The cats have turned

Crickheath Meadow, Wednesday 17th April 2019

OK, I arrived one minute late.

Yes, a whole sixty seconds after the declared meet time.

And did everyone wait for me (as I would have waited for them)?

No.

As I turned the final corner of the lane leading to the site a number of the group were seen disappearing onto the meadow.

The cats had turned!

Obviously they were extremely keen to get on with it and make the most of the clement April weather. 

And who can blame them? It promised to be an unseasonably warm day.

Crickheath Meadow is part of Crickheath Hill above Pant that has recently been acquired by the Shropshire Wildlife Trust to extend their Llynclys reserve. The meadow consists of two connected grassland areas with a few scattered trees bordered by hedgerow trees.

At this point I would normally include a photograph of the site but my camera is broken and none of the other photographers had the right camera lens on to take general views. Sorry.

There had been a heavy dew overnight making sweeping for insects in the grass difficult but abundant numbers of the planthopper Euscelis incisus were found in the longer grasses and rougher vegetation.

In the shorter vegetation we found solitary bees looking for nest sites / nesting / searching for mates / feeding. Some of the ones we saw were:

Andrena chrysosceles:

Photograph: David Williams

Probably another Andrena chrysosceles:

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

Andrena nitida: 

Photograph: David Williams

Bombus sylvestris:

Photograph: David Williams

Amongst the others seen were tawny mining bee, Andrena fulva, the ashy mining bee, Andrena cineraria, and several bumble bees.

A stone was turned over to reveal a nest of common earwigs, Forficula auricularia.

Photograph: David Williams

The female earwig can be seen on the left hand side of the photograph and the nymphs to her right. The female tends the eggs during their development, cleaning them to ensure that they do not become prey to fungal growth. Once hatched the female will remain with the nymphs as they develop. A close up of the nymphs is below.

Photograph: David Williams

There was not a great deal of floral interest showing in the first grassland but the second was littered with cowslips just about to flower. There were also emerging leaves for twayblades and possibly common spotted orchid. Another plant in flower was wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa.

Photograph: David Williams

Vacuum sampling the grassland and areas around the trees captured a carabid beetle:

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a hoverfly which is probably a Brachyopa scutellaris.

Photograph: David Williams

We also found the spider with what appear to be two cones disfiguring its abdomen Gibbaranea gibbosa.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

It was time to move on and as I tried to round everyone up for the second part of our day's adventure I noticed that there was considerable interest in one particular tree trunk. When I ventured over to look I was shown two hoverflies of the species Fernandea cuprea, mating. Fortunately we were able to record the event.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Crickheath Meadow borders Blackbridge Quarry and whilst it was not my original intention to go to the quarry on this trip I had been able to make last minute arrangements with Shropshire Wildlife Trust to gain access to the quarry.

We have visited Blackbridge Quarry previously and it has proven an excellent site for invertebrates. 

First things first, however, lunch was consumed.

 

The omens were good for our post-lunch activities as a 7-spot ladybird and a number of Sloe bugs, Dolycoris baccarum, appeared at our feet as we ate.

Photograph; David Williams

Photograph: David Williams

Unfortunately this early optimism was not matched by reality and finding spiders and insects was surprisingly quite difficult. We tried various excuses - it's too dry; it's too early in the season; etc. but there was just not much about. I do hope that this is not a foretaste of how it is going to be throughout this summer.

Back to what we did find and photograph. A jumping spider - I have not been told the species but looking at the pictures and the characteristics in Britain's Spiders (*) it may be Euophrys frontalis. I look forward to being corrected!

Photograph: David Williams

And a rather attractively marked common groundhopper, Tetrix undulata:

Photograph: David Williams

To remind us that we were in a quarry and that old quarries can be dangerous we noted that since our last visit a huge slab had detached itself from near the top of one of the quarry faces and crashed to the floor.

Nearby a thrush had set up its restaurant leaving the remains of snails scattered about the place.

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

Well, it was now that time again. The time to take our leave and return home. So we did.

My thanks to Shropshire Wildlife Trust for granting us permission to visit these sites, especially as one of the requests was made two days beforehand. Thank you to the photographers, Nigel Cane-Honeysett, David Williams, Bob Kemp and Jim Cresswell for providing the photographs that I have used.

* Britain's Spiders, A Field Guide - Lawrence Bee, Geoff Oxford and Helen Smith; published Princeton University Press as part of the WildGuides series.