Yellow triangles

Lea Quarry, Wednesday 16th September
(Tuesday 15th September)

“Yes”

“I’ve just looked at the weather map and it is covered in Yellow triangles for tomorrow. Is the walk going ahead?”

“Yes. I’ll be going; I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you want to come along.”

“Oh”

“It’s a joint walk with the fungus group and they may well look for fungi in the rain.”

“Oh, OK. I’ll see what it’s like in the morning.”

(Wednesday 16th September)
Eleven of us met in the car park of Edge Renewables on a DRY but cool and grey day, including the caller from yesterday. We wrapped up well and set off, with little regard for the flora and fauna of the car park, for the “regeneration” area.

We soon spread out. Some forged ahead to the target area; others dawdled; and the fungi group went a different way - to inspect the log piles. We passed some cultivated poppies on one of the many waste piles.

We went up to the entrance to what we have christened the “hidden quarry” which holds a grassland rich in plant and insect life. We did not go in as the pile of bark waste that made entry difficult last month, had grown further and cut off any access other than over the top, which we did not fancy attempting.

We continued on our way. We found a mystery Alder, which, having checked my book of trees at home, is probably an Italian Alder, on which I found a Green shieldbug.

We continued on our way.

It is a long walk from the car park to the regeneration area.

I descended to the quarry floor where I peered at the logs awaiting processing, beat and swept a few trees, finding little, and then wandered over to the pool. The pool was smooth and gave good reflections of the quarry face and trees.

Eventually most of us gathered in the regeneration area. I was presented with a bug to identify. It was a Water Measurer, a very long thin insect, a bit like half a tooth-pick with eyes. Sorry I did not photograph it but there are plenty of examples on the Internet if you are interested.

A few had coffee; others looked for things of interest; and some just watched the world go by. One of the group distributed very nice chocolate biscuits. It was that sort of day.

We dispersed again then reconvened about half an hour later for lunch.

We peered into the distance – was that Brown Clee or Titterstone Clee we could see under the brighter sky? I really must learn which is which.

The fungi group appeared, then disappeared again as they went to explore another area of the quarry.

Lunch over, we continued to scour the area before moving on. We climbed to the top of the quarry where we found hundreds of woodlice by turning over loose stones. Each stone seemed to have its own community. With some effort we managed to identify one as a Common shiny woodlouse.

The sun came out and it was pleasantly warm. So much for the Yellow Triangles. However, our time was soon up; we made our way back to the cars and home.

Keith Fowler