The Grand old Duke of York,

Wednesday 17th May 2023, Mossy Oaks

This outing was a little like the nursery rhyme:

The Grand old Duke of York,

He had 10,000 men …

For this outinge there were 12 including the Duke.

Who was the Duke?

You’ll have to guess.

And were they all men?

No!

There were entomologists, arachnologists, lichenologists and probably some other ‘ologists as well. 

We’ll call them ologists for convenience.

Thus …

Somebody impersonating the Grand old Duke of York,

He had 11 ologists,

He marched them up to the top of the hill,

The hill in this instance was the Stiperstones.

We were the guests of Mossy Oaks, a smallholding based in Brooks Vessons Farm, on the lower slopes of the Stiperstones. You can read more about the site by following this link: Mossy Oaks.

Our meeting point was the entrance to Brooks Vessons Farm where there was a considerable amount of building taking place. We parked in what we felt was a safe place to keep out of the way.

The smallholding occupies several fields and we started in the lowest.

The third line of the rhyme needs to be amended.

He herded them up a bit of the hill,

This was a large grassland field with a stream that leads to a pool at the bottom of the hill. Meanders and a second pool had been added to the stream to slow the flow of water. A small collection of saplings was situated on one side of the stream and a mature oak on the other.

A Cream-spot ladybird was eased out of the saplings.

Photograph: David Williams

And large numbers of a couple of insects, usually found in oaks, were spotted in a large nettle patch underneath the oak. The most common were Rhabdomiris striatellus nymphs (which had, presumably, dropped out of the oak).

The other species was Harpocera thoracica, which had wings and may have flown of its own accord to the nettles.

Photograph: David Williams

This distinctive mirid bug has a very short life out of the egg. Blink and you may miss them.

Once hatched the nymphs mature to adults in about two weeks. The adults live for about another two weeks during which they mate and lay their eggs. The rest of the time is spent as eggs. Emergence of the insect seems to coincide with the oak’s leaf burst. 

Another find around this time was a Ringlet butterfly larva.

Photograph: David Williams

Time to move on and upwards.

A new line is needed:

He cajoled them up a bit more of the hill,

We moved into a second field. This was a descending shallow valley between its higher surrounds. The lower areas were quite wet and there were a couple of small pools, but the top of this field was dry.

Part of this field was home to four Saddleback piglets. Here is one of them.

Photograph: David Williams

Their domain was surrounded by an electric fence.

And the fence was on, as confirmed when one of the four piglets became rather too curious (hoping for food?), touched the wire and retreated incredibly rapidly having emitted a loud squeal.

The meadow was also home to a good number of Cuckoo flowers.

Orange-tip butterflies lay their eggs on this plant. Careful inspection underneath the flower buds often reveals a small egg. There is generally only one egg per plant to ensure enough food for the larva and to avoid cannibalism.

I have mentioned food earlier, and yes, it was now time for our lunch.

Lunch over, a further line needs to be included:

He encouraged them to move to the top of the hill,

Refuelled, we continued up the hill, passing a couple tools of the trade parked in the field corner.

We walked along a lane with a clear-felled conifer plantation on one side and a semi-natural and ancient woodland on the other. Although not a part of the site we could not resist.

A longhorn beetle was located. This perplexed us for a while and, on the day, we identified it incorrectly. Fortunately the beetle was photographed before it was released and inspection of these made it possible to arrive at the correct species, Tetropium casteneum.

Photograph: David Williams

As we arrived at the final grassland within the site we noticed a delightful patch of bluebells in the woodland. 

Photograph: David Williams

We pottered around this final grassland for an hour or so, spotting a Brown hare as it traversed the field.

Photograph: David Williams

And just outside the top fence we found an Adder’s-tongue fern, perhaps it will spread into the site.

Photograph: David Williams

Now I can add the last line of the rhyme.

And he marched them down again.

However, it was more a weary walk than a march!

Yes, you are right, we did not get to the top of the hill, we only made it to about half way, but it is a big hill. 

To complete the rhyme:

Somebody impersonating the Grand old Duke of York,

He had 11 ologists,

He herded them up a bit of the hill,

He cajoled them up a bit more of the hill,

He encouraged them to move to about halfway up the hill,

And wearily he walked with them down again.

I do not think it will catch on!

Back at the cars, we were rather concerned that some earth moving was taking place next to the cars.

We watched as the excavator swung round from a dumper truck to a pile of broken concrete, collected a load, swung back to the dumper, deposited the load, then repeated the process. We did not dare to disturb the operator’s concentration! Eventually he stopped, we breathed a collective sigh of relief, got in our cars and went home after another fulfilling day in the field on an interesting site.

Other News

Dancersend

This is a nature reserve in Buckinghamshire. It is mainly woodland surrounding an area of grassland.

Surprisingly, despite the pleasant weather there was very little invertebrate activity. However, as we had a rest before leaving the site we came across someone looking for Fly orchid who was getting very frustrated that he could not find any. 

Fortunately we were able to come to his assistance and helped him find half a dozen or so.

Earlier we had noticed some plants that had been caged for their protection. A representative of the local Wildlife Trust was able to tell us that they were the rare plant, Meadow clary.

Eardington Quarry

The moth group trapped at the quarry recently. Here are some of the moths that came their way:

White ermine;

Photograph: David Williams

Oak hook-tip;

Photograph: David Williams

Lime hawk moth;

Photograph: David Williams

Peppered moth;

Photograph: David Williams

And Pale-shouldered brocade.

Photograph: David Williams

Rodborough Common

A return visit to this site was necessary to sample Winston’s excellent ice cream. But before indulging we walked around, up and down the hilly common. Here are a few of the species we spotted:

Red-headed cardinal beetle;

Brown argus;

Dingy skipper;

Yellow dung-fly;

Small heath;

Angle shades;

And Duke of Burgundy.

Thank you to the owners of Mossy Oaks for giving us permission to enjoy ourselves. We wish them every success in their venture. A relieved thank you to the workmen for missing our cars as they went about their work and finally my gratitude to the photographers for their images to illuminate this tale.