It's the Sytch, not the Stych

Tibberton, The Sytch - Wednesday, 16th May 2018

Continuing on the confusion from last week when we were visiting one of the two Berrington Halls, this week we visited The Sytch. In all my preparation for the visit I had been calling it The Stych. Until we went no-one pointed out my incorrect naming ... so when someone did point out that it was called The Sytch I vehemently denied it!

Eventually I was persuaded. It is "The Sytch". My apologies to all concerned.

The Sytch is a privately owned wood near Tibberton. We had been invited by the owner to have a look around and report on what we found.

The wood is on former heathland and a previous use as a nursery has produced an interesting mix of natural woodland and plantation. 

The eastern end is more open but dominated by birch. The central area is plantation with mainly conifers but some deciduous trees such as whitebeam. The western end is denser woodland with some good patches of bluebells and contains a small pool.

We were met by the owner and after the usual delays chatting and getting ready we were taken on a "half-hour" tour of the site.

90 minutes later we were back where we started!

We are incapable of just walking around a site to take a look. We are addicted to investigating every tree and bit of vegetation as we go along. Here are some of the things we found on this initial tour.

Mating Parent bugs on a birch tree:

Photograph: David Williams

Following mating the female Parent bug will lay her eggs in a clutch on a leaf. After laying she lives up to her name by tending the eggs and, when hatched, the early stages of the nymphs

The cranefly Tipula submarmoarata which is commonly found in woodland:

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

Lepidoptera larvae were abundant. There were several species present but the most frequently encountered were

Mottle umber:

Photograph: David Williams

And Winter moth:

Photograph: David Williams

The Winter moth larva were in such huge numbers that they could be regarded as a pest, striping leaves and shrouding trees in silk. They even made beating and sweeping trees whilst looking for other invertebrates a hazard as after each beat or sweep one had to remove several of their larva from one's clothing.

The highlight of the tour was the Trash-line spider, Cyclosa conica.

Spot the spider? - Photograph: David Williams

This spider has been encountered before - at Shavington, when it conveniently wandered into a tray - but this is the first time we had found it on a web, with, as it colloquial name suggests, a line of trash (American). Here is a close-up of the spider (it's at the centre):

Photograph: David Williams

The trash appeared to be the remains of its meals plus other bits of detritus.

What is it for? Is it a boast to attract a member of the opposite sex? "Look how good I am at catching prey!" Or is it merely to camouflage the spider as it awaits its next victim?

Tour over, we were back at the cars .... and it was time for lunch.

Lunch over we started looking around the wood again!

Avoiding the worst of the winter moth infected trees, these are some of the things we managed to locate and identify.

Starting with the smallest - the springtail Allacma fusca and attendant unidentified mite just behind its head:

Photograph: David Williams

Brown silver-line, often found flying during the day around bracken:

Photograph: David Williams

The picturesque cranefly Epiphragma ocellare:

Photograph: David Williams

A Forest bug nymph.

Photograph: David Williams

Shieldbugs normally overwinter as adults. Forest bugs are unusual in that they overwinter as nymphs, making identification at this time of the year easy!

Our first Grammoptera ruficornis of the year, a longhorn beetle often found in hawthorn flowers.

Composite photograph: David Williams

A bee - Andrena haemorrhoa

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

And finally, many tiny, very early instar, Oak bush-cricket nymphs. These were found in the leaf litter, which is unexpected, as they live in the canopy of trees. Perhaps they had fallen off.

Photograph: David Williams

The day drew to a close and we prepared to leave the site. Unfortunately many Winter moth larvae had descended onto the cars. Lots were removed before we went, but many remained unnoticed.

As we were driving along larvae appeared from under the bonnet and climbed onto the windscreen only to be blown off as we sped along. However several made it to our homes and had to be removed.

Another excellent day made even better with the frequent calls from at least two cuckoos, one quite close, possibly in the wood, and a second, maybe a third more distant.

My thanks to the owners of the wood for allowing us access and to Jim Shaw for making the arrangements. My appreciation, as always, to the photographers for allowing me to use their photographs.