A Return to Summer

Wednesday 9th September 2026, Old Cow Pasture and Pentre Bach, Melverley

 A return trip, this week, to another exceptionally quiet corner of the county where several discreet sites cluster around Shropshire Wildlife Trust’s Holly Banks nature reserve. This time we decided to concentrate on the floodplain fields known as Old Cow Pasture and Pentre Bach.
On arrival we were, as is customary, distracted by the habitat in the parking area. The hedgerows soon decanted Britain's joint smallest ladybird, the 1.5mm Stethorus pusillus, known as the Dot Ladybird due to its resemblance to a walking full stop.

A small, wingless wasp was also captured here and is likely to be Eupelmus vesicularis.

photo: Nigel Jones

If so, it would be only the second county record. These wasps prefer humid, cooler climates, particularly in Scandinavia and the British Isles and are primarily associated with the Cabbage Seedpod Weevil (Ceutorhynchus obstrictus) in Sweden. It is regarded as a hyperparasitoid.
Other finds were made here before we finally headed for the first site, not all quite so tiny. This is Tachina fera.

photo: John Martin

We set off for the entrance to Old Cow Pasture, walking back down the lane that most of us had recently driven up to park.

photo: Nigel Jones

The fine, old hedges provided much interest, though access to them was restricted by deep drainage ditches. Buckthorn looked rather Autumnal.

photo: John Martin

Field Maple accommodated galls of Aceris macrochela

photo: John Lyden

Silk Button Galls were seen on oaks.

photo: John Lyden

We reached the gate and entered the Old Cow Pasture, but the old cow seemed not to be at home. By now the sun was shining and Autumn had turned back into Summer. We were over-dressed! The field provided a fine view of the Breidden Hills, Rodney’s Pillar sitting atop Breidden Hill itself.

photo: John Martin

We began by searching an uncut margin. Of the many finds here, those that were photographed included the Aculeate wasp Ancistocerus nigricornis

photo: John Martin

Plentiful Meadow Grasshoppers

Several singing Roesel’s Bush-crickets

That rarest of things, an ichneumon wasp which admits to easy identification: Achaius oratorius

A picture-winged fly, Dioxyna bidentis, which was common on Bidens and other flowers.

Hiding among the many D. bidentis was what turned out to be a Shropshire first, Ensina sonchi, another picture-winged fly, albeit one with almost unmarked wings. Unfortunately I don’t have an image of it.
The field contained two ponds. Or rather, two areas which would have been ponds before the summer drought. We made our way to the first one, which was completely lacking in any standing water.

Here, the still just about damp mud was alive with Slender Groundhoppers, pinging about around our feet.

The second micro ladybird of the day was found, the Red-rumped Ladybird, Scymnus haemorrhoidalis.

As was an attractive little weevil, Nanophyes marmoratus aka the Loosestrife Weevil.

This damp area provided much botanical interest. Redshanks was photographed…

photo: John Martin

… as was Nodding Bur-marigold, Bidens cernua.

photo: John Martin

You might observe that the seedheads on the above plant look rather empty. This may have something to do with the fact that these plants donated their seeds to us with considerable enthusiasm and tenacity as we brushed past them. Trousers, jackets, bags and everything else became infested with seeds on the slightest contact. Much time was spent in efforts to remove them but no doubt some were transported back home with us.

photo: John Martin

We moved on to the second pond area. As we crossed the field a Vestal moth was spotted, one more notable migrant species in this most exceptional of years for them.

Reaching the pond, we found that it was still holding water in its deepest section (where the two people on the right appear to be disappearing into it).

photo: Nigel Jones

Full advantage was being taken by dragonflies, a Migrant Hawker ovipositing into a bulrush stem.

photo: John Martin

Several Common Darters were also present.

photo: John Martin

The bulrushes were also home to a couple of specialist ladybird species. This is the lovely Water Ladybird.

Whilst this is the larva of a Red Marsh Ladybird. An adult was also seen.

In the damper grass around the edges of the pond, Common Green Grasshoppers were singing.

Nearby, the hedge was home to a large Black Poplar, not looking in the best of health. One of its roots snaked across the field, breaking the soil surface. A large fungus sprouted from it: Poplar Fieldcap, Cyclocybe cylindracea, apparently only the second county record, and first this century.

photo: John Lyden

A nearby oak was home to an even more visually impressive fungus, a Giant Polypore. 

photo: John Lyden

Late in the day we moved through the hedge and into the area known as Pentre Bach. Novel finds here included Impatiens capensis, known variously as Spotted Touch-me-not, Orange Jewelweed and several other names.

photo: John Martin

We dallied for a while here and continued to make finds, but eventually we moved on and took the circular route back to our starting point at the parking area. Over the course of the day, we had the pleasure of several Clouded Yellow fly-bys. Late in the day not one but three of them turned up together and one actually landed to pose for photos. What an incredible year it has been for them.

