Stoney Hill

When it rains in England - it rains! And so it was on Friday 17th July, 2009 as The Wrekin Forest Volunteers assembled for a bimble around Stoney Hill - a site few of us - indeed very few people at all, it turns out, had been to, but it's certainly an area well worth extra visits.

For me, its charm lay in the fact that although quite a small area, it has largely been left for the flora and fauna to re-establish itself, after many years of industry and land-fill.

The day actually started dry but with ominous dark clouds threatening to get ever closer as we listened to Pete's very helpful intro talk. We were delayed from starting out as we waited for Rhys to arrive - who had turned up on time and dressed ready for action - he just happened to be at Apley Castle instead of Stoney Hill - a mistake, of course, that any of us could make (or could we?).

The wildlife habitat of Stoney Hill, which was the section we were specifically interested in, is part of a larger area all owned by Telford & Wrekin Council. I'm not entirely sure whether this has public access or not but there were small paths that had been forged around the site other than the badger and fox runs. It was certainly a bit of a challenge finding the way in - which was over a very wet, slippery and quite high fence. But we all managed to negotiate it without incident.

It wasn't long before the rains set in which saw most of our insects scurry deep into the undergrowth but we managed to tease a few out to play, including this beautiful Caddis Fly which didn't appear in any of our field guides but a little research on the Internet proved it to be Agrypnia varia

Was it Lis or Liz or someone else that found this beautiful insect?

And then there was Nigel's spider. Did you manage to ID this Nigel?

Pic supplied by Nigel

Pic supplied by Nigel

The rain eased as we settled for lunch by a lovely marsh area visited by many damsels who didn't appear to be in the slightest of distress!

We set off once more and this time the rain really did descend upon us. Just to remind us that no matter what happens, wherever we go, whatever we do; nature is always in charge!

It still didn't stop our dedicated band of recorders from recording. Many plants, insects, shrubs and trees were recorded and we even found a couple of moths.

Light Brocade

The day-flying Shaded Broad-bar

These 2 records were only a few less than the night's moth-trap recording in my Garden for GMS, which the week before produced around 90 moths against just 13 for this week. The rain throughout the day and the high winds through the night kept most of them hiding away. But I did manage this very lovely Burnished Brass;

Les also found on site a Penny Bun fungus, claiming it as a culinary delight and the best of our edible species. Alas, it was merely a single stump with small cap but at least the spot has been marked for future visits.

Last week's Caption Competition.



Only one entry for last week's comp so the 'virtual' prize goes to Nigel for his suggestion of:-

EITHER;

Me saying: "Crucifixion's a doddle."

OR

Ollie saying: "Crucifixion? Good. Line on the left. One cross each."

Well done Nigel and he sends his apologies for 'cribbing' some of the above from Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Moth Trap Nights
Just to reiterate; Les and I have 2 moth nights coming up. There are just 3 places left for TTP but the Apley Castle event has quite a few spaces left. To book your spot for either or both just email me at paulewatts@googlemail.com

Telford Town Park 8:30 pm Tuesday, July 28th STOP PRESS - TTP NOW FULLY BOOKED!

Apley Castle 8:00pm Tuesday, August 18th STOP PRESS - A FEW PLACES LEFT

Both should be excellent opportunities to see some of our Shropshire moths in all their glory and are open to anyone interested (even remotely). Come suitably clothed with a torch plus any moth field guides and specimen pots you may have.

'Where Is it?' Competition
Where is the picture below? Just enter your suggestion in the 'Comments' at the bottom of this post. Can't see 'Comments'? It's because you're reading this in an email or RSS feed; click here to go to main blog and scroll down to the bottom of this post. www.wrekinforestvolunteers.com

Aunty Betty
I won't see most of you now until September as Aunty Betty has arrived here today from Australia and as part of her UK tour will be with us for the week (unless, of course, I get a reprieve and am allowed out early on good behaviour!). This then runs into a 4-week WuFuV break, so if anyone manages to take any pics of The Rookery please upload to the Yahoo Group and I'll pop up a quick post - unless, of course, someone wants to take over and write-up the post itself? If so, just create it in Word and email it to me for a quick edit and format and I'll publish it straightaway.

Keeping up the Content
On the subject of writing posts; do you have an article of interest concerning Shropshire wildlife, plants etcetera that you could put together? If so, again just create it in Word, include a couple of pics or so, email it to me and I'll post it some time over the 'gap-month'. Come on all you budding writers - I've sent out a challenge here!
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