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.

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.