PSL 2026 Yearlist - First Update

It's fair to say that I've enjoyed a pretty decent start to the year. My goal for 2026 is to see 2500 living wild species in Britain, everything from microscopic single-celled life and montane sedges to Bristly Millipedes and Humpback Whales. And whilst I haven't seen any montane sedges or Bristly Millipedes so far this year, I've certainly seen plenty of single-celled organisms through my microscope and gawped at the Humpback Whale that was present for a few days in a nearby sea loch. 

My 2026 species count at the end of January stands at 572 species, which I'm almost certain is the highest total I've ever managed during the opening month of a Big Year. Everything has been self-found and self-identified and I have remained right here on Skye throughout. Of those 572 species Barn Owl, Tawny Owl, Treecreeper and Goldfinch are, thus far, 'heard only' species. 

I'm probably a bit old school in my methodology, but it's important to me that everything recorded in my Big Year needs to be wild and alive for it to be admissible. I've allowed myself some leniency when it comes to 'heard only' vocalisations, which I also count. This undoubtedly harks back to the days when I used to compete in 24hr bird races where such things are fully permissible. In practice this should only apply to birdcalls and maybe some of the larger mammals, I'm thinking barking Muntjac, squealing Sika, etc. So, despite seeing Molehills every time I head down to the local shop, and despite finding occasional caches of gnawed hazelnuts in the woods, I will not be counting Mole or Wood Mouse until I physically see one in the flesh. I fully intend for my Big Year to be as legitimate and clean as possible and to hold up to close scrutiny, even though I realise it's only me who gives a damn and is doing the scrutinising. Nutjob that I am...

As a wee wind-up for a certain somebody to see, alongside my entry on the PSL site's year listing page I have made a note of what I won't be including on my own yearlist, adding that no sanity checks or barrel scraping would be required. I shouldn't really take such cheap digs but fuckit, he single-handedly twisted and perverted a movement that I held dear, took it as his own and began changing it into something graceless and ugly. His hilariously unedited initial response, now taken down, definitely made it worth doing. Soon afterwards, and to my very great delight, a good friend of mine sent me this

I might actually get one printed up!

For February I need to put in some extra hours at work. The hotel will be reopening almost before I know it and there's still an awful lot that needs doing first. I had hoped to get away for a week or two, but that now seems unlikely. Happily, the days are growing longer and it's still light once I finish work. I suspect the yearlist will slow to a crawl for the next several weeks. 

However! 

The tides are ridiculously low over the coming few days and I've provisionally planned to head out with Neil, a local naturalist who I've known for maybe seven or eight years. Neil loves being welly deep in a rockpool even more than I do, and he's got a knack for finding sea slugs which I seem to lack. As far as I can tell, 11th March 2024 was the last time we were out in the field together, which is a bit shocking. Hopefully I will have lots and lots of lovely critter images for you in the next post (and I don't just mean Neil) rather than a load of toxic text. 

I found this today. It's Common Mallow and (don't laugh) it is completely new to Skye