Oops!

Pole Bank, Wednesday 30th September

Pole Bank is one of, if not the highest point on the Long Mynd, so what better way than to end our series of weekly Joy of Wildlife walks than to stand atop the Long Mynd on a sunny early autumnal day?

Unfortunately, as we climbed up the Burway and onto the Portway it was clear(!) that we may not be standing at this summit later in the day as it was nowhere to be seen. Pole Bank was shrouded in mist.

Undaunted we carried on to Pole Cottage car park where, as we were a few minutes late, the others had already gathered. The mist had cleared and the sun was shining. But a second reason for perhaps not attaining the highest ground suggested itself as they were all huddled together like Emperor penguins on the Antarctic ice trying to keep warm in the near gale force easterly wind.

Should we change our plans and drop down to lower ground? After some dithering we decided to stay put, although the assault on the summit was shelved. Donning as many layers as possible we set off.

An early find were a couple of Harlequin ladybirds dislodged from the trees surrounding the Pole Cottage enclosure. One was the red and black spotty form, succinea, which seems to be the most common form, but the other was probably the 2-spot form conspicua.

Unfortunately, counting the number of spots on a ladybird does not always lead to the correct identification as spots can coalesce, so this may be the four spot form spectabilis whose spots have joined to form two big blobs. It is, however, a Harlequin!!

Behind Pole Cottage is a series of small pools and wet ditches and these attracted the attention of the Really Nice Spiderman (a title he earned when in our earlier days he identified spiders in the field for us). This is not to denigrate the immense knowledge of the Great Spider Hunter, but as the County Recorder and officer of the British Arachnological Society he had to toe the party line and insist that only 18 could be done in the field. Older and wiser now there are many more species he is willing to commit to.

Having taken this photograph I found the aforementioned Great Spider Hunter hurtling towards me, tray in hand, to show me a “dung” shieldbug nymph.

It was the last instar, the stage prior to becoming an adult, of a Green shield bug. It appeared to be feeding on the contents of the dung as its rostrum was inserted into it.

I swept a ditch and collected a couple of craneflies, one of which, Tipula staegeri, has rather impressive, how shall we put this without offending too many people, male bits. Sorry no picture. In the same net was a Black darter which, after I released it just clung to the vegetation as it seemingly tried to avoid being blown into Wales.

Another common find was the larvae of Broom moths, even though there was no Broom to be seen. 
Clearly it has be misnamed.

Lunch was taken by one of the pools as we took in the slightly hazy but stunning views of the Stiperstones and other hills to the west.

After lunch we headed back to the road passing some horses who had decided to take a lunchtime drink.

We crossed the road to follow one of the seepages that becomes one of the streams that flows into Ashes Hollow. Here the habitat was slightly different with Bracken becoming the dominant plant on the banks of the seepage/stream, with rushes dominating the wetter areas.

“If you go near any water, do not fall in” is usually the crux of any health and safety advice I give at the start of the walk, so it was rather embarrassing to say the least that as I was sweeping the gulley I failed to notice the watery area in front of me ...

Fortunately only one foot went in, and also fortunately I was wearing wellingtons and the water was about an inch below the top. So no harm done. Or so I thought.

I tried to pull my foot out, it would not budge. I looked around for something to pull myself out on or with. There was nothing.

And then I realised that my foot was sinking as I felt my foot go cold and wet; the water had just topped the wellingtons. 

As there were people around I decided that rather than get wetter by sitting down and pulling my foot out it would be easiest to call for aid.

“Help!”

No-one took any notice.

I tried again.

Still no response. My foot was now very wet as was my leg. Do I need to resort to 6 blasts on my Safety Whistle to summon International Rescue?

Then I saw the Really Nice Spiderman, so I called to him and he came to my rescue helping me out, less my wellington, then retrieving my wellington and even emptying it.

As I sat on the bank, after wringing out my socks and draining the last few drops of flowing water from the wellingtons, drying my foot in the sun having learnt a salutary lesson, I decided to upgrade my rescuer to The Really Really Nice Spiderman.

We stayed a while longer then repaired to a public house in Church Stretton to reminisce and discuss sites for next year.

My thanks naturally go to the National Trust for granting us permission to do what we enjoy doing on this visit and to all the other land owners and managers who have willingly agreed to our presence throughout this series of walks.

But the main thrust of my gratitude is to all the people who have come on the walks throughout the last six months (about 40 by my estimation) and made my experience and, I hope, theirs so enjoyable. Thank you.

All being well we will do the same again next year.

During the “off-season” we will still be active. We have monthly trips to Lea Quarry on the third Wednesday of each month and we have a couple of fungus forays in October. If anyone wants to arrange any other activates please let me know.

Thank you for reading these offerings. See you next April.

Keith Fowler