Wednesday 22nd July 2026, Mowley Valley, North Herefordshire
At the risk of repeating myself, this was another
hot, dry, sunny day. By now, as I hardly need to say, much of the scenery had
taken on a distinctly straw-coloured look (and not just because a lot of it
was, in fact, straw):
This was an ‘away day’ over the border into Herefordshire,
to a large, curving, flat-bottomed valley of the River Arrow, with flood
meadows and steep, wooded sides. This extensive site is an active rewilding
project and promises much of interest.
Emerging from our vehicles after a longish journey
which was further complicated by an unwelcome road closure, it was immediately
apparent from the noise that the grassland was full of grasshoppers and
crickets. Specifically Roesel’s Bush-crickets (everywhere but nearly impossible
to see) and Meadow Grasshoppers. Almost the first insect seen was this particular Meadow Grasshopper.
This species is usually flightless and short
winged, especially in the female. But the above female is a macropter – a fully winged,
flying form which tends to be produced at high population densities and in prolonged warm weather. This is what a female Meadow Grasshopper usually looks
like (like all grasshoppers, colours are very variable):
The first area of exploration for most of the
group was an uncut meadow which has had a number of scrapes created at its far
end (relative to our entry point). This whole area floods in winter, the
scrapes then retaining water for much of the year. We worked our way towards them, around
and across the field, wading through enormous numbers of grasshoppers. One
particularly eye-catching find en route was this teneral Dock Bug in fetching
shades of pink.
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| photo: John Lyden |
In due course the scrapes were reached. A few
of us had made a reconnaissance trip here in March, when they were all marvellously
full of toadspawn. They looked rather different now, but most were still
holding at least some water and revealed themselves to be a bit of a
dragonfly-fest. This produced much long-lens-type camera action, with the
following results. I hope you like pictures of Odonata…
Emperor Dragonfly
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| photo: John Martin |
Southern Hawker
Black-tailed Skimmer (an accommodating species
which perches a lot!)
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| photo: John Lyden |
Common Darter
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| photo: John Martin |
Ruddy Darter
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| photo: John Lyden |
And some damselflies, starting with what I believe is a new one
for the site – Emerald Damselfly
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| photo: John Martin |
Common Blue Damselfly
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| photo: John Lyden |
And finally, Blue-tailed Damselfly
All of the above are males. Females tend to
keep away from waterbodies until they are ready to mate, to avoid constant
harassment from the males.
Odonates didn’t have the airspace all to
themselves. Several fledgling Swallows were making low passes over the water, grazing the surface.
The edges of the scrapes also produced
interest, including many Slender Groundhoppers
Plus several flies, including the spotty-eyed Hoverfly
Eristalinus sepulchralis
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| photo: John Martin |
And a Muscid fly of the genus Lispe.
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| photo: John Martin |
Time to move on, into the valley proper. Here,
the meadows had been mown, but pleasingly wide margins left for the wildlife.
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| photo: John Lyden |
Before long we had become rather strung out
through this extensive valley, so much so that I lost sight of anyone ahead of,
or behind me. Abandoning hope of finding anyone in the near future, I chanced
upon a bench, very handily placed in the shade, and broke into my sandwich box.
In due course, munching and contemplating the view, I became aware of a small
brown bird doing the ‘flycatcher thing’, from a tree on the opposite side of
the meadow, at the edge of the woodland. Perched on a high branch, it periodically
darted out, caught something then circled back again to its starting point. I
aimed my inadequately sized zoom lens at it and captured a distant image, just
about good enough to confirm it as a Spotted Flycatcher, with a photo-bombing
Treecreeper close by for good measure.
We made our way through the valley in several
discrete groups, making any sort of continuous narrative of what happened next
impossible. My personal mission for the day was to map all the Orthoptera into
the several OS grid squares that we crossed. A couple more grasshoppers did
appear (Field and Common Green) plus Oak Bush-cricket and Long-winged Conehead.
Meanwhile, others were indulging their own specialisms. Here are just a few images
of the many finds that were made. A micro moth, Agriphila tristella
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| photo: John Lyden |
The hoverfly Eristalis nemorum (awarded
the disappointingly dull name of Stripe-faced Drone Fly in the new and usually
rather florid naming system). Males of this species hover in a characteristic and
hopeful way over females (and sometimes any vaguely similar-looking insect),
rather like this…
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| photo: John Martin |
A Common Blue butterfly
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| photo: John Lyden |
The day was not without botanical interest,
though sadly I am unable to report much of it. But here is Jim, entranced by a
fine display of hybrid mint. Well, who wouldn’t be?
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| photo: John Martin |
Combining botany with mycology, this is Pear
Rust, Gymnosporangium sabinae.
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| photo: John Lyden |
The day drew on, got hotter, we reached the end
(or nearly the end) of the valley and began to flag, conscious that we now had
to walk all the way back again. The disparate groups miraculously coalesced and
about-turned. Some time on the return journey was spent at a damper area which produced
much to keep us occupied, and not only because it was in the shade, though that
helped.
And finally… more Clouded Yellows. There were
several sightings across the day of perhaps multiple individuals. One dallied
long enough to have its image captured as proof.
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| photo: John Martin |
A highly enjoyable day at an exceptional site. Many
thanks to our hosts for allowing us to indulge ourselves.
Photographs © the author except as noted.
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