I have slightly neglected Pevensey Levels this summer so when I needed a cycle a couple of weeks ago decided to investigate Marshfoot Lane, just to the east of Hailsham. On the map it looked as if the footpath followed a farm track but I had no idea if it would be navigable by bike. […]
Transport options were limited on Sunday and much of lowland Sussex was under water after all the recent rain. The wind had dropped, the sun was shining for a change and trains were running to Eastbourne so I decided to head to the eastern end of the seafront. It was a bit early in the […]
Another mild autumn day with a gentle breeze meant another chance to get out onto Pevensey Levels. Apart from pausing while some escaped lambs ambled off the road I headed straight to New Bridge. The brick bridge was neither old nor new and covered in grey lichen with a small fan of Homalothecium sericeum the […]
Why did the bryologist keep crossing Pevensey levels? Repeated visits have slowly added more species to this area, an SSSI with many nationally rare invertebrates and scarse aquatic vascular plants but not renowned for its bryophytes. It is slow going and most moss finds are common and predictable. September can be a sweet spot between […]
The two ends of Peelings Lane between Stone cross and Pevensey were tree-lined and shaded when I visited in 2021 so, just ahead of the second heatwave of 2022 I walked along the middle bit to boost the records for TQ60H. It’s an old lane, quiet apart from children cycling, with ancient hedges along some […]
Sunny weather and light winds were just right for a trip to Pevensey Levels. It was too dry for thorough bryologising so better to aim for a good cycle and swim and think of any moss finds as a bonus. I turned off the nasty roundabout just outside Pevensey onto a quiet track, lined on […]
It hadn’t rained much during March and mosses were drying out but the weather was mild with little wind so I headed for some quiet roads on the outskirts of Hailsham in tetrads that were short of records. Blackthorn along the Cuckoo Trail was just coming into bloom but a mass of tiny flies which […]
It was fortunate that I had saved the art gallery visit till after a mossing excursion along the eastern beaches of Eastbourne. The driftwood assemblages of Margaret Mellis might have inspired me to collect scraps of painted wood from the shingle around the Lifeboat Station and fishing shacks instead of searching the semi-natural collage of […]
Another cycle around the edges of Pevensey Levels, this time starting at Hampden Park and heading north through Langney to Stone Cross. A route through Shinewater Park would have been nice on a drier day, or on an all terrain bike, but I wasn’t equipped for so much mud and took the suburban route. On […]
Much rain the previous day had revived pavement mosses and bright sun and a strong wind was taking longer to dry them out than in summer months. Just across the road from Bexhill railway station, there was a green carpet of Barbula unguiculata, the odd furball of Zygodon viridissimus that must have fallen from the […]
Sussex Bryophytes 