W h i t e A d m i r a l Newsletter 92 Autumn 2015 Suffolk Naturalists’ Society C o n ten t s E di to r ia l Ben Heather 1 W ha t’ s o n? 2 Using iRecord: A Verifier’s Point Adrian Chalkley 3 o f V i ew The Dunwich Heath Bioblitz 27 Stuart Warrington, Alison 6 and 28th May 2015 Joseph, Richard Gilbert & Lloyd James Realising the Potential of the Alex Moore da Luz 8 River Stour at Great and Little B r a dley Evolution of a Breckland Caroline Markham 12 Landscape by Richard West Wildlife at home and work G i G ri eco 13 Fungi twitching in November Juliet Hawkins 15 The Tawny Owls in Christchurch Richard Stewart 19 P a r k Arthur Rivett – winner of Pete Su e H o o to n 21 Guest Award 2015 The Wild Flower Society Winter Anne and Dennis Kell 22 Months Hunt My Year 2015 Trevor Goodfellow 24 Gonocerus acuteangulatus , a ka C. J. B. Hitch & K. Carr - 28 the Box Bug Ta nsley A letter to the editor Alan Cornish 28 SNS Members Holiday Offer G r eenw i ngs 29 Ganoderma australe or Ga n od e rm a Neil Mahler 30 a ds pe rs u m ? ISSN 0959-8537 Published by the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society c/o Ipswich Museum, High Street, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 3QH Registered Charity No. 206084 © Suffolk Naturalists’ Society Cover Photo: Red Deer Stag - Margaret Holland www.flickr.com/photos/67065881@N00/ SuffolkThe Naturalists’ Society Newsletter 92 - Autumn 2015 Welcome to this bumper Autumn issue of the White Admiral newsletter and thank you to all those who contributed to making this such a full edition. I have had to keep several pieces aside due to space limitations and these will be first in the queue for the Spring newsletter in the new year. The main thing I would like to draw your attention to in this editorial is our conference in early 2016. As revealed in the last issue, it will be called “Freshwater Revival” and will focus on the world of freshwater conservation over the last 25 years. We are now able to confirm that we have a full line up of speakers and talks in place including: Dr Naomi Ewald (Freshwater Habitats Trust) - The Flagship Ponds Project, PondNet and Clean Water for Wildlife Dr Carl Sayer (University College London) - Norfolk Ghost Ponds Project Darren Tansley (Essex Water for Wildlife Project) - Aquatic mammals Dr Trevor Bond (Environment Agency) - River Restoration schemes within Suffolk Dr Alan Walker (CEFAS) - European eels: the science and the mystery Dr David Bilton (Plymouth University) - Water Beetles in Conservation Plus, new this year, we will have some quick-fire talks between the main presentations. Please see the advert over the page and remember to buy your ticket soon, to avoid disappointment. Editor: Ben Heather Suffolk Biological Records Centre, c/o Ipswich Museum, High Street, Ipswich, IP1 3 Q H [email protected] White Admiral 92 1 For more information and to book your place visit www.sns.org.uk/pages/conference.shtml Autumn Members Evening Thurs 19th Nov | 7:30pm Cedars Hotel, Needham Road, Stowmarket IP14 2AJ Talks by Ben Heather on ‘The Year of the Bioblitz’ and Samantha Lee on ‘Operation Turtle Dove’. Plus recorder updates and the return of the popular autumn quiz! Drinks will be available from the bar plus complimentary tea/coffee break at half-time. There will also be a range of books, journals and collecting materials donated to the society by the late David Nash which will be free to a good home. 2 White Admiral 92 Using iRecord: A Verifier’s Point of View It’s been a busy summer for One problem I often have in Bioblitzes, which seem more verifying a record is when I do not popular than ever. Being at a know the person making it. An Bioblitz watching people poring example may help here. I was over wildlife guides, often with presented with a record of a pond advice from an expert, underlines leech, Helobdella stagnalis from a how important these events are for site I had never been to, recorded public engagement with natural by a person I had never heard of. history and for improving The record said ‘certain’. Now H. identification skills. This year stagnalis is one of the commonest however, I’ve been looking at them leeches in freshwater so it was in a slightly different light since tempting to just verify it as correct becoming a verifier on iRecord. which sets the record on its path to Whilst my points below apply to the National Biodiversity Network the freshwater invertebrates I database. But having spent 30 odd verify, I hear similar concerns from years checking the smallest many other iRecord verifiers. morphological