In April the quarry’s flora was dominated by cowslips, primroses and violets. In May these had to a large extent been replaced by flowers of a purple hue. For this visit the dominant plants were Bird’s-foot trefoil and Ox-eye daisy. The Bird’s-foot trefoil was everywhere and had even managed to establish patches on the moonscape of the “regeneration” area.
Ten of us gathered in the car park at Lea Quarry on a grey, cool day. As has become the fashion the Great Spider Hunter set off for the “regeneration” area, this time taking the Great Shieldbug Finder as his apprentice and porter. The rest of us took the next two hours to meander over the grasslands before joining them for lunch.
As befits any site the first part of the day for the main group was spent in the car park. Moving out of the car park onto the track that leads to the grassland behind the offices we found Dyer’s greenweed coming into flower.
We moved on to the grassland and dispersed to search out things that interested us.
One of the insects we found in abundance was the Swollen-thighed beetle, Oedemera nobilis. The male of this species is very distinctive being long and thin, shiny metallic blue/green with bloated thighs. Often we saw them on Ox-eye daisy.
We moved on to another grassland where the Bird’s-foot trefoil and Ox-eye daisies were very well established.
And in amongst the sea of green, white and yellow were to be found several spikes of purple in the form of Pyramidal orchids.
Time was marching on so we made our way towards the end of the quarry to meet up with the other two members of the group and, of course, have lunch. When we arrived the Great Shieldbug Finder, who if truth be told had been a little off form recently, presented me with three bugs. A Green shieldbug, a Dock bug and a “star” – a Denticulate leatherbug. He is back in top form!
This bug has a slimmer look to it than the more familiar Dock bug and the edge of its pronotum has a series of white spines. The spines are visible in the following photograph.
As far as I was concerned this find would be hard to beat but the afternoon’s sightings ran it close.
We decided to venture onto new territory. Between the processing and regeneration areas there is a path that leads gently up to the top of the quarry where there was a small quarry face and a flattish area of grassland bordering the Shropshire Way footpath.
Although we have been given permission to access this area the foot of the path was blocked by a locked gate. What to do? Climb it? Climb the fence next to it?
No – take it off its hinges!
We did remember to put it back on its hinges when we left.
At the top, the sun came out, the temperature rose significantly and we were rewarded with sightings of several butterflies including Wall brown and Green hairstreak; the long-horn beetle Anaglyptus mysticus; Pyramidal orchids; Bee orchids and a Broad-bodied chaser.
A bonus that the elevation afforded was of a different view of the quarry to the one thatwe are used to.
We descended from our lofty position, replaced the gate, made our way back to the cars and then wended our way home.
Keith Fowler
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