Difficult journeys

Catherton Common - Wednesday 7th September

I have a choice of two main routes to Catherton Common. The first is to pick up the A49 heading south then turn left at Ludlow to Doddington; the second is via Bridgnorth and Cleobury Mortimer. Both should take just over the hour. So why when I set off only a couple of minutes late should I arrive at the meet point over 20 minutes late with everyone waiting (thankfully) for me, including a couple who sent me a message to say that they had been delayed. Yes my mobile phone was on and accessible!

A choice had to be made. I chose the A49 - straighter roads, less junctions etc.

What a bad choice.

All was well until I got to the A49 when I was stuck behind a road tanker.

Obviously it was not this one as I was driving and not in a position to take photographs so this and all those that follow are examples taken from clip art to illustrate the tale. The one I was following was white.

But this vehicle had to slow down as we came up behind a tractor and trailer.

The tractor and trailer carried on its merry way between 20 and 30mph for many a mile before finally pulling over. After that I was happy to trail the road tanker until we came across a horse box.

The driver was being very careful not to jostle his charges so again the tanker had to slow down with me behind it. The horse box turned right, we went straight on. Hooray.

I celebrated too soon as the tanker soon caught up with a recreational vehicle. This was proceeding more slowly than the horse box. Thank goodness I am retired and can be relaxed about hold-ups!!

I think one of the occupants must have been making a cup of tea so slowly did it proceed. Fortunately it was not long before it called in at a garage, possibly to buy some milk.

The open road at last until we caught up just before the Onnibury level crossing not one, not two, but three tractors in convoy.

  

These tractors did not yield (*) and it was not until I had to turn left at Ludlow whilst, with huge relief, the tractors went straight on, that I was rid of them. A clear road to Catherton Common, almost, but over twenty minutes late.

* Highway Code Rule 169 - "Do not hold up a long queue of traffic, especially if you are driving a large or slow-moving vehicle. Check your mirrors frequently, and if necessary, pull in where it is safe and let traffic pass."

Time to get ready to explore but tales of the trip had to be told in order to attempt to extract some sympathy. None was given.

We crossed the road from the parked cars and set about looking for things of interest in the heathland. 

This was dominated by heather and low growing gorse whose intermingling of purple and yellow flowers was very pleasing on the eye.

Rocks were uncovered and inspected for lichens

An early find was a fox moth caterpiller.

We wandered on.

One advantage of arriving late is that there is a shorter time to wait for lunch. We found a spot under an old birch where the ground was sculptured providing places to sit. 

After lunch some of us inspected the tree to see what delights it held whilst others created a piece of art out of a brown birch bolete, a brown roll rim and a rabbit skull.

A couple of birch shieldbug nymphs were found in the birch.

And a couple of Small heath butterflies were observed.



We moved on from our lunch spot towards a marshy area. We passed several small bell-pits, signs of earlier exploitation of the common. Many had collected water and had nurtured sphagnum moss. Unfortunately someone had used at least one of them to dump some gorse brash. A fungus was spotted on the sphagnum and one intrepid member of the group tentatatively tried to reach it without getting too wet, whilst other looked on amused. 



The attempt failed.

However we did find a Pine ladybird in a neighbouring gorse bush.



A change in the flora announced that we had arrived in the marshy area as the gorse, heather and bracken gave way to swathes of rushes and grasses. A few clumps of Sneezewort were found.



Until this point we had been following well-used paths. Now the Dr. Livingstone of the group decided to follow a small path that skirted the marshy area and we followed, foolishly.

After a hundred yards or so the path gave out and we had to forge our own trail. Dr. Livingstone was delighted - "just like the old days" he was heard to say. The clumps of grass and rush made the ground uneven and a foot in the wrong place found water. We pressed on.

The flora changed to gorse and heather again as the area became drier but this was followed by more wet conditions and then a ditch that was just too wide to step across. Eventually we found a place to cross and were delighted to come across a colony of Bog asphodel displaying their orange seed heads in the sun.



