An Overdue Return

Wednesday 25th February 2026, The Haycop, Broseley

I can do no better than to start this account by quoting the following directly from The Haycop’s website: "The Haycop is a nine acre, locally managed nature reserve featuring a mosaic of habitats including a flower meadow, old established broadleaf woodland, heathland and aquatic ecosystems. The Haycop Conservation Group is a charity aiming to restore the Haycop back to its 1950s former glory, where wildlife flourished, fresh water flowed and butterflies flew in abundance."
 
This is, I believe, our third visit to this splendid site but the first since September 2017. Our return was therefore long overdue. We had a pleasant surprise on arrival: the Conservation Group were out in numbers to meet us. So much so that we were in the minority! The first decision to be made was which way to go: the path forks immediately upon entrance to the site. A higher path to the left or a descent to the right into grassy areas were the options. We decided to take the high road, a route which leads between a loose hedge and a line of trees. This soon opens up into an area of heathland. This was a rich source of finds for us back in 2017. The finds were less spectacular this time, but this was of course because we were visiting in February rather than September. Many things of interest were found nevertheless. Our rate of progress was  such that  we ended  up making our lunch camp here  (as we did in 2017) before eventually moving on through woodland, past the pond and  returning through the grassland.
 
Onto the photos. I have had a particularly large number of pictures from the day and rather than try to include them chronologically I have grouped them taxonomically instead, beginning with the beetles. The first picture is of what was undoubtedly the most abundant large (ie not near-microscopic!) organism of the day: 24-spot Ladybirds. Every tray was full of them. It is a mystery to me why relative species abundance varies so much from site to site. Last week at Venus Pool, we were deluged by 16-spot ladybirds whilst 24-spots were hardly seen. This week it was the other way around. Both sites are similarly grassy. A puzzle.

Meadow Ladybirds, the commonest and one of the largest of the ‘micro ladybird’ species, were also numerous.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Onto the remaining beetle photos, starting with three more ladybirds:

Pine Ladybird

Orange Ladybird

10-spot Ladybird

Anchomenus dorsalis

Leiosoma deflexum. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Parethelcus pollinarius. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Small Nettle Weevil, Nedyus quadrimaculatus. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

The Haycop has always been very good for shieldbugs and this visit was no exception with several nice species to be seen.

Green Shieldbug (in winter colours)

Hairy Shieldbug. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Crucifer Shieldbug

Tortoise Shieldbug

And a selection of other bugs (Hemiptera)…

Dicyphus stachydis. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Drymus brunneus. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Berytinus minor

Stenodema laevigata

…including a Water Measurer found near to the pond.

photo: Neil Nash

One of my favourite insects, and one with the most unjust public relations issues in my opinion, is  the Common Earwig. Here is a fine male, tapped from a Scots Pine sapling. 

Two ant species were subjected to Obsidentify, which gave the following verdicts

Myrmica sabuleti. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Yellow Meadow Ant. Photo: Nigel Cane -Honeysett

The Yellow Meadow Ant was an uncontroversial identification - areas of the site are festooned with its distinctive anthills.

 
Onto the Arachnids, starting with  the attractive Green Crab Spider, Diaea dorsata.

Euophrys frontalis. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

harvestman - Nemastoma bimaculatum

pseudoscorpion - Neobisium carcinoides. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And some miscellaneous organisms…

Springtails - Orchesella villosa. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Springtail - Pogonognathellus longicornis. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

gall on Yew - Taxomyia taxi. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Red Pea Gall (on oak), Cynips divisa. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Scarlet Elf-cup fungus. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

One of the Conservation Group members went off ahead of us (not difficult, given our stately rate of progress) and came back holding this splendid creature.

A Palmate Newt, identified from the similar Smooth Newt by its throat (Smooth = Spotty & yellow; Palmate = Plain & Pink).  To be honest, the spottiness or otherwise can be unreliable but the colour is always a good identifier. Palmate Newts are rather less common than Smooth Newts and so are always a notable find. The Haycop is known to be home to them.

We left having enjoyed another excellent day on this lovely nature reserve. Thank you to our hosts for their efforts in maintaining it and for making us so welcome. I leave you with one final image, of a nearly-in-flower Primrose. Spring is almost here!

  
 
    
 
     Photographs © the author except as noted.

Hiding

 Wednesday 18th February 2026, Venus Pool

Owned and managed by Shropshire Ornithological Society, our visits to Venus Pool (we have made several) tend to concentrate on the wider area (fields, meadows, hedges) rather than the pool itself. We do usually end up in a hide for lunch, but were intent on lunching in the open air on this occasion. Did we manage it…?

On arrival it was nice to see the Cherry Plum in flower, a sign that Spring might not be too far away.

Sadly, almost everything else about the day was distinctly wintery. Specifically the wind, which was both very strong and very cold. Anything in a finds tray had to be grabbed quickly or sheltered as best as possible before it was scattered to the winds! The main presence in the samples all day was a vast number of 16-spot Ladybirds. The collective noun for ladybirds is a ‘loveliness’. Here is a loveliness of 16-spots.

photo:  Nigel  Cane-Honeysett

And here is another, single 16-spot, along with a 22-spot and two Meadow Ladybirds.

Finds were surprisingly plentiful, despite the wind doing its best to wreck the day - an indication of the quality of the site. The tiny, wingless wasp which we have mysteriously christened ‘The Boy’ (the distinctive, wingless form is female) was about in good numbers. It is more correctly called Callitula pyrrhogaster.

photo: John Martin

The larva of another common insect, the Angle-shades Moth, was an early find 

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

As was a beetbug, Piesma maculatum,  a species which looks a lot like, but is not, a lacebug.

photo: John Martin

It was a day for beetles. Here are some of the ones that we (mostly) managed to identify with confidence

Phyllotreta cf undulata. Photo: John Martin

Demetrius atricapillus. Photo: John Martin

Meligethes aeneus. Photo: John Martin

Paradromus linearis. Photo: John Martin

Perapion violaceum. Photo:  John Martin

Lunch time approached. A heroic but ultimately futile attempt was made to set up camp near a hedge in the hope of escape from the hypothermia-inducing wind. We thought better of it and reverted to Plan B - the hides! This turned out to be a rather longer than usual lunch break. In fact it began to look like we may not actually brave the outside world again before the end of the day. We did eventually re-emerge, but not before a couple of us had got some long-lens practice on the inhabitants of the pool.

Teal. Photo: John Martin

Gadwall. Photo: John Martin

Lapwings

Shovelers

Finally we dragged ourselves from the hide & back  into the arctic blast. A few final finds were made…

Yellow Dung Fly. Photo: John Martin

Nursery Web Spider. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Nysius huttoni. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Melanelixia subaurifera. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

… before time was called on the day and we went home to thaw out! Many thanks to our hosts for allowing us access to their excellent nature reserve. 

 
 
Photographs © the author except as noted.