Thirteen + one

Lea Quarry, Wednesday 19th August

As I drove into the car park at Lea Quarry I found it hard to believe my eyes as a crowd of people were waiting to greet us. I did a quick count as I parked the car, thirteen. Ah! Good job my mother was not there – bad luck was sure to befall us. Just then a further person turned up making us fourteen. “Good job someone else has arrived!” one of the group remarked – so it was not just my mum.

Fourteen was a stretch on our high visibility vest availability. But with a bit of searching and a couple borrowed from Edge Renewables we managed to kit everyone out.




We were aware of the weather forecast – rain later, so the search of the car park was brief before we set off for a couple of target areas close to the quarry face that runs below the Shropshire Way footpath at the north western edge of the site.

With such a large group who have diverse interests we split into a flora group and “others”. The flora group headed off in search of interesting plants whilst the rest of us looked for things that were trying to make a life from the vegetation and each other. (As it happened, we all ended up in the same place.)

The weather was fine at this stage but windy so we headed to a secluded grassland which was the first of our target areas for the day. When we approached we were met by a mound of bark shavings that blocked the way.

Undeterred we found ways around and over the pile to reach our goal.

This was a secluded spot. We were sheltered from the wind and it was pleasantly warm. And we were able to find many things of interest including several butterfly and moth species; a few shieldbugs; several plant hoppers and bugs; spiders; grasshoppers and even a Pill woodlouse.

One find was a Spiked shieldbug which I attempted to photograph. Unfortunately it would not stay still. My words of encouragement telling it that it was destined to be a star fell on deaf ears as I followed it around the net first on the inside, then on the outside before it climbed on my hand and then up my arms. Why did it not just fly away? Eventually it paused on my arm.

In the grass we found an Orb-web spider guarding her egg-sac. This spider did not move even when camera lenses were thrust in her direction. 

The rain started, just a few spots; we donned waterproofs and set off for our second target area. As we emerged around the bark pile we realised that the wind had strengthened and the rain was heavier.

We pressed on but before long, as people, nets and trays became waterlogged, and there was clearly no sign of any let up in the adverse weather, our enthusiasm waned and we decided to call it a day and head home to dry out.

Thank you always to all who turned out for the day and apologies for the shortened visit. Thank you to Edge Renewables for permitting us access.

Keith Fowler