Spring has Sprung!

 Wednesday 4th March 2026, Llanymynech Rocks

photo: Keith Fowler

Sunshine! Blue skies! Spring had finally arrived, for one day at least. Llanymynech Rocks nature reserve straddles the England/Wales border and is jointly managed by Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trusts. A disused limestone quarry, it has a particularly rich flora and invertebrate fauna.
 
Some of us arrived rather early and killed time by investigating the car park, where a Hawthorn Shieldbug and an Orange Ladybird were persuaded from Ivy.

Eventually (that is, at the appointed time) everyone else arrived and a plan of action was agreed. The first stop was an area of the site known as Underhill Quarry, in the Shropshire part of the site, where everyone quickly set about doing what they do.

The sunshine had brought out 7-spot Ladybirds in numbers or, as we have previously established, a ‘loveliness’.

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

They probably had not emerged from this primaeval-looking swamp, at least not directly. But maybe in a sense we all did, in the longer term..?!

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Regular readers may recall that we make a point of looking for a small, flightless parasitic wasp, Callitula pyrrhogaster, which we have christened The Boy. The parasitica are near-impossible to pin down to species without a microscope, but this one’s combination of features makes it an all-too-rare exception. We duly found it again.

But! Our hopes have been raised by a poster on the dreaded ‘social media’ that a sibling species, Callitula bicolor, is also possible to identify in the field. It resembles The Boy closely with one major difference - it has wings. Well, we found one!

This one was indeed confirmed as C. bicolor by the traditional entomologist’s route - microscope and key. Unfortunately, deeper investigation suggests that the field characters which allegedly separate it from the very similar C. ferrierei are variable and obscure at best, unreliable at worst. It always seemed too good to be true…
 
Two tortoise beetles were found almost simultaneously by two different people. One (the green one in the picture below) was the very common Cassida rubiginosa, but the other was unfamiliar. 

It is Cassida nebulosa and it was only the second Shropshire record, a significant distance from the first. An attractive beetle. Here is another picture of it.

Another beetle found in this area was the small Staphylinid Anotylus rugosus.

This lichen attracted the attention of our lichenologists. It is Placynthium nigrum, its black centre fading towards its edges in a colour variously described as blue, green or turquoise.

We always enjoy finding slime moulds. This one is Trichia maylanii. Some of its sporangia (the orange ‘ball on a stalk’ fruiting bodies) had already matured and released their spores.

Time to move on. The path to the next quarry took us through dappled shade in which Lesser Celandines were flowering…

… eventually leading to the main quarry area.

photo: Keith Fowler

The resident Jackdaws were preparing to nest on the quarry face, their very vocal presence a constant accompaniment.

Here a second small rove beetle was vcacuumed up and later identified as Drusilla canaliculata.

Several shieldbugs and allies appeared, including Gorse Shieldbug,

Hairy Shieldbug

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And Dock Bug.    

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

A rock was inspected and revealed a bristletail lurking on its underside.

We lunched here, basking in the sunshine. A Brimstone butterfly was spotted, but evaded the cameras. Other finds made around this time included a number of spiders, the inevitable Nursery Web Spider being one…

Nursery Web Spider + mini-me. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Ozyptila atomaria. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Euphrys frontalis. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Nigma walckenaeri. Photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

a Pea-leaf Weevil, Sitona lineatus,

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

and an almost always seen but never mentioned Common Striped Woodlouse.    

photo: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

This area of the site is shared between Shropshire and Montgomeryshire, the precise border being the subject of some debate. Most of these finds were in fact made in the Welsh part. As we eventually moved on, such uncertainties were banished - we were now definitely in Wales, not that it made any difference to the weather!

photo: Keith Fowler

With a brief nod to the quarry’s former life - this winding drum for the inclined plane - we turned our attention back to the wildlife.

photo: Keith Fowler

The quarry floor at this point was a sea of Primroses, a heartening sight.

We also spotted two more butterfly species and had better luck with the cameras.

Comma

Peacock

An earthen bank was alive with an aggregation of Lasioglossum parvulum bees.

We continued to the furthest part of our walk, which took us into a third quarry  area.

photo: Keith Fowler

Here a number of Scots  Pines were interrogated and revealed several ladybirds, including 10-spot (left) and Pine (right). Between them is one of the micro ladybird species, Scymnus suturalis, known as the Conifer Ladybird and about 2mm long.       

The pines also produced another beetle, of similar size and general  colouration to the Conifer Ladybird. This is Laricobius erichsonii.

Our investigations drew to their close and we turned to head back, pausing to admire the view back into Shropshire.

photo: Keith Fowler

Thank you to the Wildlife Trusts for permission to visit this excellent site and to the weather gods for smiling on us!  
          
 
Photographs © the author except as note

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.