Lilleshall

Pic supplied by Nigel

The 10th of July 2009 saw The Wrekin Forest Volunteers meeting at Lilleshall School Car Park for a foray, survey, lunchtime picnic, discussion and walk - not forgetting the occasional but inevitable silly banter!

This was actually the biggest turn-out for the group in its history with 18 of us assembling for the day's bimbling and fossicking! The bus is starting to burst at the seams so it's just as well some of us opted to make our own way there. Incidentally, this is a timely reminder on behalf of Pete to make sure your name is down for a pick-up from either Telford or Wellington if you do need a lift to the site.

This was the Wrekin Forest Volunteers first visit to Lilleshall and a fascinating area it proved to be for flora, fauna, history and fabulous views from the monument on the top.

Pic supplied by Rhys

One of the many interesting insects discovered here was found by Rhys; a small grasshopper with clubbed antenna which foxed us all as far as ID was concerned. We took a number of pics and then released it back into the grasses. Rhys later ID'd it as a Mottled Grasshopper. Not rare by any means but not the most common - note to Pete; please add this to the species list for Lilleshall - Mottled Grasshopper-Myrmeleotettix maculatus.

As Rhys points out after some diligent research 'There seems to be only one other grasshopper species with clubbed antenna and that's the rare Rufous'. Therefore, in the likely absence of the Rufous (found very locally in South England and South Wales) we can safely say that the Mottled Grasshopper is the only clubbed-antenna grasshopper in Shropshire.

There doesn't seem to be a shortage of butterflies this year which is very encouraging, with Ringlets, Meadow Browns, Large, Small and Green-veined Whites particularly in profusion. We also spotted a small scattering of Gatekeepers on the hill:

Pic supplied by Nigel

Lunch and open discussion took place on the steps including a presentation to Olly for being the first to send in his answer to the 'Where Is It' competition by stating that last week's pic was of the gate at the top of the steps leading into Granville NR. Two prizes emerged from my Little Box of Giveaways; a book by David Hunter - The Shropshire Hills, and a copy of the latest album from American rock band Greenday.

Pete could so easily have won, but the technology at the last and crucial minute prevented him from entering! Well - that was Pete's excuse anyway! Better luck perhaps with this week's Caption Competition Pete?

Another scoop from Rhys was this Ladybird which caused quite a stir as no-one could ID it - a spotless ladybird just doesn't feature in any of our various field guides! What was it? Had we stumbled across a rare immigrant, perhaps never seen before in the UK? Or could it be a new species not even recorded? After some deliberation Pete offered the theory that maybe - just maybe - it was a freshly emerged adult and not yet fully-coloured.

Rhys took it home and later confirmed that after a few hours the spots did indeed slowly develop producing - you guessed it - a common 7-spot!

We just learn something new every day!

We then headed off for a spot of Formation Foraging or maybe Synchronised Surveying?

A pair of mating Forest Bugs (Pentatoma rufipes) provided a delightful photo opportunity although I'm sure that if they knew their activities would be zapped around the world they would have been a little more covert!

And that just leaves this week's Caption Competition which comes courtesy of Les and features moi (thanks Les!).

What is it that I'm I saying? Answers below under comments (if you don't see Comments please click here to go to the main blog).

Two Diary Dates
There are just so many wildlife events and courses to get involved in aren't there? I find myself having to pull back on the reins to prevent my long-suffering partner Pam from saying things like 'What did you say your name was?' or singing a few bars of 'When Will I See You Again'!

So with that in mind (?!) Les and I have organised 2 moth nights!

Telford Town Park 8:30 pm Tuesday, July 28th
Thanks to Graham for organising the venue for us. We're only allowed 8 people so it's first come-first-served on this one I'm afraid email me at paulewatts@googlemail.com if interested.

Apley Castle 8:00pm Tuesday, August 18th
Thanks to Sean and Olly for organising the venue for this one. No restriction at the moment as to numbers but please drop me a quick email if you'd like to come along to so we can get an idea of how many will be turning up.

The format for each night will be;-

Time: Meet 8pm (8:30 TTP) for short talk, with moths arriving around 9pm. Expected finish midnight.
Event: Introduction to moths. Set-up and run 2 Skinner type moth-traps supplied by Les and myself.
ID moths as we go along and at the end of the session.

Bring any field guides, specimen pots etcetera that you may have and a net or two would be useful so we can also do a spot of sweeping.

Neither Les nor I can be called expert moth-ers by any stretch of the imagination but we do find the subject immensely fascinating and if you think all moths are a boring brown colour please join us and you'll hopefully discover the true beauty of these fabulous insects. Here's a couple from Les's recent trapping - taken from the WFV Yahoo Group;-

Beautiful Golden Y

Large Elephant Hawkmoth

Catch you all next week...

Click for Slideshow

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