A Winter's Tale

Sunday 29th March 2020

As I write this we should be looking forward to the start of the new "Joy of Wildlife" programme which was due to start next Wednesday (appropriately April Fool's Day) at The Ercall. Unfortunately the programme along with many other things that we accept as a normal part of life has fallen victim to the current situation in which we find ourselves. We can only dream about when we will be able to recommence.

Please respect the restrictions that have been put in place and keep yourselves and others safe.

A time to bring you up to date, therefore, with what some of the group have been doing since the previous programme came to an end last September.

A small number, and indeed on occasions a large number, of us have continued to venture out most Wednesdays during the off-season. There is no programmed structure to these outings. Where we go is usually decided only a few days beforehand.

But we did have a target species to concentrate on - Boreus hyemalis commonly known as the snow flea. As the common name implies, this is an animal of the winter season, the adults being found between November and February.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

The snow flea is a distinctive insect, about 5mm in length, with a long "beak" that resembles a miniture scorpion fly. The insect in the above photograph is a female, which has a long, curved, pointed ovipositor; the male's abdomen is more truncated. They live and feed in moss and seem to be associated with Polytrichum moss within woodland where there is dappled sunlight.

Their name arises from them often being seen wandering about on snow covered ground, when they are much easier to see.

We have looked for these insects before but have only found them in The Wyre Forest where we know they are resident. Thus, the challenge of the winter was to find them elsewhere in Shropshire.

Historically their are 12 records within Shropshire. Nine of these records are from the Wyre Forest and 2 from Burrow near Aston-on-Clun, all found this millennium. The remaining record was the first for the county, found in 1954, on the Long Mynd. So there was plenty of scope to investigate how far ranging this species is within the county.

Secretly we hoped to discover enough sites to make the distribution map look similar to this:

However this fancy would require us to find it in at least 76 sites, which, even by our standards of dedication, was way beyond our capabilities on the 15 or so Wednesdays available to us. We set our sights a little lower.

To cut a long rambling story short we did find snow fleas in five new sites and failed to find it in many others. The new sites were Catherton Common, Sowdley Wood, Eastridge Wood, Pontesford Hill and Bucknell Wood, where we found well over a dozen including this mating pair:

Photograph: Bob Kemp

After all these words, a few other highlights of the winter in pictures:

A large aggregation of what are probably large willow aphids at Venus Pool.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

The ground bug Heterogaster urticae found in Bucknell Wood:

Photograph: Bob Kemp

A pseudoscorpion, Neobisium carcinoides closing in on a springtail at Black Hill:

Photograph: David Williams

The nest of a common earwig, Forficula auricularia with a female and eggs found in a clear fell area of Nesscliffe Country Park. The female tends the eggs throughout their incubation period.

Photograph: David Williams

A spider, Ozyptila atomaria found in Eastridge Wood:

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

And a bagworm, Psyche caste. The larva surrounds itself with blades of grass or rush and is found on the tree trunks, tall vegetation and posts.

Photograph: David Williams

On New Year's Day we welcomed the new year in style as a group of us took to the hills. In magnificent winter weather we headed up to Rodney's Pillar. Our goal achieved we had a picnic then made our way down again. What better way to spend the day.

Photograph: Bob Kemp

That just about brings us up to date. However the "stay at home" instruction, coinciding with an excellent spell of weather, encouraged people into their gardens and, being frustrated at not being able to get out and about, they photographed visitors. Here, to bring some cheer into our lives, are a few photographs that were sent to me.

A couple of photographs of the bee-fly Bombylius major:

Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett

Photograph: David Williams

A small tortoiseshell butterfly:

Photograph: David Williams

Finally, a curious blackbird:

Photograph: Bob Kemp

To finish; as all these "keen" gardeners prodded and poked their flower beds and manicured their lawns I found Wally - can you? (You should be able to click on it to get a larger version.)

As always my thanks to the photographers for allowing me to use their photographs. The distribution map was created using DMAP v 7.5 (copyright Dr Alan Morton).