The fates and weather were not kind to us for this last visit in May. There were several absentees due to accidents, hospital appointments, reaction to insect bites etc. and it was raining.
Three of us met with our hosts for the day in Earnwood Copse car park and remarkably quickly we were ready for the off.
We made our way along the main ride from the car park and soon came to a clearing with good lush but very wet vegetation.
What is going on in the bottom left-hand corner of the above photograph?
It turns out to be our Spider-Man adopting one of the main photographic positions (in the long wet grass) to take a snap of something.
What was it that had caught his attention?
A "green huntsman spider" Micrommata virescens.
 |
| Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett |
This is a nationally scarce spider but it seems to do very well in the Wyre. It is well camouflaged for sitting motionless in the foliage to ambush passing insects. This also make it very difficult to spot!
Another find in this area was the larva of the Common quaker moth.
 |
| Photograph: David Williams |
As we moved on we found an early Lurid bolete fungus.
One of the many things we check routinely is the underside of oak leaves. It is here that you may find the distinctive sputnik shaped egg-sac of the spider Paidiscura pallens. The photograph below shows the egg-sac and also the female spider that constructed it. It is quite an achievement for such a small spider.
 |
| Photograph: David Williams |
A rather beautifully marked moth was found in a tree - a Scorched wing.
 |
| Photograph: David Williams |
By now the rain had stopped and, apart from a few spots every now and then, the weather stayed dry. Unfortunately this could not be said of the vegetation. This remained wet all day making sweeping with a net difficult as it and what it swept became waterlogged. Beating had similar results with pools of water forming in the tray. Our best investigation technique was using our eyes.
We continued along the ride and came to the pipeline. Here a juvenile slow worm was located, looked at, not photographed, then returned from whence it came.
 |
| Formica ruf - Photograph: David Williams |
As we descended through the wood to the deer hide a male longhorn moth Nemophora degeerella was spotted on a leaf.
The deer hide resembles a bird hide except this one is glass fronted floor to ceiling. It is, however, unused at present. It overlooks a clearing with a wet flush in the valley leading to a small pond by the trees at the lowest point. Unfortunately it is now plagued by bracken.
But that bracken supports insects including the common moth Brown silver-line. A fine piece of observation spotted the treehopper Centrotus cornutus on the stem of one bracken shoot.
 |
| Photograph: David Williams |
Although it remained at its post whilst we inspected and photographed it, it appeared to be aware of what was going on as each time it was approached it moved around the stem to hide. The photographer did well to get a shot.
Nearby in a small patch of heather two spiders were mating. These were identified later as Neriene radiata.
 |
| Photograph: David Williams |
This is another rare spider.
No butterflies were flying but we did chance upon one in the vegetation - a Small pearl-bordered fritillary.
 |
| Photograph: David Williams |
At the back of the deer hide we noticed several egg-sacs hanging from the wood cladding.
 |
| Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett |
These were produced by a Liocranidae spider, but it is not possible to identify which species.
We left the deer hide and clearing and made our way back along the path and ride to the pipeline. Along the way we encountered the Green cucumber spider Araniella cucurbitina.
 |
| Photograph: David Williams |
We meandered along and across the pipeline inspecting the edge vegetation, occasionally beating it, rarely sweeping it. One casual beat of some heater tucked under a birch elicited a cry of disbelief from our Spider-Man.
"Strawberry spider!!"
This is a species he has been looking for, for a long time. It is known in the forest but it was a first for our man - and found by his own hand. Here it is, the (yet another nationally scarce spider) Araneus alsine.
 |
| Photograph: David Williams |
Time had sped by and it was well past our normal finish time but who cares, we were enjoying ourselves. One last beat produced a bristletail. A cool dude with large black eyes resembling sunglasses. Unfortunately we were not skilled enough to identify it beyond its genus which is Dilta.
 |
| Photograph: David Williams |
Yes. We eventually went home.
My thanks to the Forestry Commission for giving us permission to survey; to John and Denise Bingham for showing us the sights and to the photographers David Williams and Nigel Cane-Honeysett for taking such excellent photographs and allowing me to use them in this report.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to comment on this post...