Where's the chicory?

Marsh Mill, Wednesday, 15th August 2018

We were driving along, talking about temporary fencing, which seemed, at the time, an eminently suitable topic of conversation when we came up behind a stream of cars travelling up the hill from Buildwas to Much Wenlock travelling considerably slower than the 50 mph speed limit.

Approaching Much Wenlock cars peeled off so that by the time we reached the junction with the Shrewsbury - Bridgnorth road we were the car behind.

Unfortunately our collective thought transference powers failed to stop him going the same way as us. So we toddled along behind him along the Wenlock Edge, down through Longville and beyond. It was here that we noticed he was a 40-40 man. 40mph on the open derestricted roads and 40mph through 30mph restrictions; except any corner when the brakes came on without fail!

Eventually we were able to pass but as a result we arrived at our destination a little late.

Marsh Mill, one of the buildings, now residential, on the site of an old water mill and is on land sandwiched between the A49 and the Marsh Brook. Its grounds consist of gardens, a meadow and a field which is used as pasture for sheep.

We began our searching in some rough vegetation close to where we parked. Early finds were a Hawthorn shieldbug nymph in the hawthorn hedge and a Sloe bug and 14-spot ladybird amongst the vegetation.

From here we passed into the garden. Lots of plants to choose from here, but it is a garden so we searched carefully!!

The Laylandii hedge yielded the small assassin bug Empicoris vagabundus. (Click here for a description of this bug on the British Bugs website.)

An umbellifer was providing food for a sawfly.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

As a group we have nobody who can identify sawflies so if you know what it is please let me know.

The garden borders the brook so the opportunity was taken to do some "pond" dipping. This resulted in this distinctive patterned water beetle being captured.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

We are weak on beetle identification but looking through pictures we believe the species is Oreodytes sanmarkii. I am happy to be corrected.

A gate from the garden led to the meadow. 

The brook runs alongside it.

There was a circle of cut tree trunks at the start. 

The perfect site for lunch.

Refreshed and refuelled we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the meadow and its surrounding vegetation.

There were plenty of butterflies around, most of which were one form or other of white but we did find Small tortoiseshell:

Photograph: Bob Kemp

And, to our great surprise, a Wall:

Photograph: David Williams

There were grasshoppers bounding about and they lived up to their name as they were Meadow grasshoppers!

Photograph: Bob Kemp

A scorpion fly was captured. It was a female (pointed abdomen) so its identification was beyond us other than to say it was from the genus Panorpa.

Photograph: David Williams

There was dock about so we checked it for the presence of dock bugs. And, hey presto, here is a nymph!

Photograph: David Williams

The end of the meadow is signified by rougher vegetation and trees. A beat of a willow dislodged a longhorn beetle - Pogonocherus hispidus.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

At this point mention was made of tea and scones and the exploration drew to a close as we wended our way back to the house.

Arriving back we arranged ourselves on the steps to the garden and tucked in to our feast in the warm sun.

Photograph: Charlie Bell

My thanks to Charlie Bell for arranging this outing and providing the afternoon tea and to the photographers Bob Kemp, David Williams and Charlie for their photographs.

PS. I have a photograph of a chicory flower. I have no idea where it was taken but it was on the site somewhere!

Photograph: Bob Kemp