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. 

Land Caddis II: The Sequel

This week’s venture was somewhat different to our usual outings in that it was aimed specifically at one species: the Land Caddis, Enoicyla pusilla, which we had unexpectedly discovered during our visit to this woodland on 26th November last year. We hoped the weather would be kind to us. On the whole it was; the rain held off and it was not too cold. On the other hand, light snow had fallen overnight and the morning was foggy.

Fortunately the snow was not substantial enough to be a problem but everything was sodden. Leaving the car park we set off on the route we took a few months ago, soon arriving at patches of Polytrichum moss. These failed to yield any Snow Fleas but did bring forth several bristletails.

photo: John Martin

Despite there only being a handful of British species, bristletails are fiendishly difficult to identify to species level. We can say that this one is a Dilta species, but no more.
 
A little further on one of the vacuums was applied to leaf litter lying at the side of the track. And hey presto - three Land Caddis larval cases appeared. The occupants refused to stick their heads out but it was clear what they were. They had roughly doubled in size since our last visit, these being a whopping 3 - 3.5mm long!    

We progressed to the small area of clearfell where the momentous discovery was made in November.

It soon became apparent that the species was still there in very good numbers, each sample containing multiple larvae. They remained steadfastly within their cases though unless they were picked up, the warmth bringing them out of their shells. This gave me an idea. I set my hand-warmer on its lowest setting, stowed it back inside its grey fabric pouch and placed two cases on top of it. Before long one was out and trundling about.

After a few photos I turned the warmer off and allowed it to cool before tipping the larvae back into the undergrowth.
 
Flushed with success we pitched camp and had lunch. Once we were rested and refuelled we decided to retrace our steps slightly to the main path, then followed it westwards, sampling as we went.

photo: Nigel Jones

Once again, each sample produced several larvae. Eventually it was realised that we were within striking distance of a monad boundary, so we pushed on until we had crossed it then sampled again. Two samples each produced a handful (literally) of larvae.

 A very pleasing result, which expands the known population in this woodland quite significantly. The area we investigated still only represents a small proportion of the total woodland though. I think we may have found a project for next winter!
 
Occupied though we were by our main target, we did allow ourselves to be distracted by some other finds. These included a very handsome rove beetle, Othius punctulatus 

photo: John Martin

Several ladybird species including Larch Ladybird

And a handsome Eyed Ladybird

Common Birds-foot

photo: John Martin

And Dicranum majus, an attractive moss.

photo:  John Martin

We turned and headed back to the car park feeling very pleased with ourselves. By this time even the weather was making an effort to join in, the clouds parting to give a hint of brightness. An excellent day.    

photo: John Martin

   
 
 
Photographs © the author except as noted.

Weather Window

 Wednesday 28^th January 2026, Catherton Common

Managed by Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Catherton Common is a vast area of shrub heathland. We concentrated our visit in the Riddings Gate area of the site. On arrival we were greeted with a strangely unfamilar sight: sunshine!

The ground was frosty and where the sun didn’t reach it remained so all day. But the clear skies and lack of wind made for a pleasant climate, so much so that over the day several outer layers were shed, a novel experience of  late.

Progressing all of about a minute’s walk from the car park, we pitched camp and inspected the vegetation.

photo: John Martin

Probably the most obvious insects in the copious amount of gorse were 7-spot Ladybirds.

A single Larch Ladybird also emerged from it, accompanied by a Katiannid springtail.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A third, much smaller ladybird was vacuumed from low vegetation - the sub-2mm Red-patched ‘Micro’ Ladybird.

Patches of Polytrichum moss were present across the area. The sheep made sure that they were all rather closely cropped though, not ideal for Snow Fleas. And indeed we didn’t find any. We did find the inevitable Moss Neobisid pseudoscorpion - this one having already sorted itself a springtail lunch.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

An equally tiny Moss Lacebug, Acalypta parvula, was also extracted. 

photo: John Martin

Not all the moss was Polytrichum of course. Among many other species was this rather attractive one - Orthotrichum anomalum.

photo: John Martin

The day continued to be sunny and almost cloud-free, though this young Scots Pine seemed to have attracted one all of its own.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Scots Pine saplings like the one above were scattered thinly across the site. Little emerged from them when examined; most pine-loving species descend in autumn to overwinter at ground level. An exception was this distinctive two-humped spider, Gibbaranea gibbosa, which is typically found in evergreen trees.

Lunch was taken, allowing us to bask in the conditions, which were a very sharp contrast to those at Morville seven days previously. We then continued slowly around the site. More Polytrichum was vacuumed, this time producing a male Common Earwig with deformed forceps. At this  time of year male earwigs are evicted by the females with whom they have been overwintering. The female is due to lay a clutch of eggs and doesn’t want the male around. Evicted males often turn up in gorse, due to its combination of shelter, invertebrate prey and the odd open flower (earwigs are also partial to pollen and nectar). So it was a surprise to extract one not from gorse but from damp, cold Polytrichum instead.

The remainder of the day produced a variety of invertebrate finds, including a Tachporus sp. Rove beetle.

photo: John Martin

A barkfly, possibly Trioza sp.

photo: John Martin

A spider, Tibellus oblongus

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Two weevils; first a Sitona species

photo: John Martin

And then Strophosoma melanogrammum, which has acquired the name ‘Mr Baggy Eyes’ due to the shape of its compound eyes, which seem to sag backwards away from its nose, like jellies in a headwind.

photo: John Martin

Late in the day two bugs appeared. Firstly Corizus hyoscyami, sometimes known as the Cinnamon Bug.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And finally, after much searching, a single Gorse Shieldbug, basking cryptically in the afternoon sunshine.

We left site with the sky still blue and the sun still shining. By this time the moon had joined it in the heavens. A rare window in a very gloomy period of weather.        

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

      
 
Photographs © the author except as noted.