Anyone for bread?

Mousefield and River Severn, Wednesday 21st August 2019

Our first challenge on arriving was to try and fit all the cars in a car park that was quite full. Thankfully with some friendly parking we managed it without blocking in any of the other users.

Then as we were getting ready, having a general chat, and doing all the other things that we always do when we first meet for the day we were presented with a tray of bread.

Photograph: Rob Mileto

The bread was apparently surplus to requirements and needed to be disposed of in the best possible way, i.e. offering it to the group. The offer was accepted with thanks.

And so to the business of the day...

Our first site was the Mousefield Countryside Site, an area of rough grassland providing a buffer between housing and a large area of parkland.

In the main the vegetation had been allowed to grow without any obvious maintenance, except for a small area that had been sown with wildflowers.

The wildflower area had been cut well before we arrived and it was just an area of stubble with little interest on the day. However the long vegetation and shrubs provided us with plenty to look at even if it was difficult negotiating our way about.

A large broom and other shrubs grouped near the entrance attracted a lot of early attention as we found the rhopalid bug Rhopalus subrufus:

Photograph: David Williams

Gorse shieldbug:

Photograph: David Williams

And a Speckled bush-cricket.

Photograph: David Williams

In the meantime the vacuum sampler was put to work searching the grassland.

Early finds were Bishop's Mitre:

Photograph: David Williams

And a 24-spot ladybird.

Photograph: David Williams

After all this initial excitement things quietened down a bit as we went about exploring the further reaches of the site.

A flock of young Dock bugs was discovered on bramble (at least that is what it looks in the photograph).

Photograph: David Williams

We worked our way to the middle of the site and to a crack willow that had a number of strange growths on it.

The initial assumption was that it was a gall caused by an insect as is the case with Robin's pin cushions and Oak apples. But in this case we believe that the gall is caused by a virus.

This year has seen a huge number of Painted lady butterflies flying about. And one decided to call in at Mousefield.

As you can see it has had a hard life. Not one for the "I only want a photograph of a perfect specimen brigade".

I found myself at the far end of the site and battling my way through long thick grass, brambles and other vegetation.

I looked around to see where the others were only to find them all seated in a group close to the entrance having lunch.

How could they have started without me?

I gave up trying to force my way though the untrampled grassland and returned, slowly, back to join the others and take on refreshments.

Lunch over, it was time to move on to the second site which was an area of grassland and woodland at the side of the River Severn about 200 yards from Mousefield.

Alongside the path to the site, which borders the parkland, there is a row of conifers, possibly Wellingtonias. In November 2017 a casual beat of one of these trees yielded the first record for the county of the tiny "inconspicuous" ladybird Rhyzobius lophanthae.

Would they still be there?

Only one way to find out.

I beat a tree (not the same one as in 2017) and out fell a dozen or so moving little black dots.

Photograph: David Williams

OK! It is brownish-red and black but they are only about 2mm long and to the naked eye they looked black.

And, by the way, what a wonderful photographs of such a small animal.

The ladybird originates from Australia but was introduced to mainland Europe as a biological control agent. It is now widespread around the Mediterranean region. It was first found in Britain in Surrey in 1999 and is now steadily expanding its range.

As far as I know it has only been found in this one location in Shropshire. It is often found in parks and gardens and is associated with cypresses particularly Leyland Cypress. Keep an eye out for it.

The path provided other diversions for the group as a couple of dead water shrews and a mouse were found. The mouse was bundled up and taken home to see what animals of interest might emerge from it!

The grassland is a long strip running alongside the River Severn from the footbridge to the railway arches. Here is a view from one end.

And here is the River Severn.

Yes ... it really is there.

Again the vacuum sampler was brought into use in the vegetation at the edge of the grassland and checking the catch proved as popular as ever.

More shieldbugs were found. An late instar nymph Green shieldbug in the nettles:

Photograph: David Williams

And a Hawthorn shieldbug nymph attempting to conceal itself behind some hawthorn berries.