From here it was uphill all the way to the road on drier but still uneven ground covered in heather and gorse. Progress was slow and hard but we made it. What a work-out - who needs to go to the gym? After a rest we made our way sedately back to the cars and set off home.

In case you are wondering ... the homeward journey reflected the day ... excellent.

My thanks to Shropshire Wildlife Trust for giving us permisiion to do what we enjoy doing; to Peter Hodgkinson for providing some of the photographs and to the anonymous photographers who contributed the clip art. 

Are we still in summer?

Severn Valley Country Park - Wednesday 31st August

The last day of August! Tomorrow is the first day of the meteorological autumn - why do they have to have different season for meteorology? I suppose it is easier to remember the number 1 rather 21. 

I have now looked at the met office's website and it is all explained. All those years at school learning that the seasons start on 21 March, 21 June, 21 September and 21 December is wrong. The seasons can start on different days, eg. the 20th depending on solstices and equinoxes, which complicates things for the meteorologists so they base their seasons on the temperature cycle (!) and align them with the calendar.

OK. 

On the last day of meteorological summer but still in the height of summer we travelled to Alveley and visited the Severn Valley Country Park. Eight of us gathered in the car park on a pleasant day. Showers were promised but they looked a distant possibility as we assembled. We were given a demonstration of the latest piece of essential entomological equipment.



We have seen similar devices before but this was camouflaged and will surely confound any insect that comes close.

The former resident of Alveley in our group volunteered to be the "leader" for the day - a role he took on with great enthusiasm keeping us informed of the park's history and development since it was the site of a coal mine, which closed in 1969.

We headed fairly promptly to a large meadow with anthills towards the eastern end of the site. This is where a globally important fungus grows. Unfortunately I cannot recall its name but it is a fungus that is a parasite of a second fungus. It was not there. We were too early. It appears in October, unless the sheep graze it. 

In the meadow stands a hawthorn. And on the hawthorn there is a cascade of mistletoe. Now mistletoe is a big draw for a couple of us as we have visited several orchards with mistletoe in the last couple of years looking for mistletoe specialists.



Regrettably this mistletoe yielded none of the specialist but a small caterpillar was discovered in a tray after a beating which came from the mistletoe or the host hawthorn. It was later confirmed to be a Yellow-tail moth larva.



At some point we found a very common harvestman, Dicranopalpus ramosus, which we usually identify quickly then return to wherever it came from. But on this occasion it was photographed.



A lot of time was spent in the meadow surrounding the mistletoed hawthorn and the anthills provided suitable seats to be taken whilst studying an insect.



And lunch.

After lunch we moved to one of the pools in the meadow. 



Here dragonflies and damselflies went about their business whilst we watched trying to keep up with their sudden movements, defying all attempts to photograph them.

The pool was bordered by bulrushes and on the bulrushes we found the ground bug Chilacis typhae. This week we managed a close-up.



Time was slipping past and all we had visited was a single meadow - and interesting as it was it was not representative of the whole site so we moved on. We passed a slug on a fungus. I stroked it to make it dance - it refused.



We passed a second pool which attracted a host of honey bees.



And descended into the woodland where the stream has built up tufa deposits.



The tufa is very difficult to make out in the photograph but is the brown shaped material through which the stream is running and consists of the calcified remains of various organic objects such as twigs.

From here we headed down to the river and followed the path close to the river's edge. We passed a "greenbottle" clearly enjoying the sun as it sat on the leaf in the full sun for the few minutes that I took to get one reasonable photograph. It did move in that time - to a neighbouring leaf.



Somehow I became detached from group. This was not an issue until the path divided. Which way did they go? I plumped for the path by the river. I still could not find them so I tried ringing one of them - no answer (his phone was in the car). What should I do?

Then I heard a familiar voice - I followed it and found the group on the other side of the hedge.

Reunited, we headed back to the Visitor Centre for a refreshing drink and excellent cake.

My thanks to Shropshire County Council for giving us permission to visit the site and do what we enjoy doing. And to Jim Cresswell, Stephen Mitchell and Bob Kemp for providing most of the photographs.