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Patch-working pays off

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After rock-pooling at Castle Cove with Iain on Friday evening, I was out in the garden all day Saturday to make the most of the fabulous weather and try to finish the winter gardening jobs that have been hard to get done during this most wet and miserable of winters. Apart from a decent candidate for Siberian Chiffchaff that went (silently) through the garden at c.06:30 (always staying within 2 foot of the ground, interestingly), all the best finds were by Jo. She called me over to see a couple of ground beetles which turned out to be Harpalus dimidiatus ! Harpalus dimidiatus  This is a species I have only ever seen on the Isle of Wight, first by torching the cliff edge at Culver Cliff where John Walters found it on 30th May 2004 and showed it to me the next night, and secondly in our garden where I've twice found dead ones in cobwebs on the back wall of the house. I'd assumed those ill-fated individuals had flown in from some of the nearby downland habitat, so it was fantastic...
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Back at Castle Cove

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Spring tides have come round again, and I've been out rockpooling for the last two evenings in sunny, calm and beautiful conditions down at Castle Cove.   The stand out highlight was with Iain Outlaw this evening when we found these two gorgeous nudibranchs.   I'm happy that these are  Amphorina farrani , which is known to occur in a translucent white form and a purple-black form. A new species for both of us. These two were together under the same rock, and I'll pop them back there on tomorrow's low tide.  Solar-powered Sea-slug  Elysia viridis   Mystery organism. Suspected egg-sacs. As well as lots of  Grantia compressa  and  Clathrina cf. lacunosa , I realised there is a third species of tiny basket sponge under the boulders, which I've identified as Clathrina coriacea . Under the compound microscope, the sponge is composed entirely of triradiate spicules.
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Garden highlights

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Today I put in a shift from 9 to 5 in the garden, with warm sunshine throughout. Gardening is a natural history opportunity and I always have tubes, pooter, camera and notebook handy. Today's natural history highlight has to be these little sticks of candy floss, growing from the surface of a very old King Alfred's Cake  Daldinia concentrica  on an old, well-rotten Ash log that was deeply buried under Ivy, until I came along with my secateurs. I have named them as  Arcyria denudata , on the basis that they're a good match to images on the Bucks Fungus Group website and they suggest it is fairly distinctive. I've never seen this before, but I've hardly looked at slime-moulds. Given that I have only ever seen 3 shelled slugs on the mainland, the fact that I can routinely see them in the garden, and elsewhere around Ventnor, always feels pretty special. Here's two from under a log.   Despite the dorsal grooves remaining distinctly separate all the way to the junct...
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Rockpooling at Castle Cove, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

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I have come to realise, over a lifetime dedicated to identifying wildlife, that I love not being able to identify wildlife. The intertidal zone is an extremely enjoyable place to visit in this regard. I am unable to identify the vast majority of the organisms that live there. But on each visit, I familiarise myself again with the few that I can recognise, and chip away at identifying some of the rest. Here are some that I am still chipping away at. If you can tell me what they are, I'd be very grateful. Any pointers, suggestions or ideas gratefully received - please leave a comment. Sand Smelt Atherina presbyter ?  I'm fairly sure of this, and I've been shown them here before by Theo Vickers. This was one of at least six in clear, shallow water over bare chalk in the lagoon. They were slightly attracted to the torchlight and stayed still for the camera. Confirmed as Sand Smelt by Seth Gibson. A mussel.  Invariably, if I bring back a specimen to examine under the microsc...
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Welcome

Welcome to ‘Mark Telfer’s Blog’. It’s literally going to be a blog by Mark Telfer, and probably won’t have many punning, tabloid-style headlines! I will blog about the wildlife that I find as a pan-species naturalist. I am based on the wonderful Isle of Wight but I get to travel throughout Britain and Ireland through my work as an entomological consultant, as well as in my own time.
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