too wet for our gardener to mow the lawn and some fungi such as this Apricot Club (Clavulinopsis luteoalba) had time to grow.

Oysterling, West Park, 24 Nov 2019

As the colder weather rolled in and the fallen leaves began to rot down, the bigger "toadstools" mostly disappeared but, during a Uckfield Nature Reserves Supporters walk, we noticed that a variety of small fungi and large brackets were taking their place. We found the tiny Oysterling (Crepidotus epibryus) above on a leaf.

Common Birds Nest, West Park, 24 Nov 2019

We also found my first ever Common Birds Nest fungi (Crucibulum laeve). The spores are contained in the tiny eggs, which are splashed out of the nest by raindrops.

Clouded Funnel, West Park, 24 Nov 2019

One of the few bigger fungi still present was the frost resistant Clouded Funnel (Clitocybe nebularis).

Southern Bracket, Buxted Park, 09 Nov 2019

Brackets such as the Southern Bracket (Ganoderma australe) also persist in the increasingly cold weather.

Crystal Brain Fungus, Manor Park, 01 Dec 2019

The recent winds have blown quite a few branches down. When I picked this one up, I got a rather unpleasant surprise as I found myself clutching something very squishy!  It is Crystal Brain Fungus (Exidia nucleata), whose translucent blobs have solid white dots in - much like frogspawn on a stick!

I've put away my books and camera for a while, but I can confidently say that I have never seen such a wonderful variety of fungi.

Views (Williams) Wood - Autumn Fungi

In my previous post about Views (Williams) wood, I talked about pulling up Balsam to make more room for native wild flowers.  Now we are at the end of October and the last of the flowers including some remnants of balsam are fading. The dense green canopy of summer leaves is gently turning amber and thinning out. As my eyes follow falling leaves to the woodland floor I see new colours and shapes in the rusty carpet.  After recent rain and warmth, large numbers of fungi are appearing. I'm not very sure about identifying fungi so all of the names in the following are my best shot.

The Woodland Trust have cleared some of the rides, to allow light to trigger wild flowers, and left some of the logs to provide natural habitats. Corel spot, a fungus I sometimes see in our garden, dots some of the rotting wood.


Corel spot on rotting logs.

Not far from where I was working in June, a huge mossy stump looks like a fairy's garden. It is smothered with feather moss and dotted tiny tree-like ferns. Glistening Incap fungi complete this magical picture. 

Glossy inkcap in feather moss

Crossing the river takes us into Buxted Park. Here we find a scattering of Chanterelles and a pretty pink-coloured Bonnet fungus.

Bonnet fungus

In the drier areas there are big parasol mushroons, 6 to 8 inches across. Making our way back between the lakes, we pass an ancient stump. It provides a home to brightly-coloured small staghorn fungi and turkey tail bracket fungi, which jut out from the old wood.

Small Staghorn

As we wind back through the woods, a sudden burst of sunshine turns brown leaves gold. As they fall, the leaves drift around clumps of moss almost smothered by sulphur tufts.

Sulphur Tuft

The wood saved the best until last. Hidden just a few yards from the gate, an old stump is an open jewel box lit up by sparkly fairy inkcaps and clumps of golden fungi.

An unknown yellow fungus and fairy bonnets.

Then home with a cup of tea, a pile of books and the First Nature web site to identify our woodland treasures.