details to ensure These points also apply to all accuracy in my own database, I records, whether from BioBlitzes queried the record. This meant or not. explaining that leeches can’t be If I can get to a Bioblitz then identified by comparison with a verifying iRecord data is pretty picture in a general field guide, easy since I know both who was asking which book or key was used there and what went on, but where and, as this was a leech, asking I can’t attend, verifying records how many eyes it had and in what can be more problematical. This is pattern they were arranged. usually due to lack of detail As it turned out, the record came supplied by whoever inputs the from a Scottish ecological consult- record. Often a shortage of ant who was happy to tell me she computers or WiFi difficulties had used the Freshwater Biological mean that one or two people will Association key by Mann, had input data from lists supplied by noted the two eyes set in front of a those who actually observed the ‘callous scute’ or surface mark. So animal or plant. This degree of no problems, record accepted and separation can make precise now I both know her name and details even more elusive. that she has access to the right White Admiral 92 3 sort of keys. If it was not obvious to an ecological consultant to add the key and identification features noted then I probably shouldn’t complain when the general public on BioBlitzes omit these details. D ia gr am And yet those sort of details are exactly what I and many of my fellow verifiers are looking for. As el lus Before we leave leeches by the way, I have one amateur naturalist from the south coast who sends in lots of leech records. He started off by naming the key and, even more important, attaching photos. I now Megafenestra aurita. This is very know the four or five species he is rare and has only ever been familiar with and I don’t need the recorded 8 times. However, the photos or details until he comes rare M. aurita is identical to the across a new (to him) species. common Scapholeberis mucronata Verifier & recorder have built up a to look at with a hand lens. relationship, the ideal situation. Obviously there is a guide out So far, I’ve been using the word there with a drawing of only the key, but realise that many rare species. To distinguish them naturalists are far more likely to needs skill and a compound carry a general natural history microscope at about 400x guide with them, especially at a magnification with phase contrast BioBlitz. Often such a guide will lighting. With no reply to queries have one or two pictures of typical about details I ended up rejecting members of a family, but no all records even though there information about the number of existed the possibility of an species nor details of morphological important record of a rare species. differences between those species. Whilst at the Flatford Mill BioBlitz When I first became an iRecord in August, a couple of the aquatic verifier, I found I was the only one species I recorded underline the in Britain who did water fleas. importance of checking identifica- Thus I found a backlog of records tion with a key. The water slater from BioBlitzes. Many of these or hog louse is a common inver- were records of a waterflea called tebrate in most waterbodies. There 4 White Admiral 92 Crangonyx pseudogracilis are two species Gammarus pulex, the most which can usual- common species. However, life is ly be told apart by just not that easy and, although the pattern on the head Gammarus pulex is both common (see diagram). Based on the and the most well-known, there are pattern, the Flatford specimen in fact 5 British species needing a appeared to be Asellus meridianus. key and microscope to separate. In However, at home I checked out this case a quick look under the the genitalia under a microscope, microscope revealed the Flatford which clearly showed it to be an Mill Pool specimen to have been Asellus aquaticus with incomplete none of those, instead it was pigmentation. In terms of iRecord Crangonyx pseudogracilis, a North a note added to the record saying American Amphipod unwittingly that the record was made from a brought into the country by man general guide based on the head and now common. pattern would ensure I only So to sum up, iRecord and marked the record as Plausible. A similarly SuffolkBRO (in Suffolk) note to say which key was used are good systems doing a great and that male or female genitalia deal to stimulate public interest in were observed under the recording and in identification.