What did we do on our holidays? By Keith Fowler

The new “season” of walks starts on 1st April (or started if you read this at a later date) and we have rebranded the walks yet again. Suggestions were made that the title “Joy of Invertebrates” was not inclusive as the group also looked at plants, birds and fungi. So after a lot of thought we have decided to rename the series as “Joy of Wildlife”. We hope that is a suitable title. It certainly encapsulates what we hope to achieve.

The new season has walks on each Wednesday from 1st April until 30th September. These will be followed by more occasional jaunts through to April 2016, when, all being well, it will start all over again. A variety of sites, some old, some new, will be visited and, hopefully, there will be enough variety in the sites to keep us on our toes throughout the period.

Another change is that we are now supported by the Fields Study Centre as part of the Invertebrate Challenge legacy. Several of us were pupils of Invertebrate Challenge and following its conclusion last December FSC are continuing to support us as we go out into the big wide world and pass on our knowledge to others.

Ah, I know what you are thinking, what has all this got to do with the title of the piece? 

Nothing really, I am just letting you know what is on the horizon as we approach 1st April (or approached if you read this after that date).

Right, back to the subject of the title - Holidays! We have not been away to distant shores or idle - It was just a holiday from writing these reports after each visit. 

We have continued our monthly visits to Lea Quarry on Wenlock Edge. We continued to find things of interest throughout the period, not necessarily wildlife, as I will come to later.

Our fungi expert arranged a couple of forays in Sutton Wood and Limekiln Woods and followed this up with a winter tree identification walk in Loamhole Dingle. 

On the whole the weather treated us well on all these visits. I do not know if there is a metrological explanation for this or it was just good fortune.

It was a beautiful day for our visit to Lea Quarry in January. However it had snowed and the quarry was cloaked in a substantial layer of the white stuff. We quickly abandoned our plans and just ambled around the quarry enjoying the picturesque sight provided by nature albeit in a man-made environment.

After a while our reverie was interrupted by a distant call on a hunting horn. We thought nothing more about it other than noticing subsequent occasional calls in the distance.

We lunched and as we wandered back we caught sight of horsemen in the fields across the valley – but no hounds. Where were they? We soon found out when we looked down from the quarry rim to see a pack of hounds had invaded the storage area of the fencing company that uses this part of the quarry. Then we saw a horseman in full hunt regalia trying to round them up.

He eventually succeeded and led the hounds back to the rest of the hunting party, who then made their way across a field (where the sheep had sensibly beaten a retreat to one corner) then out of sight.

The weather was dry but there was a bitter wind on our March visit to Lea Quarry. We concentrated on refreshing the pitfall traps and sampling in the regeneration area. Once that was done we decided to call it a day. However, one plant did poke its head above ground to let us know that Spring is just around the corner.

Keith Fowler (the author, not the plant! Which is probably a Coltsfoot (the plant, not the author) - ed.