Wrekin Forest Volunteers: It had to happen

4 Jul 2021

It had to happen

Sunday, 4th July 2021

After 10 years or so of arranging the Joy of Wildlife outings it finally happened ...

A trip had to be rearranged at the last minute due to "circumstances beyond our control". The planned trip will now take place next year.

By a stroke of good fortune, whilst we were at Colemere a few weeks ago one of the group was approached by a visitor to the site. As a result of their conversation we were invited to survey their site.

So we did.

The site was a large field in Quina Brook that was purchased from a local farmer about fifteen years ago. Since then, with the help of friends, the owners have planted several thousand trees on the site and allow the vegetation to develop.

The following photographs show what can be achieved from a field if you try hard enough.

Photograph: Matthew Heath

Before we visited I checked the invertebrate records for the area that contained the site and found that there were very few - several species of butterfly and one or two others. Thus, just about all the records we would make on the day would be "new" to that area.

We parked and met in the field close to the entrance. As we were gathering everyone together some early finds were made in the vegetation around the "car park".

A longhorn beetle - Agapanthia villosoviridescens:

Photograph: David Williams

A 2-spot ladybird:

Photograph: David Williams

In the meantime one member of the group was inspecting his car. He produced a template, placed it on his front number plate and took a photograph.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

He was taking part in Buglife's "Bugs Matter" project. At the start of a journey the number plate is cleaned. Once the journey is completed the "splatometer" is placed over the plate, a photograph taken and the number of bugs "splatted" on the number plate counted. The results are reported to Buglife.

More information about the scheme can be found by following this link: Bugs Matter.

On this journey, which was about 30 miles, you can see ONE unfortunate bug by the top of the 6.

Just one bug!!

What an appallingly low number.

It would be great to think that all the others flying around saw him coming and got out of the way to avoid disaster but that would be fanciful!

Another discovery in the areas around the cars was a black soldier beetle Cantharis flavilabris.

Photograph: David Williams

Eventually leaving the cars behind we followed one of the paths into a large clearing. At the far end were some birches where a Birch shieldbug was in residence.

Photograph: David Williams

And nearby was a rolled up leaf stuck to another leaf.

Photograph: David Williams

If you unroll the leaf you will find the larva of a moth. It uses the leaf as protection as it feeds on the live leaf. In this instance the moth larva species was probably Coleophora serratella.

Around the same area we found a spindle, parts of which were cloaked in silk and larvae.

Photograph: David Williams

The larvae are another moth species and are named after the tree on which they are found - Spindle ermine.

One of the rituals of our visits is to inspect the underside of oak leaves.

What are we looking for?

This ...

Photograph: David Williams

The egg sac of the spider Paidiscura pallens - which is shaped, for those of you old enough to remember, like a sputnik. The spider that produced the egg sac is at its side.

The spider is smaller than the egg sac!

Truly amazing.

Time was marching on ...

And stomachs were pleading for food.

We moved into a more open area and settled down for lunch.

The weather in the morning had been excellent - blue skies and warm sun - but it now clouded over and stayed that way until the end of the day.

But we were not deterred.

The vegetation close to where we lunched yielded a Blue bug nymph. Later an adult was found which was tucking into its lunch.

Photograph: David Williams

Still in the same area we found another shieldbug nymph, this time a Spiked shieldbug.

Photograph: David Williams

Wandering further from the lunch site into the longer grass a larva was observed, put in a tray (to stop it running away or, very likely, falling off into the dense undergrowth never to be found again) and photographed. With the help of the county micro-moth recorder it was identified as the larva of the Timothy tortrix moth.

Photograph: David Williams

Time to move on.

Leaving the field I noticed the purple and yellow flowers of Bittersweet in amongst the vegetation.

The last area for our exploration was a clearing in young trees where the grass had been cut. One of the more mature trees was a silver birch which provided us with two more species of shieldbugs.

First there was a Parent bug with its recent hatchlings then nearby this one tending its eggs.

Photograph: David Williams

Not far away from these were more shieldbug eggs:

Photograph: David Williams

These are the eggs of a Bronze shieldbug.

In the same area beating a small Scot's pine dislodged a Pine ladybird. The ladybird was placed back on the tree to have its photograph taken.

Photograph: David Williams

And finally on another Scot's Pine, close to the first, we noticed this large finger-tip:

Photograph: David Williams

Sorry.

The finger-tip was not the chosen subject.

It was the ladybird larva next to it. An Eyed ladybird.

And so our outing drew to a close.

An excellent day. Although the grassland may not be the high quality flower rich meadow so beloved by the botanists it more than made up for it in the number and variety of invertebrates it supported.

My thanks to the owners of the site for allowing us to visit at such short notice and do what we enjoy doing. As always I would not be able to produce these reports without the photographers who kindly provide their photographs for my use.