Far, far away

Farfields Meadow SWT Reserve - Wednesday, 7 June 2017

This week we saw the sign. The sign that told us where to park. 

OK we were a bit late spotting it and drove a couple of car lengths past it. But we were able to reverse back and go into the drive where we had been invited to park.

Safely parked we were introduced to our hosts whilst we got ourselves ready.

Photograph: Sue Crichton

Farfields Meadow was part of the farm of our hosts but a neighbour bought the meadow on behalf of the Shropshire Wildlife Trust with our hosts retaining stewardship.

However the extended garden of our hosts was a big draw and it took some persuasion, with a promise to spend some time there at the end of the day, to get everyone to move to the meadows which were 100 yards or so down the road.

Eventually we got to the meadow but on the way we spotted 

A Tipula unca

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

A Pyrrhalta viburni beetle larva munching its way through a Guelder rose leaf

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

And a Green shieldbug

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

Once in the meadow we were soon at work.

So as not to trample the flowers that make the meadow what it is we tried to keep to the paths that were already made and to the edges. Along the edge, the meadow meets the hedgerow so there is often a greater variety of invertebrates as the two habitats mingle and is supplemented periodically with standard trees.

Exploring this environment we found a couple of hoverflies

Volucella bombylans - Photograph: Jim Cresswell

Leucozona lucorum - Photograph: David Williams

And a wonderfully marked moth with an equally evocative common name - Beautiful Golden Y

Photograph: David Williams

As we moved around the edge an opportunity arose to point out something of spidery interest.

Photograph: Sue Crichton

Note the rather splendid green, possibly a washing-up, bowl that has been pressed into service as a beating tray. 

Goodbye to the first of the fields

And hello to the second

 We continued to explore the boundary between the meadow and the hedgerow with one taking advantage of some shade under a tree.

Something told me that time was marching on. 

Was it that empty  feeling in my stomach? 

Yes.

Lunch was declared. And what a spot to picnic!

Rested and satiated we moved on. 

The conopid fly Sicus ferrugineus was photographed. It is a curiously shaped fly at rest with its abdomen curling under itself making it look almost circular. Surely a fly that has inspired the design of many a hunch-backed monster.

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

Nearby were a patch of orchids, probably Southern Marsh

Photograph: David Williams

We left the meadow and made our way back to our hosts' farm via a back lane. We gained altitude and were treated to a view to the east of Wolverhampton, Dudley and the Malverns. To be fair, if Wolverhampton and Dudley had not been pointed out to me I would not have noticed them as they were just blurs on the distant horizon.

Needless to say the lane verges and hedges caught our interest

Passing through another meadow

Photograph: David Williams

Our hosts' garden was reached, which we investigated (as promised earlier).

Herina frondescentiae - Photograph: David Williams

Eventually time and exhaustion caught up with us - together with the offer of tea and cake, so how could we resist? 

My thanks to Shropshire Wildlife Trust for giving us permission to do what we enjoy doing on this excellent site; to our hosts for showing us around and inviting us to investigate other areas of their farm and garden; to our hosts again for the wonderful tea and cakes and to the snappers who kindly allowed me to use their photographs in this piece.