Lunch & Study

Wednesday 12th June, Wintles, Bishop's Castle

Wintles is an area of Bishop’s Castle. Its residents collectively own a 13 acre area of woodland, planted about 20 years ago on former pasture, which includes large areas of grassland, an orchard and some allotments.

Slow traffic on the windy road from Melverley towards Bishop’s Castle meant that, although I thought we had allowed enough time for delays, we arrived 5 – 10 minutes late.

Everyone else was there and waiting for us!

If only we had set off 2 minutes earlier, we too would have been on time (possibly).

However, the time waiting for us was not wasted as the group were busying themselves inspecting the rather good verge at the side of the road on the border of the site.

Eventually everyone was ready, and we entered the site, guided by one of the owners.

We set off in bright warm sunshine and this brought out insects which were spotted on the vegetation bordering the path. 

Pausing by some allotments a few of the group went in to look at a recently dug pool which is already home to some water beetles. A few pond skaters posed on the surface.

From the allotments we continued along the path through a small, dark and dingy, vegetated former quarry (known as Spooky Quarry) to emerge at the foot of a mound that has been named The Motte.

Here a handy seat provided a resting spot before the short but steep climb to the top of The Motte.

Once on top there was a splendid view over the surrounding countryside.

As you will see from the photograph above, the sun had disappeared behind the clouds. But this was temporary, and the sun was out again before we left this part of the site.

The top, sides and base of The Motte were thoroughly inspected for invertebrate life. 

Some examples of what we found:

A Gorse shieldbug which was observed on Bramble;

Photograph: David Williams

An earwig nymph, not the usual Common earwig, but the less common Lesne’s earwig;

Photograph: David Williams

And a largish bee-mimicking hoverfly, Volucella bombylans.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

Before moving on lunch was taken.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

As you can see, we were having a nice social break, but one person is leering intently into a tray whilst another is peering through a lens trying to identify the tiny creature that the first person has given him.

The photographer has aptly entitled this as “Lunch and Study”.

The title reminded me, for no particular reason, of the song that was popular when I was very, very young – “Love and Marriage” which went together like a “Horse and Carriage”. I seem to remember it being sung by Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson.

Try as they might I do not think that they could have worked the words “Lunch and Study” into the lyrics!

According to Wikipedia they were our entrants in the Eurovision Song Contest with a song called “Sing Little Birdie”. They were far more successful than most of our entrants as they cane second.

It turns out the song was first performed by Frank Sinatra in 1955.

I digress.

As we prepared to leave the lunch and study spot our fly man returned from a foray rather excited. He thought he had found, Elachiptera brevipennis, a small tiny winged fly that he had yearned to find.

Unfortunately, that species still eludes him as, on closer inspection later in the day, it turned out to be a different species, Stiphrosoma sabulosum. Still, it was a new record for the county.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

Eventually, with some cajoling, we all left our cosy lunch spot and made our way through some plantation woodland to another grassland that surrounded the orchard.

A few ventured into the orchard, which was laid out as a labyrinth, whilst some stayed in the grassland area.

Here we found a small ladybird, Nephus redtenbacheri.

Photograph: David Williams

And it may have been in this area that another fly, Wagneria gagatea, was observed.

Photograph: Nigel Jones

This is a scarce fly but, for some reason, it is not so scarce in Shropshire.

Continuing our journey we made our way to a large meadow. On our way we passed one of the few butterflies that we saw, a Common blue, which was just passing the time of day in the grass.

And then some more shieldbug action as, firstly, a Small grass shieldbug was discovered followed almost immediately by a Tortoise bug.

Here they are, the Small grass shieldbug is on the right.

Photograph: David Williams

In the meadow we came across several nymphal grasshoppers. Here is a 4th instar nymph of a Common green grasshopper.

Photograph: David Williams

And finally, a species that put in appearances throughout the day, a majestic Red kite.

Photograph: David Williams

We had a very enjoyable day in a good site. Rather like the previous week there was a worrying lack of abundance of species, highlighted by the abysmal number of butterflies. Rather like High Leasowes I do not think it reflects the site but is a symptom of a dearth of invertebrates generally.

My thanks to the owners of for granting us permission to enjoy ourselves and to the photographers for providing their excellent images for this report.