Rain, Rain Go Away!

Many, many years ago when I was young I remember reading a cartoon strip where one of the characters always had a black rain cloud over his head even when all the other characters were in the sun. Unfortunately I am now old enough to have forgotten the character's name. However, I feel like that character after the last couple of weeks when, although the weather has not been at its best, it has been particularly wet on Joy of Wildlife Days. See last week's blog "How many entomologists can you fit under a Horse chestnut tree?" and read on ....

Rhos Fiddle - Wednesday 22nd June

Nine of us made the lengthy trip to the Shropshire Wildlife Reserve at Rhos Fiddle in the south west corner of the county. The skies were leaden but it was dry.

I have visited this site a couple of times before but never managed to get more than 50 yards or so from the entrance due to time constraints, so today was the day to explore the whole site!

After a cursory look around the area where the cars were parked we entered the site. Within 10 minutes there was a flurry of rain that sent some of us scurrying back to the cars to don the waterproofs we had foolishly left behind.

Of course when we returned to the site the others were either dots on the landscape or had disappeared over the horizon.




We swept and beat and vacuumed and managed a small but diverse group of finds. The highland cattle which graze the site along with some sheep kept a respectful distance.



We ascended the first rise to be faced with a second. Having scaled the second rise the site opened out in front of us, and to one side, and the other. It is a much larger site than I expected.

Our next target was a clump of gorse that I mistakenly thought was the site of the Rhos Fiddle Pools. I felt that was a good place to base ourselves for our explorations.

It was not the site of the pools instead it appeared to be where the local sheep went to die as we found several sheep carcasses in the area. 



One of the group who is never one to miss an opportunity to find some interesting flies inspected one of them and "liberated" a sexton beetle, Nicrophorus humator.



As this spot was dry underfoot whereas most of the rest of the site was very wet what better place for lunch?

Lunch was more of less complete when we had another flurry of rain which gave the opportunity for a couple of the group to demonstrate another essential piece of entomological equipment - the umbrella.



Others ignored the rain and went in search of more specimens



We found a Hieroglyphic ladybird, a heathland specialist.




Time to move on, but where? We decided to try to get to the far side. "It's not bad underfoot" was a comment I heard from someone. 



Well it was not too bad ... if you were wearing wellingtons but those in walking boots found the water deeper than their boots, so we abandoned this quest and returned to the outcrop of gorse ... and the sheep.

When we had all gathered we were shown a rarity that had been found whilst some of us were floundering in the boggy conditions. A hoverfly. (Do not be fooled by the sun in the photograph - this was not taken on site.)


This was identified as Microdon myrmicae. This is a very localised species found on wet heaths and poor wet grasslands. Its larvae inhabit ant nests where they may feed on the ant eggs and larvae.

I looked behind me the hills in the distance were no longer visible as a veil of rain was fast approaching. We retreated back to the cars. Unfortunately we were not quick enough and the rain won the race and we got soaked.

As compensation we stopped in Clun on the way back for tea and cake. 

The sun came out, it was a glorious late afternoon!!!

My thanks to Nigel Jones for letting me use his photograph of M. mymicae.


Dothill LNR - Friday 24th June

I am far more attentive of the weather forecast than I used to be. This day was "fine until lunchtime then rain in the afternoon". So, with luck we would get three or four hours on site.

Four of us met in pleasant weather for our third expedition to Dothill.

We made our way to the meadow by Tee Lake which had developed very nicely since our last visit and provided a lovely floral display with plenty of orchid spikes punctuating the collection. You had to be careful where you put your feet. But at least it was the right reason.



There was plenty of to look at and identify including this Forest bug nymph.



As good as this area was Dothill is a very large site so it was necessary to move on. We marched to the next area but decided to make use of the nearby bench as a spot for lunch.

This was the same bench where on our first visit we had had "bad" experiences due to the local dogs, but on this occasion only three dogs passed and they were well behaved, as were their guardians.

Whilst lunching we noted a series of small holes in the dry bare ground in front of the seat. (Sorry no photographs.) There were a number of small bees/wasps exploring them. Sometimes they just "looked", sometimes they investigated more closely, sometimes they went in to come out again fairly quickly. When we looked more closely some of the holes had faces peering out. We suspected that these were bee/wasp nests and the bees/wasps flying around may have been trying to parasitise the nest. We may, of course, have been completely wrong. However it provided the lunchtime entertainment. Thank you.

The second area we looked at is a large expanse of rank grassland with some wet patches. You had to be equally careful where to put your feet here, but for the wrong reason. Again the area was rich in insect life. 

By now the sun had disappeared and the rain clouds were gathering so we decided to call it a day before it started raining.

Unfortunately we did not get our timing right and again we got soaked. 

The Joys of Wildlife!