Many thanks to the owners for allowing us to return to these interesting habitats.

 

Post Script

Apologies for the late arrival of this blog post, which was caused by your correspondent spending a few days chasing wildlife in Jersey. Pleasing finds included Blue-winged Grasshopper

And two species of earwig which have moved into the area recently. This one is a male Guanchia pubescens.

Jersey is also notable for the large numbers of Asian Hornets, which were a common sight on Ivy.

Their presence seems to be the number one wildlife concern on the island, a fair chunk of the human population enthusiastically trapping emerging queens in Spring. Despite this, numbers continue to grow, largely due to the limitless supply coming over from France, which is only 14 miles away. Has the feel of a losing battle to me…
 
 
 
Photographs © the author except as noted.

Summer, What Summer?

 Wednesday 2nd September 2026, Stiperstones

A wet day. Much overnight rain meant that everything was already soaked, with the forecast offering only very limited grounds for optimism of an improvement. And sure enough, as we arrived in the upper car park the heavens opened again, soaking us before we started. We noted that the Bog Visitor Centre, somewhere below us in the murk, didn’t open until midday, so we couldn’t retreat to that – yet. We plodded off along a surfaced path at the same level as the car park instead, not feeling that an ascent to the ridge was very appealing in the circumstances.

To our right a Buzzard hung motionless in the gloom, two others wheeling around it.

Expectations for finds were low, but as is so often the case, the vacuums managed to extract some interesting creatures, though photo quality suffered somewhat in the circumstances:
Small Grass Shieldbug

photo: John Martin

16-spot Ladybird

Meadow Ladybird, Rhyzobius litura

Anthicus antherinus. We found this beetle at Abbey Manor last week, only the second county record, and here it was again!

photo: John Martin

 Other finds did not rely on the vacuums. This gall is on Sallow and is caused by Iteomyia major, a fly of the family Cecidomyiidae. A second county record, previously recorded from the southeast of the county, near the Staffs border.

photo: John Lyden

Also on Sallow were these galls, caused by Euura pedunculi, a sawfly.

photo: John Lyden

Phylocptes goniothorax (a mite) on Hawthorn.

photo: John Lyden

And finally (for the galls) a spectacular example of an Alder Tongue Gall, caused by the fungus Taphrina alni.

photo: John Lyden

 We had been blessed with an hour or so of dryness. But now the rain arrived again, this time with no obvious prospect of it relenting. It was near enough to midday for us to escape to the visitor centre, piling into cars in our soaking clothes as best we could. We arrived to find it in a state of controlled crisis, there being only one volunteer heroically trying to hold the fort. A whole series of mishaps had stopped others from joining her. Thankfully, reinforcements arrived before she was forced by health & safety rules to shut up shop and eject everyone back into the rain.
An hour or more passed. The rain refused to stop completely, but eventually reduced to a fine drizzle. We headed back out, but not back up to the summit, limiting our ambitions instead to the grounds immediately adjacent to the visitor centre. Here, in the drought-stricken but now soaked heather, were a few finds:

Small Heath

Common Blue

photo: John Martin

Mottled Grasshopper (a female)

As if the conditions weren’t miserable enough for the grasshopper already, more bad news appeared in the form of this fly, a female Dark-tailed Grasshopper Fly Blaesoxipha plumicornis. The larvae of this species are internal parasitoids of a range of common grasshopper species. Only the second county record, and to quote our Dipterist “This one pushes the western limit in the Midlands a fair way west – so it is nearly in Wales now. Our previous record was from Beckbury in the east of the county”.

photo: Nigel Jones

But there was better – a county first. A Sepsid fly, Sepsis thoracica. There seem to be no previous records from the Midlands at all, it being a largely coastal species. An excellent find, though sadly I don’t have a photo of it from the day.
 A couple of non-native trees were recorded before the encroaching damp finally defeated us:
Patagonian Oak (it must have felt quite at home in the circumstances)

photo: John Martin

Swedish Whitebeam (ditto)

photo: John Martin

And finally… the last find of the day, a species which is always a crowd pleaser: a Devil’s Coach-horse rove beetle.

With that, we gave up and went home to dry out and warm up, though after weeks on end of heat and drought, we could hardly complain!
Thanks to Natural England for allowing us to survey in this National Nature Reserve.
 
 
Photographs © the author except as noted.