A fine but cold morning with a fresh breeze greeted us as nine of us assembled in the carpark for Hopton Wood. For once we did not dally in the car park but set off with a purpose. Nobody stopped to sweep beat or suck. What was going on? What was the purpose?
Then the comment came “Are we in Staffordshire?” (referring to a memorable day out a couple of us had with the Staffordshire Invertebrate Group when we walked about 10km and recorded around 10 species (my own contribution being 2). Rather embarrassed at this comparison I suggested that we should head to The Cliffe (the furthest point) first then work our way back. Surprisingly this was met with approving murmurs, and we forged ahead.
But not for long. The very nice spider man dived off the path and started shifting small pieces of dead wood. He emerged with an earth worm. Then a few yards further on a fallen pine whose bark was loose proved too great an attraction. So we paused, and The Cliffe became a distant hope.
As you can see the pine was not only a source of invertebrates for us to look at but a very useful table. Under one piece of bark I found a collection of woodlice.
After half an hour or so of examining the pine and sweeping, beating and vacuum sampling the area we moved on. We paused a couple of times to look at the vegetation around the path but eventually reached the path that lead to the summit of The Cliffe.
We came across a lovely south facing bank that had a few daffodils planted in it. Good bee habitat. There were one or two about but not many. We moved on and came across a pool. Someone must have known we were coming as one of the decorative carvings included a tray sized table – how could we resist.
We did our usual things and in amongst the wildlife that we found was a pseudoscorpion, so called as it has scorpion like claws but this lovely little insect definitely does not have a sting in its tail.
It was that time of day and as the pool surrounds had lots of suitable perching spots lunch was declared.
As we lazily munched our sandwiches, fruit and other foodstuffs we became aware of a purring-like sound. Some of us thought that someone in the distance was using a motorised device but others, correctly, told us the sound was from the pool. We were being serenaded by amorous frogs. What pleasant music it was.
Lunch over we eventually scaled the heights of The Cliffe not without a couple of stops to regain our breath – sorry, to inspect gorse and heather for signs of invertebrate life. And it was a good job we stopped as one search turned up the psyllid which I initially determined as Aphalara exilis but it may be the very similar A. ulicis. Either would be a first record for the county. I need to seek help to see if it can be determined to either species.
At last we reached the top and were greeted by two things of great joy. One – the view (photographs rarely do it justice – there was snow on the distant hills); two –benches and a table at which to rest!
We swept and beat the vegetation on the top, we searched the rocks and plants down the slope and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves peering into trays of leaf-litter that the vacuum sampler delivered. And the sun shone. What more could we ask for?
Keith Fowler
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