Photograph: David Williams

Beating a maple dislodged an Oak bush cricket.

Photograph: David Williams

More careful searching of leaves revealed a magnificently neat collection of eggs.

Photograph: David Williams

As on the other site I meandered to the far end. Unfortunately I found a Japanese knotweed plant growing alongside the edge of the path.

Then I turned around and noticed a bigger outcrop.

And turning the corner at the end of the site there was a veritable hedge of this invasive plant.

Despite its attractive flowers this needs to be eradicated before it spreads further.

Yet again time caught up with us and we returned to the cars and made our way home.

My thanks to Shrewsbury Town Council for giving us permission to visit and survey these sites and to the photographers David Williams and Rob Mileto for providing the additional photographs.

28!

Button Oak Meadow, Wednesday 7th August 2019

This trip was a joint outing with the Wyre Forest Study Group to Button Oak Meadow which is a reserve managed jointly by the Shropshire and Worcestershire Wildlife Trusts.

The meeting point was Hawkbatch car park and it was full of people joining this outing. In all there were twenty-eight of us. The chances of us all being in the same place at the same time was very remote.

After introductions we were handed a map of the route with suggestions of which areas would be good to take a closer look at. It was quite a walk to the meadow from the car park so we set our sights on arriving at the meadow in time for lunch.

Off we went and indeed we did all eventually arrive at the meadow in time for lunch but the progress to the lunch site was at our usual pace as we observed here, swept there and beat elsewhere.

A lot of tortoise shieldbugs were found.

Photograph: David Williams

Within Shropshire these used to be a speciality of the Wyre Forest. Then, a few years ago one was found in Dolgoch Quarry which was to all intents and purposes the opposite corner of the county. Had they spread there from the Wyre our had they wandered over the border from Wales? We shall never know. Since then they have turned up on Catherton Common, Telford, Dudmaston and Church Stretton.

The grassland that formed the margin of the ride and clearings was a haven for orthoptera and amongst those found and photographed were a long-winged conehead nymph:

Photograph: David Williams

And a Roesel's bush cricket.

Photograph: David Williams

Keeping us company for a while, flying up and down the ride we were meandering down, was a Silver-washed fritillary which eventually settled long enough for a photograph to be taken.

Photograph: David Williams

Meanwhile the opposite strategy was being taken by a rather battered-looking Ringlet which looked as though it was hunkered down for the day with no intention of moving.

Wyre Forest is littered with the nests of wood ants. Normally I give these a wide berth as the ants do tend to swarm over anything in their way but one nest had drawn the attention of several people who watched as the ants tackled a wasp.

Photograph: David Williams

As we were nearing the meadow (and lunch) I noticed a large group milling around one spot - a sure sign that something of significance had been found.

It was a Green huntsman spider.

Photograph: David William

We finally arrived at the meadow.

And had lunch.

Before exploring what the flora rich meadow may hold.

There was a rumour that Lesser marsh grasshopper may be present and one was found only for it to be later identified as a Meadow grasshopper.

Photograph: David Williams

A spectacular fly was found and posed for our photographer:

Photograph: David Williams

This is Phasia hemiptera.

Its beauty hides its sinister lifestyle which makes it one of my least popular flies. It lays its eggs on Forest bugs and Green shieldbugs. The eggs hatch and the larva penetrate the host then devour it from the inside eventually killing it.

The meadow is surrounded by a hedge that contains many mature trees. Many of these are oak and one yielded a mirid bug Megacoelum infusum.

Photograph: David Williams

Time was marching on and it was time to leave the meadow. As I was leaving I spotted a Peacock butterfly settled on the vegetation.

We did move on to another spot in the wood which we looked over but nothing of significance was found. Eventually time and tiredness took over and persuaded us to return to our cars and home after another good day on an excellent site.

