The dry and warm late September weather provided an excellent accompaniment to another wonderful day at Devil’s Dingle for our penultimate walk of 2014. To my delight eight of us gathered at the gates to the site at the appointed hour despite the alternative attraction of a walk up the Wrekin with Pete Lambert of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust.
We started our meander by the corner of the eastern dam making our way along the lane that runs alongside its eastern edge. The County Orthoptera recorder had joined us and he was soon using his detector (a bat detector) to identify a Roesel’s bush-cricket. Unfortunately I could neither hear nor see it, but it was there.
I was lent a huge sweep net for the day and with one of my first sweeps of the vegetation edging the lane collected a Bishop’s Mitre. A good omen, if you believe in omens. And the omen proved to be correct as the shieldbug list was quickly bolstered with our first Gorse, Sloe (or Hairy), Dock and Green shieldbugs.
The orthopera list also grew to include a Dark bush-cricket, which I did not hear, but did see; a Meadow grasshopper and a Speckled bush-cricket. It is very unusual for us to take more than a passing interest in Orthoptera as we are not very good at identifying them and when we do it is usually a Common green grasshopper! It was good having an expert with us and his detection gadget to show us the varied delights of this order.
The vegetation bordering the lane along the side of the dam provided rich pickings and it was about coffee time when we reached its northern edge.
Orthoptera kept appearing and by lunch we had also found a Field grasshopper, a Common groundhopper, a slender groundhopper, a Common earwig (yes, earwigs are part of Orthoptera) and the curiously named Long-winged cone-head.
What is a cone-head? Grasshoppers have short antennae, bush-crickets are superficially similar to grasshoppers but have long antennae, groundhoppers are like small grasshoppers, earwigs are ... well ... different, but what makes a cone-head? To me they look like a bush-cricket with a head in profile that is slightly more pointed.
After lunch we made our way over the less well vegetated ash mound to the western side of the site where there is a pool that feeds the western dam. Here we entertained by several Common blue damsel files and the occasional dragonfly.
Following the edge of this pool and then the western dam we came back to the shores of the eastern dam which we followed back to the cars. On the way we encountered a Birch shieldbug and then in one last speculative sweep of some of the lusher grassland a Blue bug.
Unfortunately I have some bad news to impart. My stick (or more accurately my daughter’s stick), which has served me well and has featured in some of these reports, is no more. It has been ailing for a while following a “shortening” event a month or so ago, but it was still useable. Regrettably it is now in two bits after I stood on it whilst inspecting some Bulrushes to check for the presence of the bug Chilacis typhae. I found the bug then stepped back and ... disaster ... no more stick. Thank you for your excellent service.
Once again Devil’s Dingle had excelled. Thank you to E-on for allowing us to visit.
Keith Fowler
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