We finally made it.
After months of emails to and from me and Telford and Wrekin Council, with considerable help from Shropshire Wildlife Trust, to arrange access seven of us assembled close to the entrance to the site on a lovely summer's day. With no car park to inspect we made haste and walked the fifty yards or so to the fence that stood between us and Stoney Hill.
To be fair the fence was not a great obstacle, but it had to be negotiated. Once in we were greeted by a sea of healthy looking heather. The only concern being the amount of birch scrub and bramble that were springing up, but some timely judicious "conservation" work should reduce their threat. But can this be arranged?
We were soon "at work" looking for things that were of interest to us.
One target species for the day was Roesel's bush-cricket. With the help of a bat detector to track the song of the male, a long monotonous mechanical sound, which is audible to youngsters but not we oldies, some were soon located.
The early sighting of a Brown hawker reminded us that the site contained several pools and may be a good one for damselflies and dragonflies. So it proved and thanks to the brilliant photographic skills of some of the group (I exclude myself here) some excellent images were captured.
Emerald damselfly (male).
Emerald damselfly (female)
Common hawker (female)
Common darter (female and male, busy making the next generation)
The pools contained bulrushes ...
and on bulrushes you often find the bug Chilacis typhae on or in the seed heads.
Our spiderman was stumped identifying a tricky species of spider and was found reading a field guide for inspiration.
Time was passing quickly, we must have moved about 50 yards from the entrance when lunch was declared, not by me for once as I was engrossed in my searching.
By the time I decided to eat lunch the others had finished and decided to move on.
As I had missed, obviously, the usual engrossing talk about cameras I was left this to read.
I gave it a miss! Instead I watched a spider start to build a web. Unfortunately it chose the path where we were walking for its construction. I did try to warn it but it took no notice.
After lunch we switched our attention to an area of more established heather and woodland habit at the other side of the site. But three of the group had wandered afar so I set off in search of them. Eventually the heather gave way to rough grassland.
Here the dominant flora was fleabane. On the fleabane we found a common blue butterfly ...
and a lucerne bug.
But the most exciting find, not on the fleabane, was lesser marsh grasshopper. This is only the second site in Shropshire where it has been recorded.
The other site?
The Coalmoor landfill site about 300 yards to the west.
Having reassembled the group we walked 100 yards or so to the other area. Here the trees and heather are more mature and there are several bare areas. We continued our search for things of interest. A male oak bush-cricket was found on oak and photographed on the sleeve of the Orthoptera recorder.
By now, in the heat of the day, fatigue had begun to make its presence felt.
We prepared to return home when a bug was noticed scuttling across the ground. It was another exciting find ... a heather shieldbug. I have been given two excellent photographs and cannot choose which to use, so have included both. Please indulge me.
The best I could manage was this ...
Beware! Photographers at work.
This brought an end to an enjoyable day on an excellent site, well worth the effort of gaining permission to visit. Thank you.
Thank you also to David Williams, Bob Kemp and Jim Cresswell who provided many of the photographs.
Dothill LNR - Friday 26th August 2016
On this occasion four of us gathered on Donnerville Close where the site can be accessed through a small plantation. Heavy overnight rain had left the ground very wet so wellingtons were the order of the day.
The plantation gives way to a large area of rough grassland which we spent the next couple of hours exploring with our usual diligence.
One worrying feature was the bank of Himalayan balsam that borders the grassland. The Friends of Dothill mount regular "pulling" sessions so get in touch with them if you want to help. That said the flowers are very attractive and frequently visited by bees.
The area is a dog-walkers paradise and, regrettably, not all dog owners are good at clearing up after their pets and the paths and their immediate borders are strewn with the after-effects of dog food. I had several near misses where I did not spot the offensive remains; fortunately I was lucky - I am not sure about the others. Please, please CLEAR UP AFTER YOUR DOG.
Rant over.
Early finds were dock bug nymphs.
Dock bugs were found frequently throughout the day so they are clearly at home on this site.
Many spiders were found. We managed to identify some of the easier ones including this Araneus quadratus (I hope that is correct) a relation of the familiar garden spider
A common sight amongst the thistles were the galls of the picture-wing fly Urophora cardui. These are large and easy to spot.
A pale tussock moth larva was found.
We lunched within sight of the Wrekin ...
with a Buzzard keeping its eye on us.
Lunch over we moved through a rather gloomy plantation to another area of rough grassland.
Here I found an oak that was festooned with galls. I found six species amongst the low branches and there were probably many others that I did not spot. Here are the ones I photographed.
Artichoke gall, a gall of the bud caused by the gall wasp Andricus foecundatrix.
Knopper gall, a gall of the acorn caused by the gall wasp Andricus quercuscalicis.
Silk-button galls, a button-shaped gall of the leaf caused by the gall wasp Neuroterus numismalis. Also a single common spangle gall (see the next photograph).
Common spangle galls, caused by the gall wasp Neuroterus quercusbaccarum. And in the top left hand corner the downward fold, which I did not realise was a gall until I was checking the names of the other galls, caused by the fly Macrodiplosis pustularis.
We looked around the grassland for a while before returning to our cars after a successful day.
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