My thanks to Rosemary Winnall and the Wyre Forest Study Group for arranging this outing and to David Williams for providing his excellent photographs that enliven this report.



FOOTNOTE: Little did I know that when I wrote and published this report there was a possible first Shropshire record. It was found late in the day in the area where I stated above "we looked over but nothing of significance was found." How wrong I was!!

The insect in question was a moth identified as Assara terebrella. Here is a photograph of the moth kindly supplied by its finder Rosemary Winnall.

Early lunch was taken

Snailbeach Mine and Rigmoreoak, Pennerley, Wednesday 31st July 2019

Let me start by reassuring you that for this trip I remembered my socks. Even though I was given a lift and, therefore, did not have access to my emergency pair my feet were suitably clothed for the outing.

The final day of July did not provide us with glorious weather. It was dull and overcast. At least it was not raining.

A good number turned out for this event including some visitors from Bedfordshire. How does the word get around?

The plan was to spend the morning at Snailbeach mine, lunch about 1am then travel the few miles to the Natural England offices at Rigmoreoak arriving there about 1.30pm.

We entered the Snailbeach site and immediately found a Yarrow plume moth.

Photograph: Graham Wenman

Encouraged we made a few exploratory sweeps and beats of the vegetation at the entrance before managing to move about 10 yards into the site. Our spiderman did a vacuum sample of the grassland and was rewarded with finding a Six-belted clearwing moth.

Finding such a moth is quite rare and it happily sat on a clover leaf as a frenzy of photographers satisfied their desire for a photograph.

And here is one of their efforts:

Photograph: David Williams

A stunning moth.

After such an early excellent find it is easy for rest of the day to be an anti-climax, but we tried our best not to let this happen.

Around the same time we found a tortoise beetle - Cassida rubignosa. Tortoise beetle get their name from their extended wing cases and thorax which hides the head and legs rather like a tortoise's shell.

Photograph: John Martin

Other finds of the vacuum sampler were the nymph of a Small grass shieldbug:

Photograph David Williams

And the nymph of a Bishop's Mitre shieldbug.

Photograph: David Williams

These were not the last bug nymphs we found. Sweeping the vegetation caught this cute individual.

Photograph: David Williams

We believe this is probably an early instar of a Denticulate leatherbug.

Our final photograph from Snailbeach is of a micro-moth Dichrorampha petiverella.

Photograph: Graham Wenman

It started to rain. Not heavily, but enough to send everyone scuttling back to their cars,

As the Ashes cricket series between England and Australia has started I will use a cricketing term in saying "Lunch was taken early".

If rain intervenes in a test match just before the scheduled lunch break often they will bring lunch forward in order to restart the game earlier than planned.

And that is what happened.

We lunched and the rain stopped enabling us to have a further half hour looking around the Snailbeach site before moving on to Rigmoreoak.

Rigmoreoak is the site of the Natural England Office in Pennerley. Opposite the office was a conifer plantation which was clear-felled recently. This was where we spent the afternoon.

Photograph: David Williams

 On entering the site a stone was turned over and underneath we found a Devil's coach-horse.

Photograph: David Williams

The devil's coach-horse is the largest of the thousand or so Rove or Staphylid beetles. When disturbed it often raises and curls its abdomen like a scorpion.

There was a lot of gorse on the site,

And on one of the gorse bushes we found the larva of a Green hairstreak butterfly.

Photograph: David Williams

Our searches took us to the site borders where there were a few hedgerow trees and ditches. Close by there were a lot of dead tree stumps.

The bark of a few of the stumps was peeled back to see what was making its living in that habitat. There were a lot of woodlice and a few spiders plus a couple of large violet tinged ground beetles. This one is Carabus problematicus.

Photograph: David Williams

The day was drawing to a close. We said our good-byes and made our way home.

My thanks to Shropshire County Council and Natural England for giving us permission to do what we enjoy doing and toe the photographers David Williams, Graham Wenman and John Martin for providing photographs for me to use.