More thoughts on PSL...

How things can change in a week. Sometimes we need to have a word with ourselves, to bring us back to reality, a grounding if you like. In recent times I have not only been birding or mothing. I have been looking at everything from Spiders to Mosses and Beetles to fruit flies. All that I have identified or had identified for me have been carefully added to my list. What used to be on a crappy old spreadsheet is now on a fabulous all singing and dancing searchable website.

Today, the alarm bell has rung. While I was already awake.

Seth Gibson, Alastair Forsyth and Steve Gale have all debated the topic on their blogs, that I have read with great interest. These three naturalists and bloggers are a real inspiration to me, so when one speaks I tend to listen.

The thing is, with the rise of PSL there is perceived to be a decline in actual biodiversity recording standards whereby listers are not being as rigorous as they should be when listing a new form of life.

Where people are concerned, no recording system with a competition factor will be clean. Looking on the PSL website, I see that Red necked Nightjar has been included by one observer, who would need to be at least 180 yrs old to have seen the only British record! That's their choice I suppose, but the species on my list are at the very least, plausible, and most are accurate with a few being aggs, or the commonest of a bunch based on distribution etc, but I if I tick a species on that basis, I will not add a congener as I couldnt be sure its different to the one I already have. For example I have Dandelion but not to species, I have Mouse Spider as Scotophaeus blackwallii as it is by far most likely but Ive not had any scrutinised. Mouse Spiders twin will not be added without both being checked and the same with Dandelions etc. 

Things are added to iRecord but if they don't meet the verifier's criteria that's ok, I'll have learned something and will move on.

I know birds, moths, mammals, butterflies and most fish even, quite well, but once these groups are  becoming less likely to be a new addition, along comes flowering plants, fungi and invertebrates. Anyone who has perused the Naturespot site or the British Arachnological Society page for example, will know full well that very few of these can be brought to accurate species level without the use of various scientific methods and equipment. Yet we novices ( maybe not the right word? How can I be a novice after 50 years of wildlife watching?) still plod along trying to match species to images and text in books on websites and in social media. Maybe we ( I) are /am deluded?

I think I know the reason. I am not and never will be a scientist. I was and probably still am an Urchin, a Poacher, a Tresspasser, Billy Casper, BB, Ennion, Iain Niall, a Ladybird book, a throwback to times past. 

I don't have a microscope and have never really used a Dichotomous key. I might like to, but will I ever? I'm not sure it matters enough to me but who knows, never say never. I like to find new things for much simpler reasons, and no, its not to add to a list. It is to enjoy the chase, the find and the beauty. The list just keeps the treasures in an order where I can find them again. 

So I'm sure I and many others will continue in this way until we either see the light or give up. Keep on Listing folks, but try to keep it as real as possible!  

Oonops. Its one of the two...

Wool Carder Bee, added to the list today after finding my first in the garden on Sunday. A scarce species in Northumberland 

A spiders year....

Last Christmas I was given a copy of the new Wildguides book, 'Britains Spiders'. This inspired me to look out for some of these much maligned creatures on my travels.

If you are on Facebook you should check out UK Spiders page. On here are real experts from the UK and abroad who can help with some tricky identifications. On here this year some members have been doing a spider year list, with Graeme Lyons finding 360+ species so far! The vast majority of these can only be identified with a microscope and specialist keys to work out the correct result.
For a novice like me, I am happy to just photograph what i find then see if I can sort it out. If not I try the experts.

Anyway, here are some of the ones that have crossed my path this year...

1. Arctosa cinerea the Grey Wolf Spider.

 When looking through the book one species in particular caught my eye. The Grey Wolf Spider Arctosa cinerea. This is a species of restricted distribution and is found on riverine shingle habitats in Wales, Northern England and Scotland. It was this northern distribution that attracted me as we have loads of good habitat in Northumberland with no one looking. We visited a likely looking site in the Cheviots in June finding 7 individuals without much trouble really. In winter these shingle beds are flooded by several feet of water from the hills, but these mini tarantulas just hide in a burrow under a rock and let the water run across them. A top creature.

A Cucumber Spider on a corncockle flower.

These little pea green spiders are common so I set about searching our garden and soon found this one. A gem of a spider...

Woodlouse Spider Dysdera crocata

The Woodlouse Spider lives around our sheds in the garden. It is an unusual looking spider being reddish with a body like a baked bean. As the name suggests those large jaws hunt and kill woodlice.

Ero furcata

I didnt expect to see this Ero on our shed. It has two pointed humps on its abdomen that are quite distinctive. It creeps around at night hunting other spiders.

Nursery Web Spider Pisaura miribilis

I just love these spiders. They are like 70s sport saloon, a Capri maybe in design and behaviour. With the yellow go-faster stripe down the thorax and its habit of running flat out to get away, its a top one to look out for. A common species but very few records for Northumberland. Ive had a few in the garden all year!

Goblin Spider Oonops species.

These tiny orange spiders can be one of two species both equally as common as the other. I found them in the bathroom, porch and moth trap. A tiny spider that moves in slow motion!

Four spotted Orb Weaver Araneus quadratus

Up here the Four spotted Orb Weaver is a species of the moors where it favours the strong bent stems of rushes for making its web. It is our heaviest spider and one I was pleased to find. About the size of a malteser.

I'll add some more soon.....