Absent ill

Wollerton Wetlands - Wednesday, 24th April 2019

Unfortunately the cold that struck me down on Sunday had not relented by the time of this visit so I had to absent myself. This was very disappointing as the Wetlands is a site I enjoy visiting.

It will be difficult to write a meaningful report in the circumstances but one of the attendees gave me a brief description of the outing which I will paraphrase. And our ever willing photographers have sent me lots of photographs to include which I hope you will enjoy.

The wetlands were created when the Hodnet by-pass was built. It is sandwiched between the road and the River Tern close to Wollerton. It is a level site consisting of a series of pools surrounded by grassland and woodland.

It was quite cool as the group got ready by the cars and then walked to the site. An unfamiliar plat was found at the side of the path.

Photograph: John Sweetland

This was identified as few-flowered garlic.

The group walked across the field, over the bridge then turned left to walk around the site. It soon started to warm up and by 11am the sun was getting through the thin cloud. The weather brought out good numbers of hoverflies and the occasional cranefly. Passing a pool a couple of swans were observed one patrolling the water the other sitting on the nest (just visible in the top left hand corner of the photograph).

Photograph: David Williams

Lunch was taken about halfway around but it was in the wind and cooler. After lunch the group made there way back to the start where it was much warmer being sheltered from the wind with the sun was still getting through the thin cloud.

However there was trouble brewing, rain clouds were fast approaching and with them came a stronger colder wind. The decision was taken to head back to the cars. 

The decision was justified as it started to rain as they made it back.

An excellent typically April day.

That's a precis of the day. Now for the photographs.

Andrena haemorrhoa:

Photograph: David Williams

 A male common earwig:

Photograph: David Williams

 A common lutestring moth larva:

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

 A rhopalid bug Corizus hyoscyami:

Photograph: David Williams

A drinker moth larva:

Photograph: David Williams

 A green-veined white:

Photograph: John Sweetland

 A larva of the micro-moth Helcystrogramma rufescens:

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

 A hoverfly Leucozona lucorum:

Photograph: David Williams

 Marsh marigold:

Photograph: John Sweetland

 An orange tip butterfly:

Photograph: David Williams

 The egg of an orange tip:

Photograph: David Williams

 A parent bug:

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Ramsons, or wild garlic:

Photograph: John Sweetland

 Possibly Salticus scenicus:

Photograph: David Williams

 A hairy shieldbug (also known as a sloe bug), Dolycoris baccarum:

Photograph: John Sweetland

A speckled wood butterfly:

Photograph: John Sweetland

 A Tetragnatha spider:

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

My thanks to Shropshire County Council for giving us permission to survey, to Jim Cresswell for the report and to the photographers David Williams, Nigel Cane-Honeysett and John Sweetland for allowing me to use their excellent photographs.

The cats have turned

Crickheath Meadow, Wednesday 17th April 2019

OK, I arrived one minute late.

Yes, a whole sixty seconds after the declared meet time.

And did everyone wait for me (as I would have waited for them)?

No.

As I turned the final corner of the lane leading to the site a number of the group were seen disappearing onto the meadow.

The cats had turned!

Obviously they were extremely keen to get on with it and make the most of the clement April weather. 

And who can blame them? It promised to be an unseasonably warm day.

Crickheath Meadow is part of Crickheath Hill above Pant that has recently been acquired by the Shropshire Wildlife Trust to extend their Llynclys reserve. The meadow consists of two connected grassland areas with a few scattered trees bordered by hedgerow trees.

At this point I would normally include a photograph of the site but my camera is broken and none of the other photographers had the right camera lens on to take general views. Sorry.

There had been a heavy dew overnight making sweeping for insects in the grass difficult but abundant numbers of the planthopper Euscelis incisus were found in the longer grasses and rougher vegetation.

In the shorter vegetation we found solitary bees looking for nest sites / nesting / searching for mates / feeding. Some of the ones we saw were:

Andrena chrysosceles:

Photograph: David Williams

Probably another Andrena chrysosceles:

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

Andrena nitida: 

Photograph: David Williams

Bombus sylvestris:

Photograph: David Williams

Amongst the others seen were tawny mining bee, Andrena fulva, the ashy mining bee, Andrena cineraria, and several bumble bees.

A stone was turned over to reveal a nest of common earwigs, Forficula auricularia.

Photograph: David Williams

The female earwig can be seen on the left hand side of the photograph and the nymphs to her right. The female tends the eggs during their development, cleaning them to ensure that they do not become prey to fungal growth. Once hatched the female will remain with the nymphs as they develop. A close up of the nymphs is below.

Photograph: David Williams

There was not a great deal of floral interest showing in the first grassland but the second was littered with cowslips just about to flower. There were also emerging leaves for twayblades and possibly common spotted orchid. Another plant in flower was wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa.

Photograph: David Williams

Vacuum sampling the grassland and areas around the trees captured a carabid beetle:

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a hoverfly which is probably a Brachyopa scutellaris.

Photograph: David Williams

We also found the spider with what appear to be two cones disfiguring its abdomen Gibbaranea gibbosa.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

It was time to move on and as I tried to round everyone up for the second part of our day's adventure I noticed that there was considerable interest in one particular tree trunk. When I ventured over to look I was shown two hoverflies of the species Fernandea cuprea, mating. Fortunately we were able to record the event.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Crickheath Meadow borders Blackbridge Quarry and whilst it was not my original intention to go to the quarry on this trip I had been able to make last minute arrangements with Shropshire Wildlife Trust to gain access to the quarry.

