Keep Out!

 Wednesday 11th February 2026, Blackbridge Quarry

Blackbridge Quarry, near Llynclys, is a Shropshire Wildlife Trust reserve but you won’t find it listed on their website. It is a locked site, access being prohibited on safety grounds.

photo: Keith Fowler

Fortunately, we were allowed access for the day and were lent the key to the very no-nonsense entrance gate, which is accessed via some rather vertiginous steps, having first climbed through a distinctly unwelcoming wire fence. The ‘Keep Out’ message is made very clear!

photo: Keith Fowler

The weather on arrival was its usual self ie wet. Heavy rain started with perfect timing as we parked up and continued as we trudged to the site entrance. Discussion centred on how long we were going to endure the conditions and whether we should have just cancelled the day in the first place. But a miraculous thing happened when we finally managed to let ourselves into the quarry. The rain stopped! Well, mostly. There were a few showers thereafter and of course everything was soaked. But umbrellas were put away and patches of blue sky appeared.

photos: Liz Roberts and Nigel Jones

The first part of the site to be examined was a grassy area leading to scree at the foot of a quarry face.

photo: Keith Fowler

Blackbridge is known for its botanical excellence. One very conspicuous plant in evidence was Stinking Hellebore, which is at its showy best at this time of year.

photo:  John Martin

Mosses were also much in evidence, including Neckera crispa

photo: John Martin

And Didymodon insulans.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Moving on to things which photosynthesize but are not plants, this intriguing green slime, present in some quantity, was much remarked upon. It is apparently a species of Nostoc cyanobacteria, though in a slightly unusual form.

Cladonia fimbriata

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a Peltigera species were just two of the many lichens present.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Among the fungi, this Crepidotus species

photo: Liz Roberts

And a Dryad’s Saddle both attracted the attention of photographers.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

As did this fabulous slime mould (which is not a fungus at all) which we believe may be Trichia meylanii.

photo: John Martin

Moving to the animal kingdom, an early and slightly unexpected find from the vacuum samplers was a Crucifer Shieldbug, a species which moved northward into Shropshire a few years ago and is becoming more widespread.

The inevitable 7-spot Ladybirds were present in good numbers

But were outnumbered by the invasive Harlequins (boo!) who seemed to be aggregating on the quarry face.

It was nice to find a 2-spot Ladybird. The Harlequin seems to have had a particularly severe impact on 2-spot numbers since its arrival a couple of decades ago so it is heartening to report that 2-spots seem to be staging a limited revival of sorts, whilst Harlequins may have peaked and are possibly declining a little.          

An unexpected find on the quarry face was a Grey Shoulder-knot moth. We found a second one roosting on a large boulder later in the day.

Morning turned to afternoon and brought with it the inevitable thoughts of lunch, which we decided to take in the farther quarry area, reached via a narrow pass between the cliffs. The weather was still alternating between threatening and pleasant.

photos: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

The afternoon was spent in this second area, vacuuming the vegetation on the quarry floor. One species which we seem to be finding more regularly in recent times is the Moss Lacebug, Acalypta parvula. At barely 2mm  long, I suspect that we may have just been overlooking it in the past.

Ants rarely feature in these reports. Today I have photos of two of them. Firstly Myrmica ruginodis,  a common species of grassland.

photo:  Nigel Cane-Honeysett

The second species was one of the finds of the day though - in fact only the second record of it in Shropshire. It is Myrmecina graminicola, a small, grassland species. The other Record is from nearby Dolgoch Quarry in very similar habitat.

Our fly man had an excellent day. I will let him describe it in his own words:
A good day for me. The ant was a great find, and I also discovered a near record breaking 15 species of Lesser Dung Flies, including the scarce Coproica acutangula. A second county record with not very many records in UK. The previous Shrops record was from our 2023 trip to Ifton Meadows. It’s a bizarre little fly that has eyelashes on the posterior edge of the wing – image attached.

photo:  Nigel Jones

Some excellent finds to end a day which had started in a very unpromising manner.         

 
 
 
Photographs © the author except as noted.