Wrekin Forest Volunteers: S is for Squinancywort

12 Jul 2020

S is for Squinancywort

Sunday, 12th July 2020

The covid virus may be stopping larger organised groups such as the Joy of Wildlife getting together, but as the guidance has changed over the weeks, relaxing the strict lockdown that we endured, a few of us have been able to get out and about.

I had a message last week that said that if we were considering any outings then the beginning of the week was going to be the best weather. So plans were laid.

And changed at the last minute as a trip to RSPB Coombes Valley became an outing to Oldacre Valley, part of Cannock Chase.

The weather was fine, well put it this way, I do not remember it raining as I set off. Our meeting point for our twosome socially distanced entomology outing was the Glacier Boulder car park. Unfortunately as I slowed down to turn into the road leading to the car park I was met by a barrier and a large sign proclaiming "Road Closed".

What to do?

I decided to carry on until I could find somewhere to stop.

A few seconds later I noticed our hero of the Butterfly Quest coming the other way. As he was the other half of the twosome I was concerned!

I found a car park a few hundred yards further on and turned round to go back.

Just as I was leaving the car park our hero was beetling along the road flashing his lights at me.

I retreated, and he joined me in the car park.

Not quite at our expected rendez-vous we decided that we could still get to Oldacre Valley, but it would be a more devious route.

It was still not raining so I put on my waterproof to guarantee that it stayed fine.

Before leaving the car park we noticed Cinnabar larvae on the ragwort.

Not long onto the chase we were seeing plenty of butterflies, mostly Meadow browns and Ringlets

Then we saw our first skipper - this was a Large skipper.

Of course, when we find a skipper we have to check if it is an Essex skipper which has recently migrated to the part of the country. This means we have to get a close look at the antennae. Thus, much chasing of skippers is done to try to achieve this.

Unfortunately skippers are faster and nimbler than we are so our success rate in getting close enough to check them is very low. Occasionally we come across a sluggish individual making the identification easier, but this is a rare event.

A funnel web was spotted in the vegetation and there towards the centre was a Funnel-web spider with prey. I have no idea of the species. I managed this photograph before it vanished into the depths of its web in a flash.

As we wandered on, deeper into the valley, we ventured off-piste to look for the "Railway Sleeper" bridge across the stream.

This took us into some very nice habitat,

But it was also very uneven and wet.

I was too busy trying to stay upright and dry to worry overmuch about the natural inhabitants of this boggy area.

After a while we retreated to higher, drier and more even ground.

We wandered on further. My colleague dived off the path again down the hill and (thankfully) suggested I wait until he had scouted out the area.

He returned unsuccessful in the Railway Sleeper quest.

We gave up looking for it and sat down opposite a bank of bramble and other assorted vegetation.

There were lots of skippers skipping about but those we managed to identify were Large skippers. There were also a good selection of hoverflies.

Eupeodes luniger

Towards the back of the back we noticed a pair of Rutpela maculata.

That sighting rounded off a pleasant day in Staffordshire.

And my waterproof had done its job. Not a drop of rain. Indeed it was positively balmy in the afternoon sun.

The following day we had a Butterfly Quest reunion for our hero and two of his supporters at one of our butterfly haunts - the Bill Smylie Reserve on Prestbury Hill, overlooking Cheltenham.

As this is one of the sites for Duke of Burgundy we have visited it before in May. I had never seen it in July and what a wondrous site greeted the eyes as you entered the reserve to see a vast swathe of flower-rich meadow,

But I need to backtrack. The weather forecast had driven us so far south. It promised better weather the further south you went. Cheltenham was about as far south as I was prepared to travel.

As I set off it started raining.

Apart from the occasional easing, it rained all the way.

I kept glancing up at the sky, seeking out the edge of the rain clouds, but the edge never came into view.

I parked at the site and was greeted by out Butterfly Hero wrapped in his rain gear with just his face showing.

Then as we waited for our third member to arrive it STOPPED RAINING.

Whilst it was cloudy all day it did nor rain again until we were ready to leave.

However as we looked across the wide valley, there were always dark, ominous clouds over the far side and frequently a dark smudge between the clouds and the ground indicating that someone was getting wet.

We were very lucky.

It turned out that the day assumed a botanical slant as we spent far more time looking at the flora than the fauna. To be quite frank my occasional sweeps of the vegetation yielded very little of interest (to me).

Thistles were abundant.

Lots of Woolly thistles with their undersized flowers emerging from a huge head.

And Musk thistles with a much more flamboyant spread.

Along with these there were the more common Spear, Creeping and Marsh thistles together with Carline and one you need to notice before you sit on it - Dwarf thistle whose sharply spiked leaves can be masked by other vegetation!

In amongst this thistle-fest we did spot a Blackneck moth

And came across the occasional skipper. This one is a particularly docile Small skipper:

We observed several outcrops of this plant:

Squinancywort.

How on earth does a plant end up with such a name?

Apparently the name derives from medieval times when it was used to treat Quinsy, which is a complication of tonsillitis.

Finally we went in search of Musk orchid, which has been found on the hill in the past.

Basically Musk orchid is far too easy to overlook as it resemble a thick blade of grass. Looking for it in a grassland could not be simpler!

As I walked ahead ascending up a steep hill on a diagonal path I heard shouts from behind.

"Here it is."

Somehow (!) I had managed to pass it by when it was within a couple of feet of the path.

In all there were about half a dozen plants in a square yard or so, including one plant on the path itself!

We did not see any more.

The next day was spent much closer to home in Stretton Westwood Quarry, where we had been a couple of weeks earlier to look for glow-worms. There is not much of a tale to tell as all our time was spent in two very small areas - the lowest area of the quarry where we had found the first glow-worm and the grassland by the car park.

Here are a few of the animals and plants we saw and managed to photograph.

A Crescent plume moth. This moth feeds on Restharrow which is quite abundant in the grassland at the quarry.