We have visited Blackbridge Quarry previously and it has proven an excellent site for invertebrates. 

First things first, however, lunch was consumed.

 

The omens were good for our post-lunch activities as a 7-spot ladybird and a number of Sloe bugs, Dolycoris baccarum, appeared at our feet as we ate.

Photograph; David Williams

Photograph: David Williams

Unfortunately this early optimism was not matched by reality and finding spiders and insects was surprisingly quite difficult. We tried various excuses - it's too dry; it's too early in the season; etc. but there was just not much about. I do hope that this is not a foretaste of how it is going to be throughout this summer.

Back to what we did find and photograph. A jumping spider - I have not been told the species but looking at the pictures and the characteristics in Britain's Spiders (*) it may be Euophrys frontalis. I look forward to being corrected!

Photograph: David Williams

And a rather attractively marked common groundhopper, Tetrix undulata:

Photograph: David Williams

To remind us that we were in a quarry and that old quarries can be dangerous we noted that since our last visit a huge slab had detached itself from near the top of one of the quarry faces and crashed to the floor.

Nearby a thrush had set up its restaurant leaving the remains of snails scattered about the place.

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

Well, it was now that time again. The time to take our leave and return home. So we did.

My thanks to Shropshire Wildlife Trust for granting us permission to visit these sites, especially as one of the requests was made two days beforehand. Thank you to the photographers, Nigel Cane-Honeysett, David Williams, Bob Kemp and Jim Cresswell for providing the photographs that I have used.

* Britain's Spiders, A Field Guide - Lawrence Bee, Geoff Oxford and Helen Smith; published Princeton University Press as part of the WildGuides series.

Herding cats

Corbet Wood, Grinshill - Wednesday, 10th April 2019

Corbet Wood is situated on the slopes of Grinshill. The site has been quarried extensively in the past and has now developed into a mixed woodland with a number of paths weaving between the old workings allowing exploration of the site.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Fourteen of us met up in the large car park amusing other visitors as we kitted ourselves out with all the paraphernalia required for our activities and caught up with colleagues that we had not seen for a while.

After a brief look around the car park we moved into an area to the east of the wood dominated by tall Scot's pines or similar. The area was very dry and yielded very little of interest but did provide a splendid view.

Photograph: David Williams (click on the photograph for a larger image)

The sight of these tall pines suggested that they may be a suitable site for the "Scottish" hoverfly Callicera rufa which we have found in similar habitats on Little Hill, Haugmond Hill and Nesscliffe. We must remember to come back and check in mid-May to mid-June to check.

Everywhere was downhill from here, a prospect not pleasing to everyone, but who said entomology is easy?

We descended down a sunken path to the next layer of the wood. As it happened we stayed on this layer, more or less, throughout the day, allaying the fears of those concerned by the sight of the slopes within the wood. The only other serious climb was back to the car park at the end of the day.

But I get ahead of myself.

At the bottom of the path we came to a dapple-shaded clearing where there was emergent vegetation attracting a number of hoverflies. 

Eristalis pertinax - Photograph: David Williams

As we watched, a bee-fly put in a brief appearance before disappearing. 

Moving on we came out onto a ledge that was in full sun. Here we saw a green shieldbug seemingly going through a warm-up exercise as it prepared for the day ahead.

Photographs: David Williams

It was lunchtime, so we took a leisurely picnic in this spot.

Lunch over we continued our wanderings keeping as much as possible in the sun and out of the bitter wind.

In amongst the abundant hoverflies which were dominated by Syrphus species that must have had a recent "mass emergence" a Scaeva pyrastri was spotted

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Another hoverfly had become lunch for a spider.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Whilst some of us were busy looking for spiders and invertebrates others were inspecting the rocks for lichens

Photograph: Bob Kemp

After a while we chanced upon another ledge where a large clump of bluebells were beginning to flower. On the trunk of a sycamore we found two cigar shaped objects.

Photograph: David Williams

These were later identified as the larval cases of the moth Taleporia tubulosa which has, according to the County Micro-moth recorder, "a very distinctive elongate tubular case which tapers to a triangular point". The triangular point at the end is clearly visible in the photograph.

The path we were following lead back to one of the main paths through the woods. We were faced with a choice. Follow the path down towards the bottom of the wood or back towards the car park. Guess which way we went.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

It was not down.

Although one did wander down and was rewarded with sight of the rare hoverfly Cheilosia semifasciata which is associated with Navelwort, their larvae form leaf mines in the leaves as it feeds.

Photograph: David Williams

He returned to the main group and announced his find, so a few of the others accompanied him to the spot where he had found it to have a look.

They were further rewarded by sight of another infrequently seen hoverfly Criorhina ranunculi

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Whilst all this hoverfly tourism was taking place a Bronze shield bug was dislodged from a cherry. After photographing it was returned to its original resting place.

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And so another splendid day had to come to an end. We plodded our way back to the car park but our leader (me) took the wrong path which lead to a difficult short descent so we had to retrace our steps. This was serendipitous as it gave us another chance to see a Criorhina ranunculi which posed briefly on a tree trunk next to the path.

Eventually we regained the car park and after lengthy good-byes went home.

Ah.... Herding Cats

Why that title?

With such a large group in hilly woodland it was difficult to keep an eye on everyone and get them to move in roughly the same direction at about the same time, allowing for everyone's particular interests and rate of progress. It was definitely more difficult than herding cats.

My thanks to Shropshire County Council for granting us permission to survey and to the photographers Bob Kemp, Nigel Cane-Honeysett and David Williams for allowing me to use their photographs.